Kelsey Marksteiner: With prebiotics and fibers, in general, in terms of their effect on microbiome health, you really do want to think about variety because variety is actually going to give you more variety of different microbiome species in the gut, which we want. We want that diversity. So while I start with GOS because it is better tolerated, I would use FOS basically equally as often if the person doesn’t necessarily have digestive complaints. It doesn’t really matter between the two. I just tend to start with GOS if somebody has problems with FODMAPs or things like that because FOS is definitely a FODMAP. It’s going to cause problems for most people with FODMAP intolerance, so I use GOS in that case, but other than that, you can really use either of them, or you can use both of them. You can alternate between them. It really doesn’t matter all that much as long as somebody is actually tolerating it. There’s no specific benefit of one over the other, necessarily. It’s more that GOS just tends to be a little bit better tolerated for those with digestive concerns. So feel free to use either of them.
Sometimes GOS … or at least the GOS supplement that I use called Galactomune from Klaire Labs through HealthWave … or now it’s called Fullscript, I guess, and I think some of you are starting to use that as your dispensary for supplements. Galactomune is often sold out or backordered or something on Fullscript, so in that case, I actually will just use FOS. And I will try FOS sometimes in someone who even does have FODMAP issues if they’re on a low-FODMAP diet because the smallish amount of prebiotic or FODMAP that they’re going to get from FOS powder, given that they’re already on a low-FODMAP diet, is not huge, and you just want to kind of split it up throughout the day as much as possible. If you do that, a lot of times even someone that’s FODMAP intolerant can tolerate FOS powder. And FOS powder is really easy to take. It tastes like cotton candy, so most people don’t have any problem taking it. You can just put it right in your mouth. You don’t have to mix it with anything. It’s not this big whole process that you have to do to take it. So for the most part, it’s really easy. You can just put it even just in a small container and bring it with you throughout your day. Just take little amounts throughout the day if that works better for the person. Usually I recommend three teaspoons over the course of the day, so one teaspoon three times a day, but if they can’t do that, if that feels like too much at one time, they can do half a teaspoon six times a day, however you want to split it up and however it works best for your patient. That’s completely fine.
So to end this question, either is fine. GOS just tends to be better tolerated by those with digestive issues. But with that said, FOS, even on its own, can be tolerated by those people as well. I just tend not to start with it unless, like I said, the GOS is backordered.