Dietary carbohydrates are plentiful in our foods.
They comprise about 45 to 50 percent of the calories we eat. In the early 1900s, Americans were consuming about 65 to 75 percent of their calories from low sugar, complex carbohydrate food sources. This earlier eating pattern is thought to be better for optimal health. Sugars now account for 12 percent of an average American's daily diet. This is much more than the recommended intake of less than 5 percent from simple sugars and the remainder from complex carbohydrates.