6 Foods-Tips for More Fiber

Prebiotics: more than dietary fiber

The definition of dietary fiber has changed significantly. Intestinal physiology revealed the concept of prebiotics, expanded the concept of "food colic." Housed, fed, bleached, good microbes are enjoying their host ...

With tens of billions of souls, the intestinal flora digest almost everything. With the exception of lignin, any dietary fiber may be used as a substrate in the bacterial biomass, to varying degrees of fermentation. In one day, the colon swallows 40 to 100 g of fermentable material, divided between the main microbial species that inhabit it. There are some beneficial bacteria organic fertilizer necessary for their selective growth, including Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp. This is called prebiotic.

Family

Several candidates jostling at the gate to claim a prebiotic effect, says Prof.. Nathalie Delzenne (UCL): inulin and oligofructose (fructooligosaccharides or FOS), but also the galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) of breast milk, xylo-oligosaccharides, soybean oligosaccharides (raffinose, stachyose ) or certain types of resistant starches (bananas, potatoes, beans ...). However, several factors modulate the prebiotic effect. In the case of fructo-oligosaccharides, for example, long-chain (inulin) exert a stronger than short chains bifidogenic effect (oligofructose). Also noted that the increase in the number of "Bifidus" obtained with the FOS depends on the initial composition of the flora (it is much higher than the starting number is low). In other words, it could be that the health benefits are even greater for the digestive tracts containing little bifidus.

The colon Care

The modification of the colonic flora by prebiotics has a positive impact on their immediate environment, the colon. Thus, these nutrients colic may act favorably, both as a healthy mucosa epithelium altered. On a healthy gut says Prof. Delzenne, there is an increase in epithelial density and crypt depth, a significant increase in the absorption surface. Induced colitis in rats seems to be easier to repair in the presence of non-digestible oligosaccharides, as necrotizing enterocolitis in gnotobiotic quails (controlled, in this case with a decrease in Clostridia flora and increased bifidobacteria).
The metabolism of colonocytes also takes advantage of the secretory activity of "good" lactic acid bacteria. Butyrate, a short chain fatty acid produced by fermentation, has a trophic effect on the intestinal mucosa. However the most remarkable effect of this fatty acid occurs in cells (pre) neoplastic among others: detoxification, synthesis of markers of differentiation, inhibition of oncogenes, increased calcium absorption, stimulation of the GALT (Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue) or induction of apoptosis.

SYNCAN

"Prebiotics they warn colon cancer?
The question is asked and does not always answer. A European project, SYNCAN (for Synbiotics and cancer prevention in humans), aims to study the impact of the combination of prebiotics and probiotics (or synbiotics) on the incidence of colorectal cancer. It harnesses the energy of several European laboratories (7 countries, including Belgium) in all areas of research: studies in vitro, in vivo, clinical trials and intervention studies. Established in March 2000, the platform hopes to achieve in the short term on a European scale study in humans."

Feeding the colon to eat less?

Bifidobacteria and lactobacilli themselves have also anticarcinogenic potential via inhibition of certain enzymes (beta-glucuronidase, nitroreductases). Several studies are still needed, however, before we can say their antitumor potential. Research is also under way in areas such as irritable bowel, enteral nutrition and chronic inflammatory diseases, for which it has already raised the interest of some probiotics, and when one considers that prebiotics. Other promising effects of prebiotics are raising a new enthusiasm. They would influence, in animals, the endocrine function of the colon, by producing intestinal peptide satiety vocation (GLP-1, PYY) or orexigenic (ghrelin). The effect of "dietary fiber" on the regulation of appetite and satiety is a path that is accurate (and complicated) gradually ...