BENEO-Institute Highlight Benefits of Prebiotic Fiber

14 Oct 2016 --- BENEO-Institute, a leading manufacturer in functional ingredients, is set to highlight the benefits of prebiotic fibers derived from chicory root.

The uniqueness of prebiotics derived from chicory root that impact digestion and overall well-being has been proven increasingly in scientific research over the past 25 years.

This growing interest in prebiotics from the scientific world has resulted in more than 2,000 published research articles in just the past five years, and BENEO-Institute experts are keen to promote the relevance of these scientific studies and the relationship of prebiotic fibers to a healthy digestive system.

Describing the gut as the ‘second brain’, BENEO-Institute experts say that its microbiota is important far beyond just gut health. Several factors can influence the balance of gut microbiota and prebiotics are among them.

By impacting the balance of bacteria inhabiting the colon, prebiotics create in parallel, favorable metabolic conditions that pave the way for health benefits that go beyond the gut to improve bowel habit/regularity, promote weight management, lower blood glucose response and improve calcium absorption for bone health.

“All established prebiotics are fibers, but not all dietary fibers are prebiotics,” said Anke Sentko, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Nutrition Communication.

“An essential and complex research package, including state-of-the art techniques on measuring bacteria counts and human data needs to be established for each ingredient that wants to be claimed as prebiotic.”

“There’s a lot of misuse in the market currently. BENEO’s chicory root fibers are the best researched prebiotics worldwide and the one with a scientific track record.”

Digestive health is an ongoing focus in the U.S. with 61% of U.S. consumers being concerned about maintaining digestive health and 43% looking for products to actively improve digestive health, according to BENEO Research in 2013.

In spite of the high interest in a healthy digestive system U.S. consumer insights show that prebiotics don’t yet receive the same consumer awareness as probiotics.

However, with an increase in scientific studies, consumers and manufacturers are becoming more aware of the benefits of prebiotics.

For example, prebiotics are preferred nutrients for good gut bacteria (bifidobacteria), which already exist in the gut and help the bacteria to grow and multiply. Also, prebiotics are fermented, which results in short-chain fatty acids with beneficial effects on the entire human body, i.e. bowel regularity and improved satiety/eating less naturally.

They can also be part of almost all food applications and an easy-to-implement part of a daily diet.

Probiotics, on the other hand, are good bacteria that need to be swallowed either via a dairy product, i.e. yogurt, or as a supplement. They survive for a few days but do not become natural inhabitants of the large intestine and eventually disappear. Additionally, probiotics are highly susceptible to cooling and specific processing conditions, which create greater challenges to manufacturers.

Studies in humans have consistently demonstrated chicory root fiber’s prebiotic effect across all study populations (health, gender, age and health conditions) and is shown to be well tolerated for all age groups.

The BENEO-Institute team will present “Gut Microbiota Matters! Do You Know How to Influence it?” at Food and Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE), from the 15-18 October.