oligosaccharide syrup for coffee - korean grocery mystery

[toutefrite]

Does anyone know what health purpose this product serves? I saw it at the korean store and gathered that it was meant to sweetne your coffee, but not being able to read korean, could not understand the dietary purpose for this. Does anyone out there know?

[Jeri L]

Oligosaccharides are "prebiotics"...they help promote the growth of good bacteria in the gut.

[maria lorraine]

Oligosaccharides are simply sugars. Sugars are organized into categories based on how many are linked together in a chain. Monosacccharides are the shortest, consisting of one sugar – glucose is an example of that. When two monosaccharides link together, they form a two-chain sugar called a disaccharide (for two sugars) or an oligosaccharide (2 to 9 sugars).

Humans can digest mono and disaccharides, and the 7-, 8-, and 9-chain oligosaccharides, but we have don’t have the enzymes necessary to digest the 3-, 4- and 5-chain oligosaccharides -- the sugars in beans, peas and legumes. Those oligosaccharides pass out of the intestine undigested, and enter the colon, where they are fermented by probiotic bacteria and gas is produced.

These indigestible oligosaccharides are prebiotics. All prebiotics are oligosaccharides, but not all oligosaccharaides are prebiotics. Prebiotics support the maintenance of PRObiotic bacteria.

In the last few years, prebiotic oligosaccharides have been commercially synthesized. A 5-chain oligosaccharide has been developed as an anticoagulant, and one new product made by China and Japan and possibly Korea is very sweet, about a third as sweet as sucrose. That may be what the Korean oligosaccharides syrup is, a commercial prebiotic used as a sweetener and for its promotion of probiotic bacteria.

[nemo]

Aren't they also the difficult to digest part of beans that causes gas in some folks? I'm thinking the syrup might be fairly concentrated, and you might want to proceed with caution!

[goodhealthgourmet]

nemo's right...the process of fermentation that your body uses to break down the oligosaccharides can result in some unpleasant gas issues.

[Miss Needle]

Yes, similar to inulin in sunchokes. Last year, DH and I roasted a bunch of them. I think I ate way too many sunchokes because I had terrible gas pain that night (and I've had sunchokes in the past). I never knew what gas pain was until I ODed on sunchokes. I agree -- proceed with caution!

[goodhealthgourmet]

funny, i was going to mention sunchokes! i had gotten into the habit of slicing them [raw] into my salads...it took me a while to make the connection between the chokes and the recurring gastric distress that followed my near-daily salad consumption.

i don't eat them anymore :)

[Miss Needle]

You may want to try them cooked. I think it's a bit easier to digest than raw. But I don't blame if you're hesitant to try again. I haven't had sunchokes either since that incident last year. : )

[maria lorraine]

Sunchokes, I believe, are the single most flatulence-producing food out there.

[Miss Needle]

I believe you. I kept DH up all night with the noise (it was really loud). Thank goodness it wasn't smelly! : )

[toutefrite]

Thanks for the information, and particularly, the note of caution. Definitely don't my morning cup of coffee to precipitate an unsavory attack!

[Austin]

Maybe some people believe that the best coffee should make one fart.