Webinar: Food Structure - How It Affects Nutrition and Gut Health

Webinar: Food Structure - How It Affects Nutrition and Gut Health

Dietary fibre supports health throughout the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and its benefits depend not only on the amount consumed but also on its type and structure. In the upper GI tract, fibres—particularly resistant starch and intact plant structures—slow digestion and glucose release, helping lower the glycaemic index (GI) of foods and improving blood sugar control and satiety. In the lower GI tract, fibres that escape digestion are fermented by gut microbes to produce short-chain fatty acids that are known to nourish the colon, support immunity, and improve metabolic health. Our work also shows that fibre trapped within intact plant cells, common in minimally processed cereals, legumes, and tubers, ferments more slowly, promotes greater microbial diversity, and contributes to sustained gut health and improved overall nutrition.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this webinar, participants should be able to:

• Understand how different types and structures of dietary fibre influence digestion, glycaemic response and satiety.
• Learn how fibre that reaches the lower gut supports beneficial microbes and the production of health-promoting short-chain fatty acids.
• Explore why minimally processed plant foods with intact cell structures can play an important role in sustaining gut health and overall nutrition

Speaker: Dr Sushil Dhital

Sushil Dhital is an academic and researcher in food engineering and nutrition whose work focuses on understanding how the structure of plant-based foods influences digestion, nutrition, and health. He is based in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Monash University, where he leads research at the interface of food engineering, carbohydrate science, and human nutrition.

Dr Dhital has published more than 160 peer-reviewed scientific papers and is the author of two books on carbohydrate and starch nutrition. His research explores the structure–property–function–health relationships of foods and ingredients, linking plant molecular structures to digestion, metabolic responses, and food functionality. Using interdisciplinary approaches spanning physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, his work employs in-vitro and in-vivo models to understand how food structure influences nutrient release, glycaemic response, and gut microbiome interactions.