J Nut: Can daily intake of live bacteria improve physical health?

December 8, 2020 // -- From yogurt and other fermented foods to fresh fruits and vegetables, many everyday foods contain live microorganisms.
, although humans have eaten these safe and potentially beneficial bacteria in their diets for thousands of years, living microbes receive far less attention than other ingredients in the diet.
as global awareness of the importance of gut health grows, many people believe that eating live microbes can promote health, but so far experts have been unable to develop guidelines on how many microbes we should consume each day.
team of seven interdisciplinary scientists recently published an opinion piece in The Journal of Nutrition.
they explained that so far there has been little evidence of a link between living microbes and human health, highlighting specific gaps in the study and developing a plan to quantify the relationship between living microbial consumption and population health outcomes.
(Photo Source: www.pixabay.com) In this review, the authors outline why this scientific study is worth the effort.
challenges include a lack of record of microbial consumption in the population in the past.
often misreinsent dietary intake in current nutritional studies, as well as the complex biological characteristics of the digestive tract, which make the mechanisms of microbial health benefits difficult to detect.
Ellen Sanders, co-author of the paper and executive scientific officer of the International Association for Probiotics and Probiotics (ISAPP), said: "People often hear that they should continue to add 'quality microbes' to the gut microbiome.
but it is important to build scientific evidence for the idea, not just assume that it is correct.
our paper calls on scientists around the world to begin building evidence in a rigorous manner.
" this publication builds on a discussion group held at the 2019 annual meeting of ISAPP in Belgium, which aims to explore evidence that ordinary living microorganisms - not just bacterial strains with a special status as probiotics - make up an important part of the human diet.
() Source: Can we improve our health with doses of safe, live microbes on a daily basis? Source: Maria L Marco et al. Should There Be a Recommended Daily Intake of Microbes? The Journal of Nutrition (2020). DOI: 10.1093/jn/nxaa323。