WAYS OF OPTIMIZING THE NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DIETETIC PASTRY PRODUCTS

Abstract

A balanced nutrition means a diet which contains necessary nutrients in proper proportions for our body's health. The lately led studies prove that the persons whose diets are poor in vegetable fibers are more exposed to degenerative diseases such as: constipation, colitis, and diabetes or colon cancer. The general concern for the development of functional foods has led to reconsidering the use of dietary fibres in food production and thus researches on their physiological role for human organism had been initiated. The vegetable fibers represent an important compound of the diet for they don’t fatten and they ensure a good digestion. The purpose of this paper was to find some ways to improve the nutritional value of a dietetic pastry product based on sweeteners. For accomplishing this, the water used in preparing the fibre-rich product was replaced by carrot juice. Thus, a general improvement of the nutritive value could be noticed, but with a slight growth of the energetic value of the final product, a growth that was determined also by the use of some caloric sweeteners. Good knowledge of the nutritional value of food is a basic condition in order to be able to appreciate their quality level and nutrition specialists should be interested in optimizing it.