GLOSSARY

Glucose Polymer is a chain of repeating glucose units. Chemically it includes different substances such as starch and cellulose; sport marketing often means digestible chains, but that narrower use needs to be made explicit.

Carbohydrate structure involves more than the number of sugar units: bond type and molecular arrangement also matter. Starch and cellulose both contain glucose, yet human enzymes do not break them down in the same way. Polymer status or chain length alone therefore does not determine digestion rate or nutritional value.

Starch contains mainly linear amylose and branched amylopectin. Its predominant chain linkages are alpha bonds, unlike cellulose's beta linkages. Their proportions, starch-granule organisation and placement within food tissue interact with preparation to influence enzyme access. A composition label alone cannot describe all of these structural features.

Dextrin, dextrose and resistant dextrin sound similar but are different concepts. Dextrose is D-glucose; dextrins are mixtures of chains produced by modifying starch, and only certain specifically structured types resist digestion. Identifying rapid fuel or fibre requires the exact ingredient and the particular product information.