## Compositions that reduce sugar bioavailability and/or have a prebiotic effect 

## Field of the invention 

The present invention relates to compositions that reduce sugar bioavailability, lower calorific effect and/or improve prebiotic function, processes for preparation of said compositions and methods of their use. For example, the present invention relates to methods of improving intestinal probiotics and/or reducing sugar bioavailability by consuming compositions of the invention. 

## Background of the invention 

Eating a diet composed of energy dense and highly processed foods, as well as emulsifiers and artificial sweeteners, appears to compromise the barrier lining the gut. Artificial sweeteners may also change gut microflora and products formulated with these products may need to contain laxative warnings. There is rapidly expanding evidence that insufficient or poorly constituted gut microflora is a factor in some diseases. For example, diarrhoea (infectious, travellers’or antibiotic-associated diarrhoea), dysbiosis and gut health associated conditions, osteoporosis, colon cancer, cardiovascular disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, Alzheimer’s disease and various mood disorders/mental illnesses have been linked to either damaged gastro-intestinal lining or poor quality gastro-intestinal microbiome. Studies are also increasingly linking gut health to mood and mental health. 

Eating large quantities of sugar has a negative impact on the gastro-intestinal microbiome. Refined white sugar is almost completely sucrose. Following consumption sucrose passes through the stomach and into the small intestine where the enzyme sucrase hydrolyses the sucrose into glucose and fructose. The glucose and fructose then cross the lining of the small intestine. This process is relatively rapid such that the sugar has left the intestine near the beginning of the small intestine and does not travel through the small intestine and into the large intestine or the colon. This means that the sucrose in refined white sugar does not remain in the intestine long enough to provide a food source for the gastro-intestinal microbiome. It also means that essentially all of calories in white refined sugar are absorbed into the blood stream, posing a greater risk of diabetes. 

