Natren's stance on prebiotics - Duncan Crow

[Guest guest]

> Hi Duncan,

> Since I have joined the group I have been really grateful to you for

> your knowledge and information. I just have a question that came up for

> me about inulin, I was on a website researching pre and probiotics when

> I read this extremely negative article on the Natren website, NATASHA

> TRENEV'S POSITION ON PREBIOTICS AND THEIR ADDITION TO PROBIOTICS. I was

> interested about whether you had heard of this study and what you

> thought? Obviously there are always going to be conflicting opinions,

> but this one is night and day from yours. Thanks. Here's the link

> http://www.natren.com/pages/healthyliving/beware.asp

>

>

Hi ,

It's not night and day at all; you are just confused between FOS and

inulin. The topic of the Natren article is FOS, which is only a small

component of native inulin, and it has been removed from the sugar-free

inulin I sell.

If you had followed my links and read up on the topic a little you

wouldn't have had to waste my time. But I'll respond because now I've

read the article.

Natren sells probiotics. Similarly to the Primal Defense page, that I

replied to on my website, I'll point out that if they can get you to

eat their probiotic forever, it's worth lying to you for. What the

research says about probiotics is that they only work as long as you

continue to take them, unless you feed them. And at that, they don't

work very well because the amount of bacteria they give you is almost

100 pills a day too low.

What we're trying to accomplish with prebiotics is to restore NORMAL

amounts of prebiotics to the diet. This is in Australian Aborigines,

200-300 GRAMS, and in Eastern Erope, 20-30 GRAMS daily. In North

America we get about 2.6 to 3.6 grams, so we need to replace the rest

with supplements. NOT having the inulin in our diets is what got many

of us to the gut dysbiosis and candida stage in the first place.

Moving on, like Natren says FOS causes rapid fermentation by many

bacteria. However, like it says on my website on the inulin page, we're

using slower-fermenting inulin that research (and practice) says is

better tolerated. Yes, FOS can stimulate some strains of Klebsiella and

other unwanted bacteria, but then again we're not using FOS in this

group, and even native inulin is a much more specific feed that reduces

Klebsiella and increases bifidobacteria.

The research specific to longer-chain inulin not being used by

klebsiella at all anyway is also been posted on my website.

The study in which starving mice were fed a diet of inulin, used native

inulin, which also contains sugar and FOS. What's more, the bowel

culture of mice is different from that of people, so whatever was

stimulated may not be in the human digestive tract anyway.

Also, there are many neutral bacteria that use FOS and according to

Gastroenterology Journal, the link to which is on my inulin page, the

diverse culture, native to the human bowel, is desireable.

Natren goes on to mention a cancer link that just isn't there - exactly

the reverse is what comes up in the research. I note that the Natren

article produces no references at all. The references that anyone can

check out are posted to my website.

Fact remains, people who take care of their bowel flora with prebiotics

don't need probiotics at all, or at worst, a single bottle, used as a

starter, might be all that's needed. Not only that, you can use natural

sources as a starter, such as yogurt and sour cabbage. This is bad news

for probiotics companies. They will resist.

Duncan Crow