Time for coffee and tea
Nutrition facts for coffee: Dietary fiber in coffee
The coffee bean has a large quantity of non-digestible polysaccharides, known as dietary fiber. It is thought that this dietary fiber may partially pass into coffee once it has been brewed, and therefore coffee may have many of the health benefits associated with dietary fiber.
Coffee is one of the most largely consumed beverages in the world, with people not only enjoying its taste but also its smell and stimulation properties. The coffee drink is derived from coffee beans that have been roasted, ground and then infused in water. This leads to many of the compounds found in the coffee bean being passed into the drink; many in a changed state.
Some of the compounds that are found in coffee include vitamins, minerals, lipid and carbohydrates; there are more than a thousand known compounds that have been described in coffee. The quantities and qualities of all these compounds varies upon the way that the coffee is processed, for example a dark roasted coffee ground from fresh beans will have a much different chemical make up than that of a low quality freeze dried instant coffee.
Many of the compounds found in coffee have shown to have health implications, some positive, some negative; many of these can be read about in the health sections of this coffee and tea web site.
There are three main types of polysaccharides that are abundant found in coffee beans; two of which galactomannan and type II arabinogalactan dare dominant in the coffee beverage itself. Nutritionally there are two main types of polysaccharides; digestible and indigestible. The indigestible form of polysaccharides are often referred to as dietary fiber. Indigestible fiber is found in many vegetables and has various health benefits.
Coffee beans themselves are known to have a large amount of dietary fiber, but little is known about the amount that may be passed onto the consumer of the coffee beverage once the bean has been roasted, ground and brewed. Additionally coffee beans are rich in phenolics; these compounds are known to be able to bind to dietary fiber and proteins, and may have important nutritional benefits.
Reference