Carbohydrates functional foods

Dietary fibre, which comprises all the non-digestible structural carbohydrates of plant cell walls and any associate lignin, provides a further example of a complex food-borne factor which cannot be classified as a nutrient, and which continues to generate debate over such issues as definition and analytical techniques. However, whatever the unresolved complexities, dietary fibre has a lengthy history and had proved itself eminently suitable as a component of functional food products long before the term was even coined. 

Carbohydrates are among the most abundant constituents of plants, animals, and microorganisms. Polymeric carbohydrates function as important food reserves, and as stmctural components in cell walls. Animals and most microorganisms are dependent upon the carbohydrates produced by plants for their very existence. Carbohydrates are the first products formed in photosynthesis, and are the products from which plants S5mthesize their own food reserves, as well as other chemical constituents. These materials then become the foodstuffs of other organisms. The main pathways of carbohydrate biosynthesis and degradation comprise an important component of... 

Thompson DB. In Biliaderis CG, Izydorczyk MS, eds. Functional Food Carbohydrates. Boca Raton, FL CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group 2007 [Chapter 2],... 

A functional food is one that offers a benefit over and above its nutritional value. Our body needs an intake of six essential dietary components in order to sustain life and regenerate cells they are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. Many meals provide most or all of them. A functional food has to offer something extra and not just more of one of these essential components, and it must actively promote the health of those who consume it. Merely fortifying a food with calcium or vitamin C does not turn it into a functional food. Most breakfast cereals have added iron, and adding more iron in the form of iron powder to make Kellogg s Special K does not make this a functional breakfast cereal. 

Autio, K. (1996). Functional aspects of cereal cell wall polysaccharides. In Carbohydrates in Food, Eliasson, A. (Ed.). Dekker, New York. 

Chinachoti, P. (1995). Carbohydrates Functionality in Foods. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 61, 922S-929S. 

Voragen, A.G.J., Technological aspects of functional food-related carbohydrates, Trends Food Sci. Technol., 9, 328, 1998. 

In conclusion, SB carbohydrates are important nutritive components of SB and SBM. The utilization of these carbohydrates by humans and animals depends on several factors, including specific cultivar composition, growth conditions, and processing of SB and SBM. The research effort to improve utilization of SB carbohydrates still is ongoing, and should include carbohydrate fractions in purified soy protein products such as SPC and SPI. Additionally, it is important to investigate the possibilities of specific fractions of SB carbohydrates for use as functional food ingredients in human diets, as there is limited information in this area. 

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous. Every organism contains some carbohydrate. Carbohydrates can range from a simple monosaccharide to a large complex polysaccharide. Polysaccharides in combination with proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids play an important role in many plant and animal metabolic systems. Carbohydrates have many roles in food systems, where they function to provide flavor, structure, and texture to food and nutritional benefits to the consumer. This chapter attempts to address the role of common plant monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides as ingredients in food systems by discussing their occurrence in plants, commercial processing, functionality, food uses, and healthful properties. 

Muzzarelli RAA, Muzzarelli C (2007) Chitosan as a dietary supplement and a food technology agent. Functional Food. Carbohydrates 215-247... 

There is a slight difference between the frmctirmal foods and nutraceuticals. When food is being cooked or prepared using scientific intelligence with or without knowledge of how or why it is being used, the food is called functional food. Thus, functional food provides the body with the required amount of vitamins, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, etc., needed for its healthy survival. When... 

Interest in the genetic engineering of both plants and micro-organisms for the production of tailor made amylose, amylopectin and/or starches has also been reported. Furthermore, investigations on the enzymatic modification of starch and its major components, for example the introduction of additional branches composed of glucose and/or other monosaccharides and/or uronic acids as well as amino acids or peptides, to produce carbohydrates of possibly comparable functionality to galactomannans, pectin, gum arable, etc., has been initiated. Also studies on the metabolic fate of carbohydrates in food, the biosynthesis of starch, the fine structure of starch from different sources, the effect of electrolytes on the gelatinization of starch and the development of enzymic methods for starch analyses are still active. 

Corradini, C., Lantano, C., and Cavazza, A. (2013) Innovative analytical tools to characterize prebiotic carbohydrates of functional food interest. Anal Bioanal Chem., 405(13), 4591-4605. 

Micronutrients, including water, are also needed by athletes in order to function. Foods should provide these nutrients if we consume enough servings from the different food groups, but athletes, like many others, do not consume sufficient amounts of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. So, they typically need a vitamin-mineral supplement to try to maximize their athletic fimctions. In general, many of these micronutrients help metabolize carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and therefore play roles that may be directly involved with exercise and sport, whereas others have functions that support life, cell renewal, and other activities at a more basic level. 

According to the Webster s New World Dictionary, nutrition is defined as, a series of processes by which an organism takes in and assimilates food for promoting growth and replacing worn or injured tissues. It follows that a nutrient is a substance in food that is essential for maintaining health. These include carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals. Therefore, functional foods contain nutrients in the proper balance to not only help maintain health, but they also contain other compounds that promote and protect health. 

As mentioned above, funcfional components are those ingredioits that impart functionality to the functional food. This section will focus on reviewing the information about carbohydrates as specific food components. Before discussing the carbohydrates in functional foods, let us take a look at carbohydrates in food. The goal here is to explore the scientific literature on food carbohydrates in general with nutritional properties. 

An understanding of the carbohydrate functionality requires an understanding of the structure, chemical, and physical properties of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates in food comprise anything from a simple carbohydrate (simple sugar or monosaccharide) to highly complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides). Because each of these carbohydrates has certain properties, the structural diversity found in food carbohydrates offer different functional properties. The functional properties are generally derived from the carbohydrate content and are directly related to the carbohydrate structure. Let us take a look at the various carbohydrates found in food. 

The foregoing discussion took a look at food carbohydrates in general. Here we will focus on the important carbohydrates in funchonal foods. In addition to being nutrihous, these dietary carbohydrates should also be acceptable and functional. Food carbohydrates with important funchonal properties include complex carbohydrates, RS, and dietary hbers (Cho, Prosky, and Dreher, 1999). 

As mentioned in the foregoing section, carbohydrates in foods and functional foods can be analyzed using the techniques of HPLC or GC. HPLC techniques utilizing sensitive electrochemical detection are becoming increasingly popular compared to... 

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