Star of advertisements for certain dairy products, probiotics are often used as an argument to communicate the supposed benefits of brands.
Much less known to the general public, prebiotics are also a factor contributing to your good intestinal health.
But what is it exactly? Why and how do prebiotics intervene in the life of your digestive system? What are the most representative molecules? What does this have to do with the skin?
The MyPureSkin team carried out the investigation and explored for you the effects of particular prebiotics: galacto-oligosaccharides.
Prebiotics and probiotics: differences and relationships
Real life-sustaining machines, prebiotics have a beneficial effect on the intestinal flora.
The microbiota residing in your intestines is heavily stressed by your daily environment (in which there is often an excessively unbalanced diet, notable air pollution, chronic smoking, frequent alcohol consumption, significant exposure to UV rays, etc.). .).
It is precisely for this reason that prebiotics are becoming increasingly important.
Prebiotic? Probiotic? What differences? What roles do these two types of agents take on and how do they function?
Probiotics: a special category of microorganisms
In a study conducted by Mr. Quigley's team and published in September 2013 (1), we find an argument often invoked by several brands of yogurt: the intestinal microbiota plays a major role in maintaining your health.
Considered a “forgotten organ” by the authors of the research in question, the intestinal microbiota (also called “intestinal flora”) is a collection of bacteria of various types and whose number varies from one group to another.
One of the key aspects of the conclusions of this study can be summed up in a simple sentence: modifying the state of the intestinal microbiota can have beneficial effects on the general health of an individual.
This discovery (and others like it) made nutrition a major focus of some branches of medical research.
Consequently, the attention paid to prebiotics has continued to grow over the last decade.
From nutrition to immunity: the consequences of consuming prebiotics are diverse
Classified in the fiber category, prebiotics are molecules that are not intended to follow the fate reserved by your body for most of the other foods you ingest since they cannot be processed by your stomach.
This means that they are transmitted to your colon almost intact to be consumed by the colonies of bacteria making up your intestinal flora.
The latter indeed need to feed, they tend to draw from your food bowl for sustenance.
But what you should especially know about probiotic bacteria is that they are particularly fond of prebiotics.
If dishes rich in fats and sugars have a negative impact on your intestinal flora, those which give pride of place to a wide variety of dietary fibers contribute on the contrary to keeping it in good health.
This is why certain ingredients containing prebiotics are now considered “superfoods”. This is particularly the case of:
- Different kinds of kimchi;
- Subspecies of bananas;
- Some berries;
- Several varieties of garlic;
- Some plants including the “Jerusalem artichoke” (also known as “Jerusalem artichoke”).
The spectrum of properties of the molecules constituting these ingredients is vast and the best known aspects are:
- Help regulate the balance between populations of bacteria living in your digestive system;
- In certain cases, serve as a “protective vessel” for nutrients from your diet in order to improve their absorption (thus limiting losses during the first stages of digestion, in the stomach for example).
These two main functions (as well as other aspects of prebiotics) are explained by the WGO (World Gastroenterology Organization) in some of its official documents intended for the general public such as the "guidelines document" published in 2017 (2).
Well nourished thanks to the supply of prebiotics, probiotics are able to maintain themselves in sufficient numbers, preventing other populations of pathogenic bacteria (such as E. coli bacteria) from multiplying and thus colonizing too much of the digestive system.
In other words: maintaining the balance of the intestinal flora thanks to prebiotics has immune consequences in the sense that the risks of developing health problems are more limited.
Probiotics and prebiotics: cellular and bacterial nutrition under the microscope
But to better understand how probiotics support the quality of intestinal flora probiotics, you need to look at how the probiotic bacteria in your intestinal microbiota consume them and what they do with them.
To do this, it is necessary to take a detour through the cells of your colon.
True workhorses, colonocytes (i.e. the cells of the colon) are the front-line workers thanks to which your body is able to carry out certain stages of digestion. However, like all cells in your body, they need energy to carry out their tasks and their main source of energy is a very specific type of molecule: butyrate.
Fortunately, colonocytes function in symbiosis with the probiotic bacteria of the intestinal flora. Indeed, by feeding on prebiotics, probiotics produce butyrate allowing colonocytes to function properly.
This harmonious life linking your cells to probiotic bacteria therefore requires, to be maintained, a diet sufficiently rich in prebiotics (not just any type of dietary fiber: prebiotics specifically).
This intuition was confirmed following recent research work, such as that described in an article co-written by Nielson T. Baxter and published in January 2019 in the ASM Journals (American Society of Microbiology).
The conclusion Baxter's team came to is this: the gut microbiota varies from one individual to another, meaning that any prebiotic may not necessarily work equally well for everyone when it’s about maintaining your intestinal flora.
Finally, there is a somewhat separate group of prebiotics, whose properties make them a very popular ingredient in nutritional solutions: galacto-oligosaccharides.
Galacto-oligosaccharides: prebiotics to pave the way for targeted and effective nutrition solutions
Highlighted by numerous studies (such as those of Yang & Silva in 1995, Oku in 1996 or even Hartemink & Al. in 1997), the properties of GOS (Galacto-OligoSaccharides) differentiate them from other prebiotics (such as TOS and FOS). GOS are, among other things, known to present:
- A particular texture (in particular a greater viscosity);
- A high level of hydration (which allows it great solubility);
- A lower sweetening potential (especially compared to FOS);
- Better structural stability.
These characteristics allow galacto-oligosaccharides to limit the development of cavities during their consumption but also to bind more easily to other molecules when designing food supplements.
Improve the assimilation of nutrients to benefit all your organs
As explained previously, galacto-oligosaccharides maintain very good molecular stability once linked to other molecules (such as vitamins, trace elements or even collagen) and are capable of going through the first stages of digestion by being very little altered.
These two aspects make them transport means for nutrients sensitive to the acidity and heat of the stomach, which explains why certain dietary supplements such as those from MyPureSkin bind GOS to various nutrients.
In fact, these end up being better assimilated by the body which becomes capable of nourishing the different organs more effectively, particularly the skin.
This is the reason why several studies, like that of Yang Hee Hong's team, published in 2017 (4), draw a single conclusion: galacto-oligosaccharides have a beneficial effect on the skin. .
Benefiting from better nutrition, the dermis and epidermis are able to nourish themselves better and thus maintain themselves more effectively.
Are you looking for an effective skin nutrition solution? You will now know why choosing a formula including galacto-oligosaccharides is an excellent idea.
- Quigley's research on the links between the gut microbiota and the overall health of the human body: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3983973/
- Guidelines document published in 2017 by the WGO on probiotics and prebiotics: https://www.worldgastroenterology.org/UserFiles/file/guidelines/probiotics-and-prebiotics-english-2017.pdf
- Article by Baxter for ASM Journals exploring the importance of matching the individual microbacterial landscape of a specific gut flora to certain types of prebiotics: https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mbio.02566 -18
- Study by Yang Hee Hong on the correlation between consumption of galacto-oligosaccharides and improvement in skin quality: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28582809/