At 09:52 AM 7/15/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Here's what AIM has to say about maltodextrin:
>
>Maltodextrin is a natural, complex carbohydrate. It is not a
>simple sugar (dextrose, fructose, sucrose, table sugar, corn
>syrup, etc.) and does not behave like a simple sugar. It can be
>derived from potato or corn starch, and its starch component
>frees glucose across the human intestinal barrier in a
>time-release fashion over several hours. No steep rise or fall
>of blood sugar results.

For many years, I've always thought that complex sugars were better than
simple ones because the body would spend more time breaking down the complex
sugar resulting in a smoother peak rise in blood sugar.  I was wrong.  In
fact, most complex sugars result in a sharper increase in blood sugar.

According to the Glycemic Index list, maltodextrin is higher than sucrose!

*** quoted from http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
SUGARS
        Honey                                   83
        Fructose                                32
        Glucose                                137
        Glucose tablets                        146
        Maltose                                150
        Sucrose                                 92
        Lactose                                 65
        High fructose corn syrup                89 [Pers. corres. w/Prof.
Brand Miller]
        Maltodextrin                           137 [Pers. corres. w/de Wees
Allen]

***

More about the GI index, at http://www.mendosa.com/gi.htm

Walter.