Abstract
Polydextrose (PDX) is a non-digestible oligosaccharide used widely across most sectors of the food industry. It is a randomly linked glucose oligomer containing small amounts of sorbitol and citric acid. The random bonds in PDX prevent mammalian digestive enzymes from readily hydrolyzing the molecule and it has a reported energy value of 1 kcal/g. These properties have led to the acceptance in many countries that PDX provides similar physiological effects as other dietary fibers and has shown prebiotic potential. Dietary intervention with prebiotics has been shown to selectively stimulate the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of intestinal bacteria associated with several physiological benefits on health. Therefore, the objective of this review was a survey of the literature on the effect of supplementation with PDX in health, and to list the benefits for maintaining health and/or reducing the development of diseases.
Highlights
In recent years, scientists have become aware that the human microbiota, in general, and the gut microbiota, in particular, play a major role in health and diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, among others
After 60 days, the animals who had received PDX supplementation showed apparent absorption of calcium that was significantly higher (16%) when compared to the control group, along with increased bone mineral density in the femur (7%), tibia (9%), and spine (7%) (Table 1). These data corroborated with the results obtained by Weaver [35], who observed an increase in bone calcium absorption (262%) in rats after 12 weeks of supplementation with PDX, when compared to the control group (Table 1)
Significantly suppressed the numbers of the phylum Firmicutes (12%) and significantly increased the numbers of the phylum Bacteroidetes (12%) compared with placebo group (Table 2). These data supported the results obtained by Hooda et al [20], who conducted a study with a similar experimental setup in healthy men and found that PDX supplementation (21 g/day) during 21 days produced changes in the fecal microbiota of these individuals
Summary
Scientists have become aware that the human microbiota, in general, and the gut microbiota, in particular, play a major role in health and diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, among others. The concept of prebiotics was first introduced by Gibson and Roberfroid [5] as “non-digestible food ingredients that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity. Roberfroid et al [7] updated these ideas as follows: “the selective stimulation of growth and/or activity(ies) of one or a limited number of microbial genus(era)/species in the microbiota that confer(s) health benefits to the host”. Responses to the fermentation of prebiotics are affected by individual variation in the microbiota as well as by the chemical structure of the specific carbohydrates [6] Both gas production and prebiotic properties of the carbohydrates are likely to be influenced by the monosaccharide composition (commercially used prebiotics are primarily composed of glucose, fructose, galactose, or xylose), glycosidic linkages between the monosaccharide residues, and the degree of polymerization (DP). The objective of this review was to survey the literature on the effect of dietary supplementation with PDX on health, and to list the benefits in preventing and/or reducing the risk of the development of diseases
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