The Dilemma of Prebiotics & Probiotics in the Context of nutraceuticals

the-dilemma-of-prebiotics-probiotics-in-the-context-of-nutraceuticals
Prebiotics & Probiotics in the Context of nutraceuticals

With the advent of modern probes, analytic However where there is a generation to generation gap Call methods and purely borderless science of people in understanding new foods and new concepts of both food and medicine the traditional the food which has so much microbiome which pushes wisdom of India in terms of both traditional the gut into a better population of microbes is probably al foods and ethnic foods and even Ayurveda has led us slowly dwindling in the food habits when probiotics in to a number of scientific approach and claims especially the kitchen of the house, catering establishments such when it comes to marketing a product and convincing as airlines and other public functions etc does not sup-the consumer of its safety.  

It is here that lot more gaps are ply that ingredient then obviously the regulatory will not existing in the arena of pre and probiotics and need to be make a mandate such as RDA measure as a part of having addressed in a very swift manner a minimum quantity of pre and probiotics!? Perhaps it is not possible either! 

How do we resolve this issue in terms of what is healthy prebiotics and what is healthy probiotic and how do we really look at other ingredients that can be present in it to make the prebiotic more functional and perform the effect of probiotic population purely based on science. All this has a role to play in a tropical country like India where the population of pathogens in the food can be high if contaminated and the consumer still has to safely land himself to normal life otherwise a crisis can be en-countered as a war in the alimentary canal!  

Therefore the paradigm shift and the dual thinking that need to be ad-dressed with all the traditional claims and products containing pre and probiotics have to be revisited and replat-formed for giving the advantage to countries like India, China, Japan, South East Asia, Mediterranean and Africa and Latin America where traditional foods have been used for more than 5,000 years containing prebiotics and probiotics.

The treasure of such rich information should not be minisculed into a package and say these contain possibly all pre and probiotics that are needed by everybody!! Just to be clear what I say here, we cannot isolate all the pre and probiotics from different foods and pack it into one package and say have it all in one go! It is not possible. Some of the pre and probiotics have to go with corresponding foods and some of the ingredients of the foods actually serve as prebiotics and nur-ture trillions of microbiome in the gut more than nurturing us and therefore it is the food that plays a major role in its matrix rather than what we isolate and say this is more important and this is less important? Perhaps that notion is wrong.

I think it is here science helps us and research organisations should take up problems in this area and the role of consumer in bringing in him/her the awareness of a safe food with a clear mandate of pre and probiotics from different sources of food and enlarge the gut microbiome into a very healthy microbiome and in turn push the agenda of health to the from person from within. India has that capacity of the combination of the natural raw material to push the agenda of pre and probiotics with the backdrop and platform of the nutraceuticals and have we fully explored is the question that I would like to raise?

But what is important at the end of the tunnel is how much is healthy, how should it be taken, how stable it is in the acidic environment of the stomach and how will it evolve in bio-efficiency perhaps of a Nutrient delivery to the body and to push towards better absorption, better bio-accessibility and better bioavail ability. This is very important and both industries and researchers must shape their sharp edges to address this issue and sort it out with a focus on India’s traditional foods on the one side and the dairy sector on the other side with appropriate nutraceuticals being added from time to time to make innovative products which will be both nutritious and also containing nutraceuticals with pre and probiotics to improve the general well-being.

Can we try these innovations thru NuFFooDS?

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