Galactooligosaccharide

In this episode, we're breaking down what carbohydrate intolerance actually means and why certain carbohydrates can cause symptoms like bloating, gas, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and urgency, particularly in people with IBS.

We'll talk about FODMAPs, including lactose, fructose, fructans, GOS, mannitol, and sorbitol, as well as sucrose intolerance and sucrase isomaltase deficiency.

We'll explain what these different intolerances mean, how they can affect the gut, and what managing them can actually look like in real life.

We're also going to talk about some of the common mistakes that we see.

So

like, like you said, the visceral hypersensitivity.

So this comes into play with, you know, carbohydrate intolerances and because you know, when we don't digest them up high in the small bowel, Or when we can't, because we don't have the enzymes for certain, such as like, you know, FODMAPs like GOSs, but our gut bugs do, we get the natural product of fermentation, like you said, which is, you know, gas and also short chain fatty acids.

But the gas specifically, if we have, we have a hypersensitive gut lining, like an IBS.

You know, the complex carbohydrates that serve as their fuel.

Right, things like galactooligosaccharides, or GOS, and beta-glucans.

Exactly.

When bifidobacterium longum 1714 ferments those very specific prebiotics, it produces metabolites that lower cortisol responses and actually modulate brain activity.

They have things like 2-FL added, which is one of these HMOs.

They have things like GOS and FOS, which are these types of prebiotics, which help, again, feed the healthy bacteria in the gut.

So increasingly, I suppose, there are options for feeding babies if you are not breastfeeding or if you're mixed feeding, which are potentially better for the microbiome to help support that.

And of course, the advice is always to breastfeed as much as possible if that is possible for you and if that is what you want.

So like some FODMAPs might be broken down and fermented by gut bacteria in the colon.

So they still are malabsorbed in the small intestine, but then there are some enzymes and fermentation happening with our microbes that break them down, including that GOS category, that fructan category.

But we also have some of the FODMAPs that just are not working down anywhere.

So they might be absorbed like fructose or there's excess fructose that's malabsorbed or polyols may not be absorbed.

It's also a reason why sometimes we, you our microbiome isn't in a place where it's metabolizing those FODMAPs in the way that we want it to be, or even if that metabolism is happening somewhat normally, but there's another reason why you're super sensitive to even normal processes of digestion, digestive enzymes can be a helpful tool to help manage some of those symptoms and kind of make up for what's, you know, not happening in the way that it should be.

So, you know, when we look at kind of IBS, it's generally FODMAPs that are triggering for folks.

It's often your, you know, lactose, the fructans, a lot of the GOS category.

And so enzymes you can use there are, you know, certainly the ones in FODZIME, the lactase, alpha-glactosidase, and fructanhydrolase, which would all, you know, support tolerance to those FODMAPs, but I wouldn't kind of limit it at saying, oh, I have IBS or I don't.

Another food that can cause an intolerance due to digestion are beans and legumes.

They contain fermentable carbohydrates called galacto, oligosaccharides, or GOS.

Again, gut microbes ferment some of those carbohydrates and fibers, producing gas in the process.

And for somebody who isn't accustomed to eating much gas, who suddenly eats this large serving of beans, or who has a particularly sensitive digestive system, that can mean, again, a lot of bloating, gas, cramping, or changes in their bowel movements.

So you get all these interesting effects that they're all a bit different and it is quite personal to an individual.

And then like you think of like inulin, for example, or FOS or GOS, that's really about your microbiome.

Like the body doesn't have enzymes to break those things down, right? It just doesn't.

But it depends on the bugs you have, because for some people, they're just not going to get that much fermentation from those and others will get a lot.