Normal flora compete with pathogens for microenvironments (Singh and Kapoor 65). Microbial richness is often an indicator of health, with health adults having a vast, richness of bacterial/microbial diversity where as reduced bacterial diversity have been linked to obesity, immune-related, and inflammatory diseases. These benefits include polysaccharide digestion, immune system development, defense against infections, synthesis of vitamins, fat storage, angiogenesis regulation, and behavior development (D 'Argenio 98-101).
It would be expected that the bacteria that reside in the colon use the remainder of the food that is not digested and absorbed by an individual in the small intestine. As mentioned earlier one of the benefits of having bacteria in the gut is polysaccharide digestion, meaning that polysaccharides that are not able to be digested with the enzymes produced by a person would remain in the food until it reaches the colon and could be processed by the bacteria that reside there (D 'Argenio 98).…