Paper of the month: Mechanisms and effectiveness of prebiotics

The June Nutrition Society 'Paper of the month' is from Proceedings of the Nutrition Society and is entitled 'Mechanisms and effectiveness of prebiotics in modifying the gastrointestinal microbiota for the management of digestive disorders'. Below is the author's blog on this paper, and you can now access the full paper online for a limited time by following the link provided below. Further comments and discussion are welcomed. SIR DAVID CUTHBERTSON MEDAL LECTURE:MECHANISMS AND EFFECTIVENESS OF PREBIOTICS IN MODIFYING THE GASTROINTESTINAL MICROBIOTA FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF DIGESTIVE DISORDERS The gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota is a complex and metabolically active ecosystem that plays an important role in health and disease. The microbiota vary in number, diversity, composition and activity depending on the region of the GI tract. One of the biggest advances thus far has been the comprehensive metagenomic sequencing of the GI microbiota by the MetaHIT Consortium (http://www.metahit.eu/), which demonstrated that any of 1,000-1,150 different bacterial species could populate the human GI tract, with each individual harboring approximately 160 different species.  Extensive research has demonstrated a role for specific dietary carbohydrates in modifying the microbiota, first described as the prebiotic concept in 1995. Prebiotics are non-digestible, fermentable food components that result in ‘the selective stimulation of growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of micro...
Source: The Nutrition Society - Category: Nutrition Authors: Source Type: news