Recently,
the term prebiotics was introduced. Certain oligosaccharides
(e.g. inulin, fructo- and galactooligosaccharides)
have the capability to be selectively
metabolized by gut bacteria resulting in improved
gastrointestinal functions.9 Up to now this concept
is not studied adequately for EN. For clinical
reasons, the classifications according to the physiological
properties would be more useful but
physiological effects are not always easy to
measure