ABSTRACT
All NDC have the potential to modulate the composition and more often the metabolic activity of the gut microbiota, which will inuence the production of bioactive molecules such as SCFA [4] and phenolic acids [5,6]. Our knowledge of the bacteria in the human gut has increased substantially over the past few years since the microbiome, the collective genome of the gut microbiota, has been elucidated and elaborated in dierent populations [7-11]. It is now known there may be well over 1000 species and many of these are not able to be grown in pure culture, at present, so they cannot be fully characterized apart from by genomic analysis, which may not fully reect their activities in the gut in response to dierent NDC. Advanced tools including metagenomics and transcriptomics, analyzed by complex bioinformatics, allow detailed comparison of the microbiome and its functional capacity in dierent disease states and contexts [12,13], and by examining the metabolomics of blood, urine, and feces, their impact on host metabolism and health can be explored. is will also allow the impact of dietary constituents such as NDC to be established [14-16]. ere have been several studies implicating the gut microbiota in the etiology of inammatory bowel disease [17,18], irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) [19], obesity [20-22], allergy [23,24], autoimmune disease, and many other potential conditions including brain disorders such as autism [25-27]. ere is still much research to be done before these relationships can be
fully established or dismissed but the possible actions and eects of NDC, the major fuels for the gut microbiota, have increased in perceived importance and research interest.
