Prebiotics make probiotics better

Prebiotics are the up-and-coming players in the digestive health game. These functional fibers have demonstrated benefits while offering formulation flexibility over their probiotic stablemates. 

First to the definition. As the term “prebiotic” started to gain consumer awareness, gradually more digestion-resistant carbohydrate molecules started to use that kind of language in marketing materials. 

As a result, pressure arose in the marketplace to put some parameters around the use of the term. The International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) defines a prebiotic as: “A substrate that is selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit.” 

The International Probiotics Association (IPA), which recently expanded its purview to include prebiotic ingredients, follows ISAPP’s definition. 

The Global Prebiotic Association (GPA), a competing organization, tweaks it a bit, going with: “A product or ingredient that is utilized in the microbiota producing a health or performance benefit.” 

A word about prebiotics and “synbiotics”: At the dawn of the prebiotic marketing craze, the idea was to combine specific prebiotics and probiotic strains that would preferentially feed on those fibers, and label them sybniotics. 

Related:Postbiotics: DOA — dead on arrival — has its benefits

Prebiotics have been clinically demonstrated to foster the growth of broad swaths of the human gut microbiota, such as various species of Bifidobacteria. But narrowing that down to specific strains linked to specific prebiotic fibers and backing that with firm data has proven an elusive target. 

The following rundown outlines some of the common prebiotic fibers: 

Resistant starch 

Commercial source: Tapioca (cassava), potatoes, other plant sources 

Dose: 3.5 grams/day up to multiple grams/day 

Primary product category: Baked goods, packaged foods 

Resistant starch is perhaps the oldest — and one of the best researched — ingredients in the category. Modern food processing methods have removed much of this starch from North American diets, according to longtime expert Rhonda Witwer, who now works with ADM. Americans used to consume 30 grams or more of this ingredient in a day; the total is now down to about 3 to 5 grams. 

On the site resistantstarch.com, Witwer lists more than 350 clinical studies on this ingredient, spanning all the way back to 1984. 

Resistant starch, as the name implies, is digested slowly, and gives rise to abundant short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production further down in the intestines. Modern ingredients derived from high-amylose corn have been commercially available since the 1990s. ADM’s version, sourced from tapioca (cassava), finds a home in keto, paleo and low-digestible carb-friendly finished products. 

Related:Biotics for life! – digital magazine

Partially hydrolyzed guar gum (PHGG) 

Commercial source: Guar beans 

Dose: 6 or 7 grams/day 

Primary product category: Supplements 

This ingredient is one that made the initial cut of prebiotic ingredients that were allowed to call themselves “dietary fiber” on labels when FDA let that hammer fall on its definition of the term. Marketers of some well-known prebiotic ingredients, such as inulin, were obliged to submit dossiers to reclaim their ability to call themselves dietary fiber on labels. 

While this was seen as a death knell for some ingredients, marketers got around the issue by harping on the functional, digestive benefits of the products, and leaving the fiber callouts aside. 

PHGG never had that issue, though, because of the strong suite of science put together by the ingredient’s developer, Taiyo International, which markets it under the Sunfiber brand name. The ingredient is known for its formulation flexibility and easy digestion.  

To read the intel on the three other prebiotics INULIN, FOS AND GOS, click here to download the free Natural Products Insider digital magazine >> “Biotics For Life!” Inside the issue is a tutorial on the microbiome, ingredient suppliers who describe how biotics work well alongside highly sought-after ingredients, how postbiotics came to be, and an insider lab tour of cutting-edge AI-driven biotics startup, Verb Biotics.