1. What is dietary fibre (roughage)?
2. Intestinal microflora and dietary fibre
3. Inulin: dietary fibre that in addition has a positive effect on the intestinal 
   microflora
4. The vitamins contained in InuVit
5. Radical catchers: vitamins A, C and E
6. What are free radicals and what makes them so dangerous?
7. Vitamin B12 and folic acid - important supporters of vital metabolic processes
8. Effect schematic
9. Constituents
10. Recommendation for consumption

1. What is dietary fibre (roughage)?

"The poor eating their brown bread live longer and more healthily than the rich consuming delicacies every day" (Stubs, 1585)

• The term dietary fibre is applied to substances - in the main vegetable fibrous material - which cannot be utilized directly by the human body. Nevertheless these substances play a very important role in the maintenance of health. Earlier roughage was considered to be made up of constituents of food which were superfluous and unable to be used by the human organism while no more than 25 years ago these terms were not to be found in any medical textbook. In the meantime this view has had to be discarded in the face of the findings of numerous studies. The term dietary fibre covers all substances of vegetable origin which cannot be broken down by the digestive tract.
  
  At the present time the average consumption of dietary fibre is 22 g per day for women and 25 g per day for men so that the recommendation of the German Society for Nutrition of 30 g per day falls well short of being realized. One differentiates between water-insoluble (cellulose, flea-wort husks etc.) and water-soluble dietary fibre (inulin, oligofructose).
  
  Whereas water-insoluble dietary fibres act by increasing the volume of the faecal mass (swelling), the modus operandi of the water-soluble dietary fibres is significantly more complex.
  

 

2. Intestinal microflora and dietary fibre

Every day our intestine must cope with the very different substances that we consume in our food. The food must be comminuted and digested and the nutritional matter it contains absorbed into the blood. The residues that cannot be utilized must be prepared for excretion and then excreted. These processes are supported by millions of millions of the small, living helpers, which inhabit the human intestine in the form of bacteria. The collective term for all of these bacteria that are so important for man is that of the intestinal microflora.


 

3. Inulin: dietary fibre that in addition has a positive effect on the intestinal 
microflora

Inulin is one of the water-soluble dietary fibres. We find it in the roots of chicory, Jerusalem artichokes and various other plants of the leek family. Inulin cannot be utilized directly by the human body and which in addition cannot be resorbed in the thin intestine. Although it is not metabolized, inulin serves the useful lactic acid bacteria and here above all the bifid bacteria present in the thick intestine as a nutritional substrate. These bacteria are then in a better position to form the short-chain fatty acids (above all butyrate) and other important micronutrients, which fulfil the following important tasks in the organism:

1. Stimulation of the digestion
2. Nourishment of the intestinal epithelium
3. Acidification of the intestinal milieu (providing protection against dangerous putrefactive bacteria)
4. Displacement of harmful bacteria
5. Support of the naturally occurring intestinal microflora
6. Relief of the liver
7. Stimulation of the pancreas

4. The vitamins contained in InuVit

In addition to the dietary fibre, InuVit contains a mixture of a number of different vitamins that are very important for the organism in quantities matched to an increased requirement for nutrition.

The vitamins contained in InuVit make an important nutritional-physiological contribution to the support of the complete organism. Positive effects are reinforced, negative ones diminished.

5. Radical catchers: vitamins A, C and E

The vitamins contained in InuVit make an important nutritional-physiological contribution to the support of the complete organism. The vitamins A, C and E support many important functions of the body. In respect of the free radicals, however, they play a very particular function. These vitamins are radical catchers. By this is meant that, instead of the free radicals being able to react with the fat-rich membranes, these vitamins react with the free radicals and render them in this way harmless. A high level of vitamins A, C and E assists the organism in the continuous process of defence required against free radicals.

 

6. What are free radicals and what makes them so dangerous?

Every day our bodies are subjected to the most different forms of pollution from our direct and indirect environment. Thus, for example, smog can form in particular weather conditions. This makes breathing difficult and has negative effects particularly on the elderly and sick. In summer the ozone values often rise above their normal levels. Here too it is most often the elderly and sick that are affected. 

And even on holiday - really the time when our bodies should have the chance to recuperate - we are often subjected to high levels of ultraviolet radiation, whereby this can have a negative effect on the human cells. One's own bad habits such as smoking and alcohol abuse also contribute to polluting our bodies. Even through our food we take on harmful substances (heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury) which can accumulate in the body and burden our organism.

How do these harmful substances actually affect the human organism?

A term that is heard ever more frequently in this connection is that of free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive particles which react particularly readily with parts of cells (above all the fat-rich membranes of cells), thereby damaging them.

The formation of free radicals in the air is favoured by:

· Exhaust gases from cars · Smog · High ozone levels · Ultraviolet radiation · Heavy metals · Pesticides · Cigarette smoke

7. Vitamin B12 and folic acid - important supporters of metabolic processes

Vitamin B12 and folic acid augment each other in the human metabolism. Both vitamins play an important role in the supporting of important metabolic processes. In particular tissues, which must be able to renew themselves rapidly (intestinal mucous membrane, oral mucous membrane etc.), have a high requirement in respect of folic acid and vitamin B12.

Since both vitamins are important for the renewal or formation of human cells, it is can be easily understood that particularly pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers and children need an increased level of these vitamins. Breast-feeding mothers transfer a not inconsiderable part of their own stocks of vitamins to their babies in their milk. Particularly in this situation care should be taken that vitamin B12 and folic acid are taken in all the time.

 

8. Effect schematic

9. Constituents

Fruit sugar; inulin; citric acid as acidifying agent; vitamins, namely vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotin, folic acid, vitamin B12; natural orange aroma.

 

10. Recommendation for consumption

Stir the content of one sachet into a glass of water and drink at the main mealtime once a day.