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Diet and Nutrition |
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Fibre |
Fiber is the indigestible carbohydrate residue found in foods. There are two types: soluble or insoluble. Soluble is soft and mushy - for instance beans and porridge; insoluble is hard and course, such as wheat bran.
Fibre is largely a carbohydrate. The building blocks of all carbohydrates are different types of sugars and they can be classified according to how many sugar molecules are combined in the carbohydrate:
* Simple sugars - consist of 1-2 sugar molecules; for example glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose and lactose.
* Oligosaccharides - consist of 3-10 glucose molecules joined together.
* Starch polysaccharides - have more than 10 glucose molecules joined together.
* Non-starch polysaccharides - have more than 10 sugar molecules; for example xylose, arabinose and mannose.
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