Prebiotic Power
What are Prebiotics
These are non-digestible elements like complex sugars, dietary fibres and resistant starches in whole foods, mostly from plants and fungi (with a few exceptions), have been attracting a lot of scientific interest in recent years’ the scientific explanation is that probiotics are “selectively fermented ingredient that results in specific changes in the composition and/or a the activity of the gastrointestinal microbiota, thus conferring benefits upon host health.”
That’s because, even though our body doesn’t have the enzymes to break them down, our gut microbes do. So when you eat sourdough made with whole grains, especially our freshly milled botanical blends we mill ourselves, this part of the bread heads off to the large intestines to be broken down by our gut microbes. This is where they break it down into beneficial compounds called Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA). There are 8 kinds, but we are most interested in 3. These are called Butyrate, propionate and acetate. Butyrate, in particular, is largely oxidised at the gut epithelium where it plays a central role in orchestrating the tight junction protein complexes to control gut barrier function. This can help look after our gut lining, which is really important for a healthy digestive system.