Leading Foods delivering Prebiotics? | Mark's Daily Apple:
Let’s take a look at some more examples. In parentheses is the prebiotic fiber content by weight, followed by the amount of food required to obtain 6 g prebiotic fiber:
- Raw chicory root (64.6%) – 1/3 oz
- Raw Jerusalem artichoke (31.5%) – 3/4 oz
- Raw dandelion greens (24.3%) – 1 oz
- Raw garlic (17.5%) – 1.2 oz
- Raw leek (11.7%) – 1.8 oz
- Raw onion (8.6%) – 2.5 oz
- Cooked onion (5%) – 1/4 lb, or 4 oz
- Raw banana (1%) – 1.3 lb
Inulin/oligofructose content (per 100g raw)
- Chicory root – 41.6 g/22.9 g
- Jerusalem artichoke – 18 g/13.5 g
- Dandelion greens – 13.5 g/10.8 g
- Garlic – 12.5 g/5 g
- Leek – 6.5 g/5.2 g
- Asparagus – 2.5 g/2.5 g
- Banana – 0.5 g/0.5 g
Inulin content is altered by cooking, but not a lot; some of it is even converted into fructose (that’s how agave nectar is made, in fact). As Jeff Leach shows, traditional-style oven roasted chicory root (356 degrees F) lost about 10-20% of its inulin content, while cooked/fried onions lost only 10%. It’s safe to assume that cooking will preserve most of the prebiotic fiber in other foods, too.
As for getting all the other prebiotics researchers are beginning to explore through whole foods, it isn’t clear how available, say, xylooligosaccharides are in the context of a normal Primal eating plan.
From what I can see, most of the newer, more obscure prebiotic supplements are obtained by processing oats or corn or some other cheap, readily available food source. They undoubtedly occur in other veggies, too, but it probably doesn’t make financial sense to reduce several dozen tons of broccoli or asparagus when you could just as easily process a bunch of cheap grains.
Supplementation seems pretty safe all around, especially in the context of a probiotic-rich diet.
On the other hand, sticking with the Primal Blueprint Food Pyramid and eating a variety of fresh vegetables (leafy greens like kale, chard, and spinach, as well as broccoli, cauliflower, and any other vegetable that contains soluble fiber) will get you plenty of soluble, prebiotic fiber in all its forms and is definitely safe.
