Three Ps to great digestive health!

GCI Nutrients USA, a worldwide ingredient supplier based in Foster City (CA, USA) is proud to announce its new PlusBiotic line of ingredients that will complement the function of the probiotic and prebiotic categories.

The probiotic market has been one of the bright spots in the continued sales growth in the natural foods industry. Finished products such as yoghurts, Acidophilus, kefir and Lactobacillus have become a regular part of our diet.

All of these probiotic products are focused on providing billions of friendly bacteria to support digestion and intestinal health. To complement the probiotic market, a secondary category called prebiotics, has developed to feed the friendly bacteria. These ingredients include inulin, guar gum, vegetable fibres and fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS).

Besides these two ingredient categories, there is an entirely new category of intestinal support ingredients that has been overlooked in maintaining the health of the body's intestinal flora. Scientists are calling this third ingredient category — PlusBiotics. These ingredients are specialised nutrients targeted at supporting the rebuilding of the intestinal mucosa.

Intestinal problems originate from the foods that we eat, the medicines that we ingest and the toxins we breathe from our polluted environment. In today's diet, most of the foods that we consume are produced using genetically modified crops (GMO) and with agricultural practices which include toxic fertilisers (non-organic).

Thus, many of the end products that we eat contain many harmful chemical residues such as glyphosate that play a harmful role in the way our digestive system functions. The end result is an imbalanced microflora, which fails to absorb the vital nutrients that we need to maintain a healthy body and fight off disease. Damaged intestinal mucosa aren't capable of absorbing the nutrients that the human body needs for good health.

Recent dietary trends have shown increases in probiotic beneficial bacteria and prebiotic ingredients to help support these beneficial bacteria. Although these are positive developments, the main problem of an unhealthy intestinal mucosal system remains a problem. The digestive system needs to function effectively. The small intestine contains small finger-like projections of tissue called villi which dramatically increase the surface area of the intestine and contain specialized cells that transport nutrients into the bloodstream.

GCI's scientific team has developed a line of PlusBiotic ingredients that support the regrowth of the villi in the intestinal mucosa. The first of these PlusBiotic ingredients are protected under the PrebioSure Brand — the only clinically proven ingredient to greatly enrich epithelium enterocytes of the small intestine mucosa and enable to reconstruction of healthy uniform villi lining that is responsible for optimal absorption of macro-, micro- and trace elements.

PrebioSure is based on several years of research and development of a proprietary enzymatic extraction of biologically active compounds from non-GMO and organic food grade wheat germ, which is also gluten-free, gliadin-free, and fructon-free. Its synergistic and symbiotic effects combat harmful bacteria and nourish beneficial bacteria aiding in many metabolic processes and prevent side-effects such as flatulence, bloating, diarrhoea caused by inulin, IMO, FOS, GOS and XOS.