Dietary Fiber, Gastric Emptying, and Carbohydrate Digestion: A Mini‐Review

There are many checks and balances in the body that regulate the recovery of energy from sugars and starches in the presence of non‐starch polysaccharides. This mini‐review seeks to consider those factors, pertaining to the presence of dietary fiber that may interact with starch digestion and the absorption of sugars in the diet. Biochemical, nutritional and physiological aspects are considered. The influences of fiber in the diet are multifunctional and the layers of interaction within the stomach and small intestine are considered. Dietary fibre (especially soluble) interacts with the digestion of starch and the absorption of sugars from the diet in a number of ways. These include modifying transit time, accessibility to, and activity of, carbohydrase enzymes and sugar (monosaccharide) transport across the gut epithelia (as a route into the blood stream).