Life Enhancing Probiotics: Our Good Gut Bugs

They are supposedly packed full of gut-healthy microorganisms, and we are finally waking up to just how much the trillions of microorganisms that live in our guts AKA the gut microbiome contribute to our mental and physical health. True, probiotic products such as Yakult — sweetened skimmed milk fermented with a single strain of friendly bacteria — have been shifting hefty units for some time: But Yakult is fairly bland and sweet.

Your gut health is about way more than just digestion.

Traditional and home-fermented delicacies are another, more pungent matter altogether: All can intimidate palates used to highly processed western blandness. Because of how they are prepared, they all contain microorganisms that boost the diversity of good bacteria , yeasts and fungi living in our guts. Harbouring a flourishing gut flora has been linked to lower obesity, fewer autoimmune conditions and digestion problems, longer lifespan, good brain function and happiness.

Some very big companies are beginning to take this on board. If you could never quite trust the mouldering kombucha you once nurtured in your airing cupboard, now you can buy some from Whole Foods instead. Take sauerkraut, the pickled cabbage beloved of central Europeans. This stops it going off, while adding a vinegary twang. As with live yoghurt, the probiotics are the friendly bacteria food contains, whereas prebiotic is the word for substances that feed your gut flora.

All yoghurt is fermented and the milk used to make products for sale is legally required to be pasteurised to kill off pathogens, after which a few strains of lab-produced friendly bacteria are added. Presented by Michael Mosley.

This page is no longer being updated. Eating right for your microbes What you eat isn't just nutrition for you, it also feeds the trillions of bacteria that live in your gut. Easy tips for gut health Eat a wide range of plant-based foods. A healthy gut has a diverse community of microbes, each of which prefer different foods.

Most people eat less than they should. Fruit, vegetables, pulses, nuts and wholegrains feed healthy bacteria. Avoid highly processed foods. They often contain ingredients that either suppress 'good' bacteria or increase 'bad' bacteria. Probiotic foods, such as live yoghurt, might encourage more microbes to grow.

Is your gut microbiome the key to health and happiness?

Eat them if you enjoy them. Choose extra-virgin olive oil over other fats when you can. Numerous fermentable substrates from the diet are not digested and reach the opening of the large intestine Collins and Gibson, ; Gibson et al. These include carbohydrates such as dietary fibers, non-starch polysaccharides, resistant starch, oligosaccharides, polyols and other non-absorbable sugars, and to a lesser extent, proteins and amino acids. Lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, which ferment the non-digestible oligosaccharides, are regarded as beneficial bacteria since their metabolism is entirely saccharolytic without any proteolytic activity Gibson and Roberfroid, ; Gibson et al.

In addition to the increase in the cell mass of bacteria and release of energy, end products of the anaerobic saccharolytic fermentation include gases and short-chain fatty acids SCFA , which are anti-inflammatory, inhibit pathogens, control the appetite, and lower the risk of cancer and cardiovascular diseases Roberfroid, ; Gibson and Fuller, ; Cummings et al. In contrast, proteolytic fermentation of amino acids and proteins by the genus Clostridia , for example, releases toxic and potentially carcinogenic metabolites such as ammonia, amines, hydrogen sulfide, and phenolic and indolic compounds Smith and Macfarlane, ; Kolida et al.

Therefore, it is desirable to sustain prebiotic oligosaccharides as the dominant substrate in the colon for minimizing bacterial proteolytic activity. Prebiotics also confer additional health benefits by improving the stool quality, stimulating the immune system, alleviating lactose intolerance, and reducing the risk of allergies and intestinal infections Salminen et al.

The prebiotic effect of non-digestible oligosaccharides, particularly the FOS which withstand enzymatic degradation due to their inaccessible chemical structure, are well established but the mechanisms have not been fully understood. The glyosidic bonds in the oligosaccharides that resists human digestive enzymes are cleaved by hitherto unknown microbial enzymes in the large intestine Gibson and Roberfroid, ; Gibson and Fuller, ; Kajiwara et al. It is hypothesized that colonic bacteria have peculiar procedures to transport oligosaccharides with a specific degree of polymerization DP into the cell for enzymatic hydrolysis.

BBC iWonder - What should I eat for a healthy gut?

Studies have shown that oligosaccharides with low DP were fermented by bifidobacteria, whereas those with high DP were depolymerized by bacteroides Van Laere, ; Cummings et al. This partly explains the predominance of low DP FOS such as inulin and oligofructose in the prebiotic landscape, and also elicits research interest in comparable oligosaccharide sources. Honey, which possibly is the earliest sweetener known to mankind, was also being used for wound healing before the advent of modern antibiotics, and as a traditional medicine in many ancient cultures.

Even in the present age, honey is regarded not only as a natural sweetener but also as a health food with medicinal properties Shamala et al. Bees produce nectar honey from the floral nectar of various plants, and process honeydew honey from plant and insect secretions. The botanical source and geographical origin of honey are important trade factors, and the unifloral varieties command a high commercial value. The floral origin of honey being entirely unifloral is rare.

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However, the predominant floral source correlates with phytochemical markers such as the presence and distribution of volatile aroma compounds, phenolic and amino acids, oligosaccharides, and trace elements. There are numerous unifloral varieties of honey available in different regions of the world with distinct physiochemical characteristics of colour, aroma, and texture.

Each produce of the polyfloral types, however, has different composition and organoleptic properties. Honey is essentially a supersaturated solution of sugars, primarily fructose and glucose, and has numerous other minor components Viuda-Martos et al.

The reported average sugar content of nectar and honeydew honey is depicted in Table 2. The nutritional composition of honey, which greatly influences its significant physiological effects, is also dependent on various considerations such as pollen sources, processing, storage, and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the oligosaccharides are less sweet than the mono- and disaccharides, but being mostly non-digestible, are desirable for their potentially prebiotic physiological functions ascribed to the production of metabolites and growth enhancement of probiotics.

Doner and Bogdanov et al. Honey also possesses natural antibacterial activity due to factors such as high sugar content, acidity, and hydrogen peroxide which is formed by glucose oxidation during the ripening of honey. The activity attributable to hydrogen peroxide is somewhat sensitive to both heat and light, which denature the endogenous glucose oxidase White et al. The non-peroxide antimicrobial activity, which varies significantly with the floral source of the nectar, however, remains unchanged during prolonged storage periods Molan and Russell, The non-peroxide antibacterial effect of the unifloral New Zealand Manuka Leptospermum scoparium honey against the pathogen Helicobacter pylori, which is of great commercial significance since it commands a premium over the other varieties, has been attributed to high levels of methylglyoxal Allen et al.

UMF is considered to be an industry standard in the Oceania Australia and New Zealand for grading the characteristic non-peroxide antibacterial activity of Manuka honey. Appropriate synbiotic combinations, however, can be more effective in benefiting the host than individually administering probiotic or prebiotic. In synbiotic food systems, the probiotic strain is co-administered with specific prebiotic carbohydrates so that a substrate is adequately available for its proliferation Gmeiner et al.

Honey contains potentially prebiotic oligosaccharides and antibacterial components, both of which can synergistically enhance the probiotic efficacy against pathogens. In addition to increasing the viable cell count, other reported benefits include enhanced probiotic persistence in the GI tract, elevated levels of SCFA, and increased resistance to pathogens Gmeiner et al. In this context, it is interesting to note that strains of Lactobacillus reuteri , which produce the antibacterial reuterin in hosts, have revealed a superior probiotic capability in several studies over the recent decades Talarico et al.

The broad-spectrum bactericidal nature of reuterin Axelsson et al. Lactobacillus reuteri DPC16, which was isolated and patented in New Zealand by Shu and Liu , has shown promising antimicrobial activity against select Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens by producing organic acids, SCFA, and reuterin Bian et al.

A recent doctoral dissertation by Tian postulated the protective effect of DPC16 cells against toxicological damage to DNA in the intestinal cells, and an in vitro antigenotoxicity in combination with bovine lactoferrin was demonstrated in immune and colon epithelial cell models Tian et al. Besides the aforementioned functionalities, including that against the pathogens, the growth and stability challenges of probiotic species can be addressed to a large extent by prebiotic carbohydrate supplementations Gibson and Roberfroid, ; Gibson et al.

Studies reporting the prebiotic potential of honey for the probiotic lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. In most of the studies reported in Table 3 , honey has shown to support the growth of the probiotics when incubated in optimum conditions with milk including reconstituted or fermented or selective growth media. Furthermore, inhibitory action was demonstrated against the pathogens and other intestinal microbes Shin and Ustunol, ; Lucan et al.

This does provide some evidence for the selectivity of honey as a prebiotic substrate for the lactic acid bacteria belonging to Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera over other undesirable microorganisms. However, as noted by Ustunol and Gandhi , it is highly likely that some of the lactic acid production can be ascribed to the utilization of fructose and glucose, instead of the oligosaccharide component. A prebiotic effect has been attributed to honey in many of these studies, but the evaluation criteria outlined by Gibson et al. Moreover, demonstrating that the oligosaccharide substrate is metabolized selectively by the probiotic s can be more challenging because of the likely interactions with other dominant gut bacteria Gibson et al.

Many of the experiments reported in this review have utilized a single strain or only a few pure cultures in selective media s , which can be valuable for preliminary studies in establishing that the experimental prebiotic being evaluated has fermentation selectivity for bifidobacteria and lactobacilli over other undesirable bacteria.

Faecal samples utilized by Sanz et al. Moreover, as reviewed by Flint et al. A clearer picture of the changes in the bacterial population during fermentation of colonic microflora can be obtained with the application of advanced molecular techniques such as fluorescence in situ hybridization, PCR, direct community analysis, denaturing and temperature-gradient gel electrophoresis, and FCM Gibson et al.

Shelf-life studies conducted by Sharma et al. A very recent study by Favarin et al.

The confirmation of a potential prebiotic effect, however, needs to be obtained by in vivo animal studies and human clinical trials once supporting evidence is established by rigorous in vitro trials. Furthermore, according to the criterion outlined by Gibson et al. Promising synbiotic combinations, such as those including strains of Lactobacillus reuteri and Manuka honey that are effective against Helicobacter pylori infections causing stomach ulcers, can also be explored.

In this perspective, the structural similarity between the two antibacterial components, reuterin 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde and methylglyoxal, is noteworthy. Human milk oligosaccharides are bifidogenic Roberfroid et al. The holistic physiological benefits, however, will be distinct for different types of honey, and needs to be established in in vivo trials for the functional health claims.

It is interesting to note that the potential prebiotic effect has been reported more often for bifidobacteria than the lactobacilli probiotics, and this trend was also stated earlier by Kolida et al. This can be attributed to a greater fermentation selectivity of prebiotic oligosaccharides for the Bifidobacterium than the Lactobacillus genera.

Our understanding on the role of intestinal microflora in the maintaining host health and nutrition has vastly improved in the recent times, driven largely by the advancements in novel analytical techniques and global research initiatives on the gut microbiome. Dietary application of probiotic strains and non-digestible oligosaccharides aim to achieve a positive microbial balance towards a more favourable bacterial community.

Furthermore, effective synbiotic combinations can potentially enhance the discrete health benefits of prebiotic carbohydrate and probiotic microorganisms, and also present development opportunities for innovative functional foods.

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The unique oligosaccharide components and antibacterial mechanisms of honey are of a great research interest for the physiological effects. A more rigorous evaluation of the potential prebiotic effect of honey on probiotic lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, and the action mechanisms involved, however, may be necessary to incorporate the functional ingredient with scientifically substantiated health claims. In vitro models of the human gut can be employed to test digestibility and fermentation selectivity of honey oligosaccharides, followed by in vivo animal studies and randomized control trials in human subjects.

Although the selectivity of honey as a substrate for the probiotic bacteria is an important aspect of the prebiotic effect, the holistic metabolic benefits of gut microbiota modulation must also be adequately considered. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Sign In or Create an Account. Close mobile search navigation Article navigation. Modulation of the Gut Microbiota by Honey.