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Carbohydrates For Health and Energy.
(Polysaccharide)
Seaweed contains:
� Up to 40% Soluble fiber (agar, carrageenan, & alginate )
� 3-9 % Insoluble fiber: cellulose, xylans & others.
� 10-20% carbohydrate (sugars & sugar alcohols)
Carbohydrates are one of the main dietary components. This category of foods includes sugars and starches. Carbohydrates come in two basic forms: complex and simple. Simple carbohydrates or sugar are one, two, or at most three units of sugar linked together in single molecules. Simple sugars are easily identified by their taste: sweet. Examples of single sugars from foods include fructose (found in fruits) and galactose (found in milk products). Double sugars include lactose (found in dairy), maltose (found in certain vegetables and in beer), and sucrose (table sugar). Honey is also a double sugar, but unlike table sugar, contains a small amount of vitamins and minerals.
Complex carbohydrates are hundreds or thousands of sugar units linked together. Some of the Polysaccharides and cellulose are indigestible by humans.
Glycogen is another type of complex carbohydrate, but one that is not of major importance as a nutrient. It's found in small amounts in animal tissue.)
Seaweed is very rich in polysaccharides while land plant rich in cellulose. Polysaccharides are more flexible then cellulose. Land plants need cellulose to be able to stand up. (Pull of gravity). Seaweed floats in the water
Please have also look at fiber and health.
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