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Over the last years, probiotics and prebiotics have gained scientific recognition as protective and useful agents that help regulate the micro-environment of our body. Digestive microbes are collectively known as gut flora, make up about three to five pounds of our total weight and total approximately 100 trillion. Mostly developed from milk, uncooked fruits and vegetables, these bacteria include many different types of microbes. Some of these can make us sick, but some of them are extremely valuable for our health keeping our immune system strong and intact.

The mounting awareness of the correlation between nutrition and health has led to an escalating demand for food products that promote health beyond providing basic nutrition. Probiotics and prebiotics are components contained in or added to foods, which yield high beneficial effect to our health associated to their interactions with the gastrointestinal tract (GI).

In particular:

Probiotics

The central theory of probiotics is that our body is a host to microorganisms, usually bacteria, viruses and yeasts, which are vital to our health. When administered in sufficient amounts, these microbes are valuable to the host by improving the beneficial microbial population, which is, otherwise diminished by the use of antibiotics. Known as friendly bacteria or good bacteria, probiotics are similar to the natural bacteria that our digestive system produces and travel through the digestive tract to our intestine.

Probiotics are typically concerned with the small intestine. Their typical function is to help during the digestive process by facilitating the absorption of minerals and nutrients.

This kind of bacteria is typically contained in foods such as yogurt, fermented and unfermented milk, sauerkraut and some soy beverages, but also in dietary supplements such as capsules, powders and tablets.

The beneficial bacteria are vital to our health. Based on a wide number of medical experiments and relative articles, research shows that the benefits of probiotics relate to (1) prevention or treatment of diarrhea, (2) prevention or treatment of urinary tract or female genital tract, (3) prevention or treatment of pouchitis (4) treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, (5) decrease of recurrence of bladder cancer, (6) prevention of eczema in children and (7) prevention of colic in children. In addition, probiotics have anti-carcinogenic and anti-microbial effects, contribute to the decrease of triglyceride levels

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