4. Digestible carbohydrates

4.1 General presentation

Nutritional classification of carbohydrates: carbohydrates can be divided into two groups:

• Digestible carbohydrates include directly assimilable carbohydrates (oses, ose derivatives, etc.) as well as carbohydrates that can be assimilated following their breakdown by digestive enzymes (diholosides, starch, glycogen, etc.);

• non-digestible carbohydrates are carbohydrates that cannot be broken down by digestive enzymes and therefore cannot be assimilated. These carbohydrates make up a significant proportion of dietary carbohydrates and play an important physiological role: they constitute the bulk of dietary fibre, sometimes referred to as indigestible carbohydrate, which is discussed...