I went to the Trader Joe's today ...

... and found an unsweetened soy milk with additives. The additive that caught my attention was inulin. Never heard of it. So I asked at the checkout. After mentioning pre- and pro-biotics (she said its one and not the other, but I can't remember which is which) she decided on the analogy of 'fertilizer for the stomach.' Who could resist such a concept? I decided to buy it and look up 'inulin' on the web. [Update 12/3/2007 As this post is getting more than the usual readership I'll just add here that Trader Joe's is my favorite store and that we all would get better food if some of the insufferably large grocery store corporations converted their stores from pushing chemically saturated pseudo food concoctions to real food.]

From Wikipedia: Inulin

for foods

Inulin is used increasingly in foods because it has unusual nutritional characteristics. It ranges from completely bland to subtly sweet and can be used to replace sugar, fat, and flour. This is particularly advantageous because inulin contains a third to a quarter of the food energy of sugar or other carbohydrates and a sixth to a ninth of the food energy of fat. It also increases calcium absorption^[2] and possibly magnesium absorption^[3], while promoting intestinal bacteria. Nutritionally, it is considered a form of soluble fiber, and it is important to note that consuming large quantities (particularly for sensitive and/or unaccustomed individuals) can lead to gas and bloating. Inulin has a minimal impact on blood sugar, making it generally considered suitable for diabetics and potentially helpful in managing blood sugar-related illnesses.

The entire list of ingredient of this additive enhanced soy milk is as follows: Trader Joe's SOY Essential Soy Beverage

• Organic Soymilk (filtered water, whole organic soybeans)
  
• Filtered Water
• Inulin
• Calcium Carbonate
• Organic Flaxseed Oil
• Natural Flavors (ed. we get to guess what this might be)
• Sea Salt
• Carrageenan
• Vitamin A Palmitate
• Vitamin D2
• Riboflavin (B2)
• Vitamin B6
• Folic Acid
• Vitamin B12

That's all well and good. I will try this product since I keep looking for a usable unsweetened soy drink [added 12/3/07: ... that is one that doesn't need refrigeration until opened. Trader Joe's has a perfectly good unsweetened Organic soy milk in the refrigeration section].

In google-ing 'inulin' I encountered the following article which I think should raise concerns about the mind set of those who see themselves in the business of 'designing' our food.

Thoroughly Modern Milk by Cindy Hazen

And more about inulin:

Studies boost the Inulin market after the discovery of its health benefits

Seems one of the main beneficiaries of all this 'good news' about inulin will be the people who make the product who just happen to also be the people spreading all the good news and doing the studies.

One of the leading inulin makers, Orafti has been influential in building the science behind this ingredient, backing the research on inulin's interaction with calcium.

Last December the Guardian Unlimited produced a Special Report called What's Wrong with our food: Just add milk ... among other things

Fortification

Vitamins were first added to breakfast cereals in the early 1930s, first the "sunshine vitamin" D, and later fragile, heat-sensitive B vitamins, and vitamin C and iron. A new wave of fortification is coming. Inulin, known to the food industry until recently as a bulking agent, is now added as a "prebiotic", and companies are looking at adding omega-3 fatty acids such as DHA. There are technical difficulties - the long chain molecules in DHA can be damaged by high temperatures and pressure processes. Firms have worked out how to take a dairy protein and carbohydrate to form a slurry with tuna oil, which is spray dried to encapsulate DHA.

Enjoy!