Starch

Starch is a sugar or a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are converted in our bodies into glucose: our body’s energy supplier. Starch is a long chain of glucose molecules attached to each other, or a polymer. Several digestive enzymes are available to digest these long molecules. In particular, the enzymes Invertase and Gluco-Amylase help to digest starch. Intoleran has developed a product containing Invertase and Gluco-Amylase called Starchway.

Due to an enzyme deficiency in the intestines, carbohydrates are not broken down into shorter glucose molecules and are therefore not absorbed into our bodies. Instead, they leave the body in the form of faeces via the stomach, small intestine and large intestine.

The annoying thing is that our body, in the case of an enzyme deficiency, cannot ‘cut the carbohydrate chains into pieces’. Because of this, the carbohydrates will not be absorbed into the body through the intestinal wall. They are transported to the colon and fermented there by our intestinal bacteria, releasing gases and acids in the process. These gases and acids can cause flatulence and diarrhoea.