Key Gut Bacteria Hungry for Green Vegetables
SULFOSUGARS from green vegetables promote important gut bacteria in humans, research from Vienna has found. The team from the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, analysed how the gut microbes processed the plant-based, sulfur-containing sugar sulfoquinovose, a sulfonic acid derivative of glucose, which is found in greens such as lettuce, spinach, and algae; they discovered that a group of specialised gut bacteria co-operated in the utilisation of the sulfosugars to produce hydrogen sulfide.
