2018/01/18 by Justin Carlson, Jennifer Erickson, Beate Lloyd +1 · 1 citation
Nursing · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Medicine · #Microbial Metabolites in Food Biotechnology #Gut microbiota and health #Food composition and properties #Prebiotic #Inulin #Dietary fiber #Dietary fibre #Health benefits #Food science #Fermentation #Gut flora #Human health #Functional food #Biology #Chemistry #Biochemistry #Medicine #Environmental health #Traditional medicine
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/cdn/nzy005
openalex publication_date 2018/01/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/03
Prebiotic dietary fibers act as carbon sources for primary and secondary fermentation pathways in the colon, and support digestive health in many ways. Fructooligosaccharides, inulin, and galactooligosaccharides are universally agreed-upon prebiotics. The objective of this paper is to summarize the 8 most prominent health benefits of prebiotic dietary fibers that are due to their fermentability by colonic microbiota, as well as summarize the 8 categories of prebiotic dietary fibers that support these health benefits. Although not all categories exhibit similar effects in human studies, all of these categories promote digestive health due to their fermentability. Scientific and regulatory definitions of prebiotics differ greatly, although health benefits of these compounds are uniformly agreed upon to be due to their fermentability by gut microbiota. Scientific evidence suggests that 8 categories of compounds all exhibit health benefits related to their metabolism by colonic taxa.