the.com/prebiotic
Fiber that skips digestion so your gut bacteria can throw a party.
means A type of fiber or compound that passes through the upper digestive tract undigested and serves as food for beneficial bacteria in the gut.
from Built from Latin 'prae' (before) plus 'bios,' Greek for 'life' — the same 'bio' root that gave us 'biology' and 'probiotic.' The term was coined in the 1990s by scientists studying gut health, deliberately mirroring 'probiotic' (which itself joins 'pro,' for, with 'bios'): if probiotics are the living bacteria you add to your gut, prebiotics are the food you add *before* them — the appetizer that feeds the guests already living there.
- not probiotic
- feeds bacteria instead of being bacteria
- found in
- garlic, onions, oats, unripe bananas
- byproduct
- fermentation makes gas, hence the warnings
- origin era
- term coined in 1995, decades after probiotics