Natural sugars in breast milk and some fruits and vegetables could be an effective treatment for salmonella and other food poisoning bugs, scientists will hear today. The sugars, the ingredient of a prebiotic powder supplement, Bimuno, may lower the chance of bacteria damaging the gut during a food poisoning episode. Scientists at a meeting in Edinburgh today of the Society for General Microbiologywill be told that prebiotics may be an alternative to antibiotics.The carbohydrates they contain, formed from galacto-oligosaccharides, areknown to improve gastrointestinal health in breast-fed infants.They can be found in bananas, berries, asparagus, garlic and wholegrains and areadded as a supplement to yoghurts. It is believed they work by stimulatingnatural gut bacteria to multiply, enabling them to fight off invading germs.A study by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) has shown that animalstreated with a prebiotic mixture made with the sugars had fewer gut salmonellabacteria.Prebiotics cannot be digested and remain in the gut and help to feed thebeneficial bacteria.
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