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A freshwater aquatic food web. The blue arrows show a complete food chain (algae → daphnia → gizzard shad → largemouth bass → great blue heron). A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community.
Resistant starch is considered both a dietary fiber and a functional fiber, depending on whether it is naturally in foods or added. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] [ 53 ] Although the U.S. Institute of Medicine has defined total fiber as equal to functional fiber plus dietary fiber, [ 54 ] U.S. food labeling does not distinguish between them.
Starch has been classified as rapidly digestible starch, slowly digestible starch and resistant starch, depending upon its digestion profile. [45] Raw starch granules resist digestion by human enzymes and do not break down into glucose in the small intestine - they reach the large intestine instead and function as prebiotic dietary fiber . [ 46 ]
Fat has a food energy content of 38 kilojoules per gram (9 kilocalories per gram) proteins and carbohydrates 17 kJ/g (4 kcal/g). [ 2 ] Water makes up a large proportion of the total mass ingested as part of a normal diet but it does not provide any nutritional value.
Essential nutrients cannot be synthesized by the body, and must be obtained from food. Molecules of carbohydrates and fats consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Carbohydrates range from simple monosaccharides (glucose, fructose, galactose) to complex polysaccharides (starch, glycogen).
To generate energy, the plant hydrolyzes the starch, releasing the glucose subunits. Humans and other animals that eat plant foods also use amylase, an enzyme that assists in breaking down amylopectin, to initiate the hydrolysis of starch. [3] Starch is made of about 70–80% amylopectin by weight, though it varies depending on the source.
Modified starch, bonded with phosphate, allows the starch to absorb more water and keeps the ingredients together. [8] Modified starch acts as an emulsifier for French dressing by enveloping oil droplets and suspending them in the water. Acid-treated starch forms the shell of jelly beans. Oxidized starch increases the stickiness of batter.
An interaction web, shown above right, [9] is similar to a topological web, but instead of showing the movement of energy or materials, the arrows show how one group influences another. In interaction food web models, every link has two direct effects, one of the resource on the consumer and one of the consumer on the resource. [10]