What is a prebiotic?
The community of microbes living in your digestive tract helps keep you healthy, regulating your immune function and metabolism. Prebiotics are a way to keep this community strong and thriving. Prebiotics are substances that feed beneficial microorganisms in your digestive tract, providing you with health benefits such as better digestion, improved immunity, increased mineral absorption or better metabolic health. Prebiotics that target your gut microbes are special forms of dietary fiber — and they can be found in foods or in supplements. Try to consume prebiotics every day to have a thriving gut microbial community and support your health.
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Video Transcript
The microbiota: a complex community of microbes colonizing the human body.
Most of these microbes live in your digestive tract, especially the colon, with trillions of bacterial cells residing there.
Each of us has a unique collection of microbes that greatly impact our health through immune function, metabolism, and nutrition.
Our resident microbes may also protect us from harmful microbes that we may encounter.
So it’s important to encourage the presence of the helpful microbes that call our bodies home.
Prebiotics can help!
Most prebiotics are a type of dietary fiber that are used by the beneficial microbes in your intestine.
In other words, prebiotics are food for the good bacteria in your body: including Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and other resident microbes.
Most prebiotics are dietary fibers, but it’s important to note that not all dietary fibers are prebiotics.
Prebiotics can be found – although at low levels – in foods such as whole grains, beans, onions, chicory root, garlic and artichokes.
Prebiotics are also available in more concentrated forms.
They can be isolated from chicory root and also created from linking sugar building blocks into more complex carbohydrates.
Increasing your intake of prebiotics may boost the number of good bacteria in your gut and has the potential to:
Promote healthy digestion,
support the body’s natural defenses,
improve mineral absorption,
and help regulate your desire to eat, your energy balance, and your glucose metabolism.
Prebiotic supplements or foods with added prebiotic – are an effective means to increase your daily intake.
You should try to get about 3-5 g each day of prebiotics.
And since some fiber-rich foods also contain prebiotics, if you increase fiber-rich foods, you’ll also increase your prebiotic intake.
However, the word “prebiotic” is seldom used on labels so it can be difficult to determine if prebiotics are actually present.
Instead, look for the actual names of the prebiotics, such as:
• Galacto-oligosaccharides or GOS
• Fructo-oligosaccharides or FOS
• Oligofructose or OF
• Chicory root or chicory fiber
• and Inulin
Good bacteria love these prebiotic fibers.
So do yourself, and your microbiota, a favor. Eat plenty of fiber, including prebiotics.
<em>NOTE: The ISAPP board of directors developed this video to accurately represent current science. Industry had no control over final content.</em>
As a global organization, ISAPP is pleased to make available multiple language translations of key resources. Effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the translations, but in the event of any discrepancies, the English language version shall be considered primary.
