08 January, 2006
Prebiotics are important.
An army travels on its stomach. Prebiotics are fibre compounds that resist digestion and absorption by the enzymes in our small intestines. When they reach the large intestine they are digested by many of the "good" bacteria that are there. In the case of Hi-maize resistant starch, the starch granules also act as a protective transport medium as the probiotic cells adsorb to them. This helps to boost the numbers of probiotic cells that reach the colon. CSIRO experiments by Dr A. Bird et. al., showed that combining fructo-oligosacharide and Hi-maize boosted the numbers of probiotic cells that reached the far end of the colon by almost 50-fold.
An army travels on its stomach. Prebiotics are fibre compounds that resist digestion and absorption by the enzymes in our small intestines. When they reach the large intestine they are digested by many of the "good" bacteria that are there. In the case of Hi-maize resistant starch, the starch granules also act as a protective transport medium as the probiotic cells adsorb to them. This helps to boost the numbers of probiotic cells that reach the colon. CSIRO experiments by Dr A. Bird et. al., showed that combining fructo-oligosacharide and Hi-maize boosted the numbers of probiotic cells that reached the far end of the colon by almost 50-fold.
