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The total density of bacteria is greater in the large intestine than in the small intestine. The total weight of microbiota living within the colonic lumen is estimated to be several hundred grams and there are about 100 trillion microbes in the human intestine
Highly fermentable fibres such as oat bran, guar gum and resistant starch, when they dominate the diet, are fermented predominantly in the Proximal colon. The benefits of fermentation products might not then be observed in the distal colon. However, by combining fermentable with less fermentable fibre, the site of fermentation can be shifted around the colon so that more even exposure of all the colonic epithelium to fermentation products occurs