ABSTRACT
Non-digestible oligosaccharides (NDOs, recently referred to as “resistant oligosaccharides”) are complex carbohydrates which are resistant to hydrolysis by acid and enzymes in the human digestive tract due to the configuration of their osidic bonds. Most dietary oligo-/polysaccharides are quantitatively hydrolyzed in the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract. The resulting monosaccharides are transported via the portal blood to the liver and, subsequently, to the systemic circulation. Such carbohydrates are essential for health as they serve both as substrates and regulators of major metabolic pathways. They also trigger hormone secretion. But some of the dietary oligo-/polysaccharides do resist, more or less quantitatively, the digestive process. Consequently, such carbohydrates reach the caecocolon as they have been eaten and so do not provide the body with monosaccharides (1).
