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Posted by Dr Thunes
on 8/7/2012, 2:04 pm, in reply to "Larson's should be getting it in"
108.202.114.255
Sally I had an interesting conversation recently with a plant scientist at UCD about these carb fractions and it turns out that WSC isn't just fructans. As you know WSC includes the ESC fraction and supposedly the difference between the 2 is fructan, which as you say is fermented in the hindgut. However apparently not all that difference is just fructan. There are some simple sugars that may not be dissolved in ether that will be dissolved in water. Therefore to truly be sure to capture all simple carbs available in the small intestine you would need to use WSC. This might very well explain why some horses have a hard time on higher WSC hays. If that particular hay's WSC is actually comprised of some simple sugars that will be digested in the small intestine it would impact blood glucose.
I'm not changing how I determine "safe" hay at this point (ESC + starch <10%) but I thought this was very interesting and something I will keep in mind especially if WSC is particularly higher than ESC.
Clair
Independent Equine Nutritionist,
Summit Equine Nutrition,
http://www.summit-equine.com
http://facebook.com/SummitEquineNutrition
clair@summit-equine.com 916-248-8987
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