Benefits of Prebiotics and Probiotics (Part 1)
Functional foods are those which, besides its nutritional, show that exert beneficial physiological effects in the body, thus improving the health and welfare of people and even reducing the risk of certain diseases. Prebiotics and probiotics are the two types of functional food ingredients that most well known and studied, being and acting in a different way, achieve a profit similar to “promote intestinal health.”
1. Functional foods
Functional foods are those with a healthy addition to our diet. In addition to foods that naturally contain functional ingredients, food is traditional to the food industry has added, deleted, increased or modified any of its components to contribute to improve the functionality of the organism as a whole (hence is his name).
Among the fortified functional foods that most often we are in the market include milk, yogurt, juices, cereals, eggs, margarine, bread, salt, etc. The components most often added to these products are minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, selenium), vitamins (A, D, E, C, folic acid), fiber, fatty acids ( oleic acid, omega-3, or conjugated linoleic acid CLA), antioxidants (isoflavones, carotenoids, selenium, vitamin E), phytosterols (plant sterols and stanols), phytoestrogens, prebiotics, probiotics.
Its benefits can include: improvements in growth and development in early childhood, the regulation of metabolic processes in the body, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal function, cognitive performance and improves mental and physical condition, among others.
2. What are prebiotics and probiotics?
They are the two types of functional food ingredients that most well-known and studied, being and acting differently, are able to obtain a similar benefit: “to promote intestinal health. Both are capable of improving the balance of the intestinal tract flora, favoring its proper functioning, as well as producing a beneficial effect on the immune system (protecting certain infections, both digestive and general).
They differ in nature and in its tactics. Prebiotics are indigestible food ingredients that ferment in the intestine, serving as food for beneficial bacteria (lactobacilli, bifidobacteria) and we all need in our digestive system. At the same time, hamper the growth of harmful bacteria, thus improving the intestinal flora and, ultimately, our health.
Probiotics are food ingredients consisting of living microorganisms, like those that are part of our intestinal flora, ingested in sufficient amounts through the foods that contain beneficial effects on health of people who consume them, to contribute to improve the composition of the intestinal flora.