Non-Nutrients: New Lessons from an Ancient Language

Research and technological efforts over the last 50 years have explored the dietary nutritional content (e.g. requirements of the animal, availability of dietary nutrients), targeted the removal of antinutritional factors (e.g. non-starch polysaccharides, toxins), and either have depleted the gut ecosystem (antibiotics) or manipulated it (pre or probiotics). In these scenarios, the gut primarily serves as a digestive and absorptive organ; however, the gut is also the site of myriad non-nutritional physiological responses. Through diet, the animal nutritionist can communicate with the gut and control physiological responses beyond those purely nutritional to ultimately enhance productivity of the farm animal. This concept illuminates a neglected category of dietary compounds: the non-nutrients.