It is expected to intervene in the treatment of malnutrition, metabolic syndrome and neurological diseases
. Targeted food that changes the intestinal flora has become a new direction for the probiotic industry
Industry News
When talking about probiotics in the past, people first thought of regulating the intestinal flora. Recently, research on probiotics in the diet industry has taken a new direction.
From May 25th to 27th, the 16th International Symposium on Probiotics and Health, hosted by the Chinese Society for Food Science and Technology and undertaken by the Probiotics Branch of the Chinese Society for Food Science and Technology, was held in Suzhou. The theme of the conference was "Building a Science-Based Probiotics develop a new ecology in a healthy way".
Microflora-targeted foods for hypertension, bacterial viral infections, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and even depression, Alzheimer's disease and other diseases have become the most heard topic of this conference.
In fact, many health conditions of the human body are related to changes in the microbiome. The precise adjustment of the human microbiome to improve the health of the host has become an important direction for the precise nutrition research of probiotics in the future.
"Probiotics" was still a very unfamiliar term to the common people 16 years ago. Today, in the context of the "Healthy China" strategy, especially when the global fight against the new crown epidemic has not completely ended, the common people are more concerned about it. The topic of "immunity".
This year's conference was attended by more than 600 professional representatives from more than 80 research institutes and more than 100 companies at home and abroad. The scale of the conference was the largest ever.
In the past 16 years, through the efforts of scientific researchers and production companies, probiotics "from traditional fermented foods to diversified innovative foods". The probiotics industry is becoming one of the important driving forces for the value enhancement of the entire food industry. .
Professor Chen Wei, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chairman of the Probiotics Branch of the Chinese Society for Food Science and Technology, and President of Jiangnan University, introduced at the meeting that microflora-targeted food (MDF) refers to foods designed to change the characteristics of consumers' intestinal flora .
He mentioned that this year the "New England Journal of Medicine" published an article on microbial food research, which was mainly a randomized controlled clinical intervention for 118 malnourished children in Bangladesh.
It proves that a type of food with targeted flora can play a good role in intervention and treatment of children's malnutrition.
Researcher Wang Xin from the Institute of Food Science of Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences said that probiotics, as an ecological regulator of intestinal microbes that have the same effect as prebiotics in regulating intestinal flora, have gradually expanded to metabolic syndrome in recent years as functional research continues to deepen , Bone health, nervous system, etc., the entire industry is also increasing investment in research and development, and many companies are vying to promote the development of related products.
In addition, more and more research evidence shows that intestinal flora can affect some brain functions and behaviors, providing new potential therapeutic targets for such diseases.
Professor Zhang Heping, vice chairman of the Probiotics Branch of the Chinese Society for Food Science and Technology, and director of the Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of "Dairy Biotechnology and Engineering" of Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, shared his team's research on "Probiotics-Intestinal Microflora and Neurodegenerative Diseases" The latest developments.
He said that the relationship between probiotics-intestinal flora and the susceptibility and progression of neurodegenerative diseases is getting closer.
Relevant studies have shown that supplementing with probiotics may have the therapeutic potential to block or reverse the progression of Alzheimer's disease, but larger-scale clinical trials combined with multi-omics techniques are needed to provide stronger clinical evidence.
Professor Shao Wei, vice chairman and secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Food Science and Technology, said at the conference that probiotics have played an important role in meeting the health needs of different consumer groups such as children and the elderly.
Chief physician Wu Yongdong, deputy director of the Digestive Branch Center of Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, made a relevant report at the meeting.
He believes that the stability and diversity of the gut microbiota of the elderly are in a downward trend, and further research on gut microbes and senile diseases is needed. The discovery of intervention targets and ways is conducive to the health and longevity of the elderly.
Text/Wei Shiping