Yesterday, I was watching Cooking Time (wacky Korean
language cooking show with English subtitles), and
as usual the older lady was adding "oligosaccharide"
to the food with the wild abandon normally reserved
for tannis root. But this time was different because
the young guy who is her co-host asked her why she
was adding it, because they had already added sugar.
That's a question I have been having all along.

It was a fried fish dish, and she said it would help
the fish hold together. This seemed almost a non-
answer, because she uses it in a lot of stuff that
doesn't have fish in it. She added it as a clear
liquid that appeared a bit syrupy. I know quite a bit
about food additives, and I don't know what this one is.
"Oligosaccharide" only means a small number of linked
sugar molecules. Technically, I suppose you could
call sucrose an oligosaccharide, but it's usually
called a disaccharide because it has only two simple
sugar units. An oligosaccharide should have three or
more, but beyond that I don't know what that stuff the
Korean woman is using.

Anyone familiar with the Korean oligosaccharide?

Mark Thorson > wrote in :

g.
>
> Anyone familiar with the Korean oligosaccharide?
>


Interesting read........

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nut...saccharide.htm

(Excerpt)

Sandwiched in between the simple sugars (monosaccharides) and the starches
(polysaccharides) are a group of carbohydrates that we never heard much
about until recently, and most people still probably have no idea what
they are. But if you read labels you might see ingredients like inulin and
oligofructose on food packages – and probably will more and more. You
also may have seen the word “prebiotic” creeping into the nutritional
vocabulary.
What is an Oligosaccharide?
As we discussed in Part One, oligosaccharides are carbohydrates which have
3-10 simple sugars linked together. They are found naturally, at least in
small amounts, in many plants. Plants with large amounts of
oligosaccharides include chicory root, from which most commercial inulin
is extracted, and so-called Jerusalem artichokes (the root of a member of
the sunflower family). They are also found in onions (and the rest of the
"onion family", including leeks and garlic), legumes, wheat, asparagus,
jicama, and other plant foods. It is estimated that North Americans get
about 1-3 grams naturally in their diets each day, while Europeans get 3-
10 grams.

Most oligosaccarides have a mildly sweet taste, and have certain other
characteristics, such as the mouthfeel they lend to food, that has drawn
the interest of the food industry as a partial substitute for fats and
sugars in some foods as well as improved texture. Because of this, more
and more of the oligosaccharides in food are synthetically produced.

Recent interest has also been drawn to oligosaccarides from the
nutritional community because of an important characteristic: the human
digestive system has a hard time breaking down many of these
carbohydrates. Almost 90% escapes digestion in the small intestine and
reaches the colon where it performs a different function: that of a
prebiotic.

What is a Prebiotic?
Prebiotic is a kind of an odd term, fairly recently coined to refer to
food components that support the growth of certain kinds of bacteria in
the colon (large intestine). At first it was thought that oligosaccharides
were the main prebiotics, but it turns out that resistant starch and
fermentable fiber also feeds these bacteria. We’re learning now that a
whole other digestive system is happening in the colon, with important
influences on the rest of the body.

What Are The Health Benefits of Prebiotics?

..........................



--
Peter Lucas
Hobart
Tasmania

The act of feeding someone is an act of beauty,
whether it's a full Sunday roast or a jam sandwich,
but only when done with love.

In article > ,
Aussie > wrote:

> Mark Thorson > wrote in :
>
> g.
> >
> > Anyone familiar with the Korean oligosaccharide?
> >
>
>
> Interesting read........
>
> http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nut...saccharide.htm
>
> (Excerpt)
>
> Sandwiched in between the simple sugars (monosaccharides) and the starches
> (polysaccharides) are a group of carbohydrates that we never heard much
> about until recently, and most people still probably have no idea what
> they are.

My understanding is that these are what cause flatulence in people. As
in beans and cabbage. If you take Beano, that provides an enzyme that
breaks these down into simple sugars, so they don't cause flatulence.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA

Dan Abel wrote:
>
> My understanding is that these are what cause flatulence in people. As
> in beans and cabbage. If you take Beano, that provides an enzyme that
> breaks these down into simple sugars, so they don't cause flatulence.

I can certainly say nothing gives me gas
worse than Jerusalem artichokes, which are
rich in inulin. A funny fact is that the
famed "psychic" Edgar Cayce recommended
Jerusalem artichokes for diabetes claiming
they contained insulin. Apparently, the
entity he was channeling had a reading
comprehension problem.

In article >,
Mark Thorson > wrote:


> I can certainly say nothing gives me gas
> worse than Jerusalem artichokes, which are
> rich in inulin. A funny fact is that the
> famed "psychic" Edgar Cayce recommended
> Jerusalem artichokes for diabetes claiming
> they contained insulin. Apparently, the
> entity he was channeling had a reading
> comprehension problem.

Insulin is a protein. As such, it is digested like any other protein.
There is no way to get insulin into your body orally. It must be
injected. Many diabetics would be very happy if there was some way to
get insulin in an oral form. It's not fun sticking a needle in yourself.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA

Dan Abel > wrote:

> Insulin is a protein. As such, it is digested like any other protein.
> There is no way to get insulin into your body orally. It must be
> injected. Many diabetics would be very happy if there was some way to
> get insulin in an oral form. It's not fun sticking a needle in yourself.

It is ultimately a problem of galenics to get insulin through the
stomach undigested, to be then absorbed by the small intestine. No
revolutionary developments are neccessary to solve this problem and it
is just a question of time before oral administration becomes possible.

Besides, there are other ways to administer insulin orally. Presently a
new such drug is in the late stages of development. See, for example,
<http://www.drugdevelopment-technology.com/projects/oral-lyn/>.

Victor

On Sep 27, 5:15*pm, Dan Abel > wrote:
> In article > ,
>
>
>
>
>
> *Aussie > wrote:
> > Mark Thorson > wrote :
>
> > g.
>
> > > Anyone familiar with the Korean oligosaccharide?
>
> > Interesting read........
>
> >http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/nut...saccharide.htm
>
> > (Excerpt)
>
> > Sandwiched in between the simple sugars (monosaccharides) and the starches
> > (polysaccharides) are a group of carbohydrates that we never heard much
> > about until recently, and most people still probably have no idea what
> > they are.
>
> My understanding is that these are what cause flatulence in people. *As
> in beans and cabbage. *If you take Beano, that provides an enzyme that
> breaks these down into simple sugars, so they don't cause flatulence.

That is true. The reason that cooked onions are so farty is that
onions contain certain oligosaccharides, but also the enzyme to break
them down. Cooking denatures the enzyme, so they can't be digested
until they get to the large intestine where bacteria break them down
and eat them, giving off CO2.
>
> --
> Dan Abel

--Bryan

Dan Abel wrote:
> Mark Thorson > wrote:
>
>> I can certainly say nothing gives me gas
>> worse than Jerusalem artichokes, which are
>> rich in inulin. A funny fact is that the
>> famed "psychic" Edgar Cayce recommended
>> Jerusalem artichokes for diabetes claiming
>> they contained insulin. Apparently, the
>> entity he was channeling had a reading
>> comprehension problem.
>
> Insulin is a protein.

Inulin is the type of dietary fiber common in fruits. One letter can
make a very large difference in meaning.

Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
> Dan Abel wrote:
> > Mark Thorson > wrote:
> >
> >> I can certainly say nothing gives me gas
> >> worse than Jerusalem artichokes, which are
> >> rich in inulin. A funny fact is that the
> >> famed "psychic" Edgar Cayce recommended
> >> Jerusalem artichokes for diabetes claiming
> >> they contained insulin. Apparently, the
> >> entity he was channeling had a reading
> >> comprehension problem.
> >
> > Insulin is a protein.
>
> Inulin is the type of dietary fiber common in fruits. One letter can
> make a very large difference in meaning.

True enough.

But insulin isn't a protein anyway. It's a peptide; only about 50 amino
acids