The Complete Prebiotics Story
How the Gut Works
The stomach is the reservoir that collects the food and liquid we eat and drink. It grinds up the food and ejects it in little amounts into the small bowel. The small bowel is over 20 feet long and receives digestive juices and enzymes from the liver and pancreas. The food is digested in the small bowel. This means that the calories, minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, amino acids and fats are absorbed into the blood stream and carried throughout the body.
The residue from the small bowel flows into the colon which is about five feet long. This is where fiber enters the picture. Fiber comes from plant material. It is mostly unused by the small bowel and is not digested. It enters the colon pretty much as it left the stomach. In the past, we knew the colon was packed with bacteria but did not understand it very well. The colon was viewed simply as a waste depot, as this last residue moved to the rectum and was evacuated.
But now we know that the colon is populated by legions of bacteria - trillions of them: more than all the other cells in your body! The good bacteria bring manifold health benefits - they assist with absorption of nutrients, emit short-chain-fatty-acids that help build the colon wall and drive out bad bacteria. They help prevent allergies and asthma. They help reduce triglycerides for better heart health.
The good bacteria are a wondrous thing! We also have some less desirable bacteria that can live in our colon. Salmonella, E. Coli, C Diff. are some you may have heard of. Others live in the colon, digest any sulfur you eat, and emit a nasty corrosive poisonous gas called Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S). This not only stinks (it's what gives your flatus that rotten egg smell) but emerging research also shows a strong relationshiop between H2S and Ulcerative Colitis!
PrebioticsThe concept of prebiotics is pretty simple. Prebiotics are simply very special fibers that are the food for these good bacteria. It nourishes them and helps them grow strong but is not consumed by the bad bacteria. If you don't have enough prebiotics in your diet, your good bacteria are starving, and guess who's there to fill in for them - that's right, the bad bacteria. When you eat enough prebiotics, you ensure a healthy flora of good bacteria, and keep the bad bacteria from finding a foothold. The two research-proved prebiotic fibers are Inulin and Oligofructose. Inulin is present in high concentrations in chicory root, dandelions and jerusalem artichoke (NOT in regular artichoke! Jerusalem Artichoke is not the standard spiky green thing). It is present to a far lesser extent in bananas, wheat, onions, asparagus, rye and barley. Indeed, it has been found in over 36,000 plants around the world. Unfortunately, the plants with a lot of prebiotic are not ones we would normally eat (e.g. chicory root). Most of the other more common foods don't contain nearly enough to provide a good daily supply of inulin eating normal quantities. For instance, you would have to eat 2,000 calories of banans to get your daily dose of prebiotics. Oligofructose, also present in these foods, is a similar fiber. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), Americans get only about 2 grams/day of these fibers when they should have 4-8g a day. We in the US get 70% from wheat and 20% from onions. Europeans eat three times this amount. Somehow our food industries and our eating habits have simply bypassed this remarkable fiber. These soluble prebiotic fibers have by far the most science behind them. Much of the research in the science literature, in fact, has been done with a combination of inulin and oligofructose.
Here's the critical part: There is a special compound of these two fibers called oligofructose enriched inulin or "OEI". Because this "complete prebiotic" contains both shorter- and longer-chain prebiotic molucules, it tends to nourish bacteria throughout the colon. Inulin or Oligofructose alone only tend to nourish one half of the colon (Left and Right, respectively). So this OEI seems to provide a synergy whereby research has shown it to be more effective in producing beneficial results than either one by itself. The laboratory, animal and human studies reported in the medical literature are impressive. Our oligofructose enriched inulin product, Prebiotin™, uses 100% pure and natural oligofructose enriched inulin. |
| Foods rich in Inulin | - chicory root
- dandelion greens
- Jeruselem artichoke (not regular artichoke)
- leeks
- agave
- wild yam
- jicama
- onions
- garlic
- bananas
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Prebiotics for the Healthy
The colon is a health maintenance organ if its bacteria are fed properly. The specific areas of good health that science is beginning to uncover are:
- Improved bowel regularity.
- Increased number of good colon bacteria species, especially the bifidobacter and lactobacillus species.
- Decreased number of presumed bad bacteria, especially the clostridium and bacteroides species.
- Increased absorption of calcium and magnesium. The data here is especially strong with young teenage girls increasing their bone mass 20% after one year of taking prebiotics.
- Increased immune strength in the colon's own cells. Some of this experimental data is very impressive.
- Better glycemic and blood sugar control.
- Reduction in factors that could lead to colon polyps and cancer when studied in animals.
- Effect on aging, appetite and weight loss. The data on these is very early and nothing conclusive has been demonstrated. Still, good scientists are intensely studying these outcomes.
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Health Benefits for Those with Colon Disorders
The FDA does not allow anyone in the Dietary Supplement industry to make a claim that their products can prevent, cure or mitigate any disease. So, nothing specific can or will be claimed in this regard. At the same time, it is quite obvious to all of us in the gastroenterology field that a great amount of research is being done. You may go to the topics below for further information.
(PLEASE NOTE: All links below lead to our Diets and Diseases Info Library
on the Jackson GI corporate site)
Summary
Prebiotic food fibers are a very recent development in the medical, research and health fields. A large body of research information has been occurring at the same time that we in the medical field are getting a much better grasp of the function of the bacterial makeup within the colon. How these newly discovered prebiotics fibers and the colon's own bacteria interact in such a positive manner is a truly exciting new frontier in enhancing the health of every person who understands and acts on this new information.
Read more about Research on Prebiotics. Or, if you're ready to improve your health, purchase Prebiotin at jacksongi.com
