NUTRITIONAL CLASSIFICATION AND ANALYSIS OF FOOD CARBOHYDRATES

Dietary guidelines for Western countries encourage a considerable incr ease in carbohydrate intake. Because of new developments regarding nut ritional properties of various food carbohydrates, these guidelines sh ould include more precise recommendations of the carbohydrate composit ion. Small-intestinal digestibility is, nutritionally, the most import ant property of food carbohydrates. This was recognized early by Briti sh scientists, who differentiated between ''available'' and ''unavaila ble'' carbohydrates. Dietary fiber is generally defined as undigestibl e polysaccharides and lignin. Resistant starch is a newly discovered u ndigestible component included in such fiber definition, although curr ent analysis methods do not recover all forms of resistant starch. The term ''complex carbohydrates'' has been used to mean digestible polys accharides, ie, starch, in the United States, and to mean all polysacc harides, ie, both starch and nonstarch polysaccharides, in Europe. The term's usefulness is questionable because chain length of digestible carbohydrates is not related to specific nutritional advantages.