The invention relates to a carbohydrate mixture for dietetic foods administered by the enteral or parenteral route and pharmaceuticals, characterized in that said mixture consists of (a) monosaccharide(s), (b) oligosaccharide(s) (at most hexasaccharides) and (c) polysaccharide(s) (at least heptasaccharides), where the mixing ratio a, b, c, in respect of weight, is: .alpha.=1, b=40 to 1000, and c=1 to 50, and in that it contains at least 1 weight percent of fucose occurring either freely and/or bound to an oligosaccharide and/or a polysaccharide. According to the invention, the carbohydrate mixture has both a nutritional and a biological effect which is considerably greater than the corresponding action of the individual constituents.