Starch dietary sources

Because humans and most other mammals lack the enzymes needed for digestion of cellulose, they require starch as their dietary source of carbohydrates. Grazing animals such as cows, however, have in their first stomach microorganisms that are able to digest cellulose. The energy stored in cellulose is thus moved up the biological food chain when these ruminant animals eat grass and are then used for food. 

EXAMPLE 11.6 What are the respective dietary sources of the starches amylose and amylopectin ... 

Procyanidins have been considered antinutritional compounds because they can interact with proteins, starch, essential amino acids, and carbohydrates and inhibit certain enzymes [121-123]. This binding depends on the degree of polymerization the larger molecules tend to bind more efficiently [7]. However, at the dose present in cocoa no adverse effect has been observed [124, 125]. In addition, the level of flavonoids required to induce mutations and cytotoxicity may not be physiologically achievable through dietary sources however the use of flavonoid supplements could result in... 

It is generally desirable that the dietary sources of non-starch polysaccharides should be ordinary foods, rather than supplements . However, as an aid to weight reduction, a number of preparations of dietary fibre are available. Some of these are more or less ordinary foods, but containing added fibre, which gives texture to the food, and increases the feeling of fullness and satiety. Some of the special slimmers soups, biscuits, etc. are of this type. They are formulated to provide about one-third of a day s requirement of protein, vitamins and minerals, but with a low energy yield. They are supposed to be taken in place of one meal each day, and to aid satiety they contain carboxymethylcellulose or another non-digested polysaccharide. 

Give examples of dietary sources of each of the following carbohydrates rafiinose, starch, and cellulose. 

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in those carbohydrates that escape absorption in the small intestine and enter the colon, where they may have specific health benefits due to their fermentation by the colonic microflora and their effect on gut physiology. This entry considers the definition, classification, dietary sources, methods of analysis, colonic fermentation, and health benefits of both resistant starch and oligosaccharides, and compares them with those of dietary fiber. 

Starch, the major dietary source of carbohydrate, is the most abundant storage polysaccharide in plants, and occurs as granules in the chloroplast of green leaves and the amyloplast of seeds, pulses and tubers [84],... 

Not all of the starch in a food ends up being digested. The starch that is not absorbed by the body is called resistant starch, and it is considered dietary fiber. It is also a source of nutrition for intestinal flora, which make important vitamins (and intestinal gas). 

Resistant starch will serve as primary source of substrate for colonic microflora and may have important physiological benefits. On this basis resistant starch can be classified as a dietary fibre. The Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) method of determining dietary fibre will measure some resistant starch as dietary fibre. 

Henningsson, A. L., Nyman, M., Bjork, I. M. (2003). Influences of dietary adaptation and source of resistant starch on short chain fatty acids in the hind gut of rats. British Jourrud of Nutrition, 89, 319-328. 

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