Title: Alternative Sweeteners

Tagatose 115
anaerobic bacterial fermentation of undigested dietary components and are
readily absorbed by the colonic epithelium. Dietary fiber is the principal substrate
for the fermentation of SCFA in humans; however, intake of fiber is often low
in a typical Western diet. Other undigested components, like starch and proteins,
contribute to the production of SCFAs, as well as the low-molecular-weight oligosaccharides,
sugars, and polyols that escape digestion and absorption in the
small intestine. In the mammalian hind gut, acetate, propionate and butyrate account
for at least 83% of SCFAs produced and are present in a nearly constant
molar ratio 60:25:15 (21).
In pig studies, d-tagatose altered the composition and population of colonic
microflora as evidenced by changes in the proportion of SCFAs produced. In
vitro fermentation for 0–4 hr of colonic samples with 1% added d-tagatose from
pigs adapted to d-tagatose for 17 days showed 46 mol% of butyrate, compared
with a normal mol% of 17, resulting from in vitro fermentation for 0–4 hr of
colonic samples from pigs fed the sucrose control diet (22).
Concentrations of butyrate in the cecum and colon of pigs were increased
in a dose-response manner from ingestion of d-tagatose. Similar 12-hr in vitro
incubation of intestinal samples from slaughtered pigs also showed a doseresponse
production of butyrate from ingested d-tagatose (23) (Fig. 6).
Increased in vivo concentrations of butyrate were seen in portal vein blood
from both adapted and unadapted pigs. The appearance of butyrate in the portal
Figure 6 12-hour in vitro production of butyrate in pig gut segment slaughtered 6 hr
after feeding.