Carbohydrate Nutrition

Dr. Bin Zhang is an Associate Professor and Director of the Carbohydrate Research Laboratory at South China University of Technology (SCUT), China. Before joining SCUT in 2016, he obtained PhD at the University of Queensland, and worked as postdoctoral research fellow at Purdue University. His research focuses on structure-nutritional properties relationships of carbohydrate polymers such as starch and non-starch polysaccharides, particularly in vitro digestion properties and colonic fermentation by gut microbiota. He published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, is an editorial board member of Carbohydrate Polymers, and co-chairs the carbohydrate working group of INFOGEST. Dr. Sushil Dhital is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering and co-director of the Monash Food Innovation Centre at the Monash University, Australia. He completed his PhD at The University of Queensland in 2011 followed by a research fellow position at UQ, examining the starch-plant cell walls interactions. Sushil joined Monash University (Department of Chemical Engineering) in July 2019. Dr. Dhital caries fundamental and applied research on elucidating the structure-property-function-health relationships of food and food ingredients. His stronghold and research interest are on relating the plant molecular structures to macroscopic properties with relevance to food, health, and product development. He uses cross-disciplinary approaches drawing from physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering and uses various in-vitro and in-vivo models to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms beyond the nutritional and processing functionality of food and food ingredients.

1. Overview of food carbohydrates: Chemistry and classification
2. Carbohydrate digestion and absorption in human digestive track
3. Carbohydrates and the glycemic index (GI)
4. Prebiotics in foods: Structure, digestion fate and clinical evidence
5. Human milk oligosaccharides: Chemistry, digestion and immune functions and current applications
6. Starch structure-digestibility relationship and applications in low glycemic food
7. Resistant starch: In vitro fecal fermentation characteristics and health implications
8. Cellulose: Structure and beneficial functions in human digestive track
9. Arabinoxylan: Sources, structures and health beneficial effects
10. Beta-glucan: Structure and health beneficial effects
11. Pectin: Chemical structure and health beneficial effects
12. Polyols: utilization mechanism and health benefits
13. Food gums: Nutritional functionality and applications in health foods
14. Design rules of nutritious carbohydrate enriched foods