On Tue, 30 May 2000 10:03:20 +0100, Peter Smith <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>I have found an authoritative source of food composition data where
>the carbohydrate content is not measured by difference, but by
>adding the analysed values of the various components of available
>carbohydrate, i.e. glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, maltose,
>lactose, oligosaccharides, dextrins, starch and glycogen.

A good idea to list the various carbohydrates as different items.
I already looked for this.
Especially as the various carbs have quite different effects.
E.g. fructose doesn't elevate the insulin level.
It seems to have a more direct pathway to body cells,
as may be useful for frugivores in a time of abundance of fruit.

Oligosaccharides can bind to and thus inactivate dietary lectins quickly
(unfortunately i haven't encountered a list of wich one may inactivate
which lectin).

On the other hand some dietary fiber may be available as
carbohydrate by the work of fermenting gut bacteria.
How is this translated into available carbohydrate (percentage)?

>The data is in
>
>McCance and Widdowson's the Composition of Foods by R. A. McCance,
>E.M. Widdowson, and B. Holland
>
>which is the food composition 'Bible' produced by the UK
>government's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Fine to have such a "bible", I'll try find it at Amazon
(they usually have US books at a reasonable price in Europe, but UK?)

Do you know, if there is such material also online available?
In the form of a analyze with a web-browser surface (like UDSA has a few)?

Is there a database in machine-readable format available or downloadable?

Or do you know of programs using this UK Database (comercial or other)?

From time to time an alternative analyse to USDA would be desireable.

thanks for that information

Amadeus S.