Research Report—FiberWise® Drink and Bars

The article Dietary Fiber is Still in Style, published in the Mar/Apr 1999 issue of Food Insight, stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy population of bacteria in our large intestines to help prevent the accumulation of toxic and pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria. (Food Insight is a bimonthly newsletter for professionals and media on current topics in food safety and nutrition, published by the International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC) Foundation. The IFIC's purpose is to bridge the gap between science and communications by collecting and disseminating scientific information on food safety, nutrition and health and by working with an extensive roster of scientific experts and through partnerships to help translate research into understandable and useful information for opinion leaders and ultimately, consumers.)

The informative Wikipedia article on Psyllium outlines that it is usually used as a laxative, but it should be classified as true dietary fiber.

In the article, The Power of Oats, author Jill Max points out that oats have lots of flavonoids which are powerful antioxidants that help prevent heart disease and cancer. (Jill Max is a freelance medical writer. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers, Society of Environmental Journalists and the American Medical Writers Association.)

Functional Foods, an article by the International Food Information Council Foundation, lists potential benefits of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber.

Grape Seed Extract

According to the abstract Cellular protection with proanthocyanidins derived from grape seeds, results of this study demonstrate that grape seed proanthocyanidin extract (GSPE) is highly bioavailable and my serve as a potential therapeutic tool in protecting multiple target organs from structurally diverse drug- and chemical-induced toxicity.

This article concludes that both in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that grape seed extract is highly bioavailable and provides significantly greater protection against free radicals and free radical-induced lipid peroxidation and DNA damage than vitamins C, E and beta-carotene. Free radicals and grape seed proanthocyanidin extract: importance in human health and disease prevention.

According to the abstract Grape seed proanthocyanidin extract demonstrates better antioxidant activity than other free radical scavengers, the results of in vivo studies show that grape seed proanthocyanidin extract (GSPE)appears to be better at scavenging free radicals and preventing oxidative damage to brain and liver tissue than other antioxidants. GSPE demonstrated significant antioxidant activity and is useful in vivo in inhibiting oxidative damage to brain and liver tissue.

Garlic
This abstract, Antioxidant Health Effects of Aged Garlic Extract, of a study conducted by Tufts University School of Medicine, concludes that there is substantial evidence showing the ability of aged garlic extract to protect against oxidant-induced disease, acute damage from aging, radiation and chemical exposure, and long-term toxic damage.

In this study conducted by the Institute for OTC Research in Japan and published in the Journal of Nutrition, N-(1-Deoxy-D-fructos-1-yl)-L-Arginine, an Antioxidant Compound Identified in Aged Garlic Extract it was found that the major active compound responsible for antioxidant activity in aged garlic extract is Fru-Arg, with comparable antioxidant activity of ascorbic acid. Fru-Arg was not detected in either raw or heated garlic juice.

Coenzyme Q10
This CancerNet article, Coenzyme Q10, summarizes the results of a large number of studies on Coenzyme Q10. In summary, it was found that Coenzyme Q10 is made naturally by the human body, helps cells to produce energy and acts as an antioxidant. Coenzyme Q10 has also shown an ability to stimulate the immune system and to protect the heart from damage caused by certain chemotherapy drugs.

Antioxidant Vitamin E
American adults consume only about eight milligrams of Vitamin E per day, according to Maret Traber, an associate professor in the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. The amount of vitamin E that had beneficial effects in epidemiological studies, Traber said, was more than 100 milligrams per day - an amount not achievable by normal dietary means, but easy to provide by inexpensive supplements. Both clinical and epidemiological studies by numerous researchers have confirmed this as well as confirming that natural vitamin E is about twice as potent as its synthetic counterpart. This is much higher than the 15 milligrams per day RDA set by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences. This is reported in the Oregon State University article New Antioxidant Vitamin "RDAs" Better, But Not Good Enough.
(The Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine's mission is to determine the function and role of micronutrients, vitamins, and phytochemicals in promoting optimum health and preventing and treating disease, and to determine the role of oxidative and nitrative stress and antioxidants in human health and disease. Major areas of research in the Institute include heart disease, cancer, aging, neurodegenerative diseases, immune dysfunction and disease caused by exposure to toxins. Specific laboratories address antioxidants and vascular biology; vitamin E metabolism and biological activity; colon cancer and cancer chemoprevention by phytochemicals; the role of nitric oxide and oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease); and the role of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in the aging process.)

Another Better Nutrition article Experts are 'pro' prebiotics from the June, 1999 issue cites studies showing beneficial effects of prebiotics.

The role of the intestinal microflora for the development of the immune system in early childhood

Immune-stimulating and gut health-promoting properties of short-chain fructo-oligosaccharides

Gut microbial ecology in critical illness: is there a role for prebiotics, probiotics, and synbiotics?

Probiotics as modulators of the gut flora

The physiology of colonic metabolism. Possibilities for interventions with pre- and probiotics

Nondigestible oligosaccharides

Probiotics and prebiotics: can regulating the activities of intestinal bacteria benefit health?

Effects of prebiotics on mineral metabolism

Stimulation of apoptosis by two prebiotic chicory fructans in the rat colon

Pro- and prebiotics--the tasty guardian angels?

Protective role of probiotics and prebiotics in colon cancer