Summary
Background. A balanced state of the intestinal microbiota is essential for the prevention of noncommunicable diseases and ensures the functions of the intestinal microbiota (stimulates the immune system, produces vitamins, lowers blood cholesterol and glucose concentrations, etc.). It is especially important for young people to consume enough dietary fibres because they are one of the groups most affected by the fast pace of life and don’t consume enough amount of dietary fibres.
Material and methods. The participants in this study consisted of 73 healthy students of Vilnius University between the ages of 20–24 years of age. All subjects modified their diet by 500 ml of butter milk-based drink consumed daily over a period of 21 days (inulin 4.3 g/day, b-glucan 4.3 g/day, pectin 4.3 g/day). Microorganisms from various dilutions of prepared faecal suspensions were in oculated into selective media. Biochemical systems (manual RapID ONE and au to mated VITEK 2 Compact), a plasma coagulase test, diagnostic antibiotic discs were used for identification of microorganisms.
Results and conclusions. After a 21-day period of diet supplementation of the drink with dietary fibres, no statistically significant differences were found in the abundance of non-patho genic microorganisms, how ever the abundance of the haemolytic Escherichiacoli (p<0.001), Staphylococcus aureus (p<0.001) and Candida spp. (p=0.007) de creased. Two subjects no longer had pathogenicintestinal bacteria which were found be fore the study.
