Dear Friends,
Prebiotics are one of the hottest supplement ingredient categories.
In this letter, we’re going to discuss how to get the most from prebiotics, what you should look for in prebiotic supplements, and our favorite blend of prebiotic ingredients.
In case you don’t know, a prebiotic is a non-digestible ingredient that stimulates the growth of good probiotic bacteria, helping them flourish and improve health.
Fiber is the most commonly consumed prebiotic, but other complex carbohydrates have prebiotic activity too – and today we’re going to be discussing an exciting newer generation of prebiotics you may not know about yet.
3 Criteria for the Ideal Prebiotic Supplement Blend
When thinking about the ideal blend of prebiotics to take as a supplement, there are 3 criteria we think you should look for:
First, you want prebiotics that act as food for probiotic bacteria, that’s the nourishment part, and also include a prebiotic that prepares the gut to ensure the probiotic bacteria have room to flourish.
To use a farming analogy, we want to plough the field to eliminate unwanted stuff to help create ideal conditions for growth, and fertilize or feed the probiotic seed so the friendly bacteria can flourish.
Most prebiotic supplements focus on the feeding part but ignore the ploughing of the field or preparing the intestines part of the equation. You want both.
Number two, you want to make sure your prebiotic blend helps promote all 3 of the major groups of beneficial bacteria prominently found in the intestines (more technically each group is called a genus).
The first of these are the lactobacillus strains, such as L. acidophilus, and L. plantarum, the second group is the bifidobacterium strains, you may be familiar with B. longum and B. lactis in this group.
The third is a lesser known group that’s gaining a lot of attention, called Akkermansia.
Akkermansia plays an important role in the function of the protective intestinal barrier, which is essentially your last line of defense against unwanted substances entering the bloodstream.
Akkermansia is getting a lot of attention recently because it also exerts a positive effect on metabolic health – including healthy blood sugar metabolism and weight management.
So, the ideal prebiotic blend includes ingredients shown to significantly increase lactobacillus, bifidobacterium, and Akkermansia microorganisms in the human gut.
Number 3 on our list is science-backed prebiotics. The prebiotics should have research showing they have actual health benefits in humans.
Choose prebiotic ingredients that have published placebo-controlled research studies demonstrating specific health benefits.
You’d expect these to include digestive and gastrointestinal health benefits, but when gut function improves, we know this can help other parts of the body too.
This Prebiotic Blend Checks All These Boxes
At NatureCity, we combine three prebiotic ingredients to meet all the criteria we just reviewed.
It includes two dietary fibers – one being the innovative exciting Solnul dietary fiber, which comes from potatoes, and inulin, a fiber extracted from chicory root.
The combined total fiber from these ingredients is 5 grams per serving, and we were careful to keep inulin at 2 grams, so it doesn’t cause any gastrointestinal distress.
Inulin is a powerful prebiotic, but you don’t want to take too much at once because it can cause unwanted gas or other discomfort. This is why we limit the inulin to 2 grams per serving – at this level it’s very unlikely to cause unwanted effects.
A Next Generation Prebiotic
The third prebiotic ingredient in our blend is a new generation of prebiotic ingredients called a bacteriophage, or phage for short.
It’s called PreforPro, and you definitely want it as part of your prebiotic supplement blend because it uniquely creates room in the gut for good probiotic bacteria to grow – and it actually can start to work in just hours.
Phages are abundantly found in our bodies and the natural world, and the phage cocktail in PreforPro was specifically designed for this prebiotic support.
You may recall that our first criteria for a prebiotic blend was it could both nourish and feed friendly probiotic bacteria and also prepare the gut to ensure the probiotic bacteria have room to flourish. Our prebiotic blend checks these boxes.
Broad-Based Prebiotic Support
One of the many things we love about Solnul dietary fiber (and it’s a long and growing list), is that ingesting 3.5 grams of Solnul daily for 28 days, significantly increased the abundance of both Akkermansia and bifidobacterium in humans.
In fact, the increase in Akkermansia, which on average was over 200% in the study participants taking Solnul, is believed to be the strongest result to date seen for Akkermansia in any fiber or prebiotic ingredient.
This alone is why you want Solnul in the mix, and it also had a strong positive effect on bifidobacterium too.
Interestingly, in the Solnul study, they also had a group of people taking 7 grams, double the 3.5g serving, and the results weren’t much different. More is not always better with supplements, and in this case, 3.5g seems to be the ideal serving size.
To help promote the good lactobacillus bacteria, we have the inulin fiber, which is well established for increasing lactobacillus and bifidobacterium populations in the gut.
As I mentioned, the key with inulin is to not take too much at a time, because it ferments more rapidly, and higher amounts can lead to gas and other digestive discomfort.
To complement the fibers we add the support from the PreforPro prebiotic, which helps clear the gut of unwanted substances, to create room for the probiotic bacteria.
Research with PreforPro shows it has a positive effect on numerous lactobacilli and bifidobacterium organisms – including many strains commonly found in probiotic supplements, which provides extra support to that of the fiber ingredients.
To my knowledge, they have yet to test PreforPro to see how it can help increase Akkermansia, so we’ll have to wait on that, but we know Solnul has a very strong positive effect on Akkermansia.
Together, this 3-ingredient prebiotic combination meets our second criteria, which is helping to significantly increase lactobacillus, bifidobacterium, and Akkermansia microorganisms in the human gut.
Does this Translate into Health Benefits?
It’s great these prebiotics can contribute to a healthier balance of good versus bad bacteria in the gut microbiome, but does this translate into tangible health benefits?
The answer is yes for all 3 of the prebiotic ingredients in our blend.
As you might expect, the Solnul and inulin dietary fibers both have been shown to support regularity and healthy bowel movements.
What’s more interesting about Solnul is research indicates it can help both people who are either experiencing loose stools and those at the other end of the spectrum, who are struggling to poop regularly and comfortably.
Solnul seems to be able to help both groups improve their stool quality, indicating better bowel and gut function.
To assess this, researchers use a scale called the Bristol Stool Chart, which puts stool quality in one of 7 categories. Ideally (at the risk of sounding gross), you want to be a #4, where your poop looks smooth and snake like (not lumpy), and is soft but not loose.
The point is, after 28 days of taking 3.5g of Solnul, many participants who started out in either side of the scale, were able to move toward the middle, which is what you want.
(there is a lot more to Solnul – I’ll cover that in an upcoming letter)
Protection Against “Leaky Gut”
One last thing I’d like to highlight today about Solnul is another study showed it can help reduce levels of histamine and histamine secreting gut bacteria.
You may know this is important for maintaining a healthy inflammation response in the gut, but also important, it’s a signal of better gut intestinal barrier function.
If you’re familiar with the term “leaky gut”, you know that maintaining healthy gut barrier function is important.
This barrier helps protect against toxins and other unwanted substances from entering the bloodstream through the intestines – and Solnul helps support its healthy function.
This is another illustration of the gut health benefits of Solnul dietary fiber.
Even though PreforPro is relatively new to the dietary supplement scene, it too has been found to offer health benefits – and I’m confident there’s more the come.
The 15mg daily serving of PreforPro can help support stomach and gastrointestinal comfort, in part by supporting a healthy inflammation response, and supports healthy immune system function.
If you like what you’re hearing about this prebiotic blend, you can find it in our digestion super formula, which is called TrueDYB.
In addition to the powerful prebiotic blend, TrueDYB also has probiotic and postbiotic blends, two digestive health herbal superstars called Digexin and GutGard, and 6 organic greens.
TrueDYB was formulated for “All-in-One” digestive support and is easy to take daily.
Yours for Good Health,
Carl Pradelli
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