Abstract
A “prebiotic” is a nondigestible food ingredient whose beneficial effects on the host result from the selective stimulation of growth and/or activity of members of the bacterial community that inhabits the human bowel (the gut microbiota). Although much of the prebiotic literature focuses on nondigestible oligosaccharides, such as oligofructose, most dietary fibres that are fermentable carbohydrates could be considered as prebiotics. Early studies suggested that colonic bacteria were risk factors for colon cancer. However, altering the composition or metabolic activity of the bowel microbiota through the use of dietary fibre might be important in reducing the prevalence of colorectal cancer. Mechanisms for beneficial effects of prebiotics might include changing the activity of exogenous carcinogens through modulating metabolic activation and/or detoxification, or stimulating the production of the short‐chain fatty acid, butyrate. However, modern analytical techniques suggest that an important consequence of a modified bacterial community could be a change in the expression not only of a range of different bacterial genes in bowel contents, but also in the bowel mucosa of the host. Analogous with observations with probiotics, the stimulation of cytokines and modification of immune responses could be important in producing beneficial effects. Compared with transitory effects of probiotics, the prebiotic action of fermentable carbohydrates potentially provide the opportunity for sustainable modulation of activity of the gut microbiota. However, their mechanisms of action in humans are speculative, and research aimed at providing an integrated view of the gut microbiota and dietary fibre nutrition of humans needs to be developed.