Sunday, April 06, 2008
Research
Beyond Digestive Health: Inulin Found to Increase Bone Health
BY GREG ARNOLD, DC, CSCS,
September 26, 2006,
abstracted from "Fructooligosaccharides improve bone mass
and biomechanical properties in rats" in the August 2006 issue
of Nutrition Research.
Inulin is a sugar found in plants that has been found to enhance digestive health.1 It elicits these health benefits on the digestive system by helping stimulate the growth of "good bacteria" in the digestive tract, enhance fat digestion by increasing bile release by the liver, and increase the bulk of stools.2
But new research3 has started to focus on the ability of inulin to positively affect the absorption of certain nutrients, especially calcium. As a result, a new study4 has started to suggest that inulin may now also help benefit bone health.
In the study, 16 1-month old rats were fed either an experimental diet used in previous rat studies5 but added 7.5 grams of calcium per kg of bodyweight and inulin in amounts of 5% of the food weight or placebo for three weeks. They then collected stool samples from the rats on the 4th, 10th, and 16th days of the study. Exact inulin amounts were not given.
The researchers found that while the increased inulin in the diets did not affect food intake or overall growth between the two groups, there was a "significant increase" in stool weight as well as a 44% increase in calcium and magnesium absorption in the inulin group compared to the control group. This increased calcium absorption also led a significant increase in the calcium and magnesium content of bone compared to the control group.
For the researchers, (increased inulin intake) led to a significant increase in calcium and magnesium intestinal absorption...which, in turn, increased the femur resistance to fracture. Although exact inulin amounts were not given, research cited previously1 used up to 12 grams of inulin per day.