Archive for category: featured

May 2017. By Prof. Seppo Salminen, Director of the Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku.

Bacteria have been part of our life and part of human nutrition since ancient times. Microbes have a variety of essential roles in fermentations and other production processes, as reviewed by Marco et al (2017). Generally, the bacteria used in fermented foods have a very long history of safe use.

Traditional probiotics, such as species of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, are deemed safe for our food supply, for providing certain nutritional support and as supportive agents for medical treatments. Pediatric and gastroenterology organizations recommend specific Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Saccharomyces probiotics for different benefits, including treatment and prevention of acute pediatric gastroenteritis, antibiotic-associated side effects and diarrhea (ESPGHAN, WGO). Currently, probiotics appear more effective in infants and children than in adults and elderly. Thus, there is a need to continue to develop new probiotic tools for nutrition and medicine especially for adults and the elderly.

New non-traditional species of bacteria being researched for their health benefits are now being proposed for use in foods. These have to be assessed for safety as novel foods or ingredients for food production. With the new regulation in Europe, it is sometimes challenging to find the road to market. In European Union, the novel food legislation has just been revised (EU 2015), applying also to the safety assessment of novel microbes. Two novel microbes have recently been approved in the EU:  Clostridium butyricum and Bacteroides xylanisolvens (the latter only in heat-treated form).  Both approvals concern only safety assessment; health claim applications may be expected later.

Clostridium butyricum has been used as a probiotic in Japan and many other countries, but in Europe, its classification as probiotic without a health claim is unlikely. This is not due to anything unique about C. butyricum, but due to the word ‘probiotic’ being considered a health claim requiring authorization. Bacteroides xylanisolvens in its heat-treated form does not fit the definition of probiotic (Hill et al 2014) as no viable bacteria are present in the product.

Taken together, opportunity exists today for the development of new microbial tools for foods, nutrition, supplements and pharmaceutical targets.  Several research paths are underway, likely resulting in new novel food applications and safety assessments. For example, Akkermansia muciniphila a normal, human colonizing microbe, has shown benefits for obesity-related metabolic effects, but so far only in mice (Gomez-Gallego et al 2016, Plovier et al 2017). Human studies are underway. Animal studies suggest that Faecalibacterium prausnizii treatment may improve hepatic health, and decrease adipose tissue inflammation in mice and these results warrant further studies to discover the therapeutic potential in humans (Munukka et al 2017). However, safety assessment is an essential part of future work for these novel probiotics and the human intervention studies are required to understand the role of novel microbes in health and disease. Thus, there are a lot of challenges for both researchers and the industry to uncover novel effective and safe microbes for future foods and drugs.

April 2017. By Chris Cifelli, PhD, VP of Nutrition Research, National Dairy Council, Rosemont, IL.

Bacteria and food. For most people, those two words never belong in the same sentence and, when they do appear together, immediately conjure thoughts of contamination, spoilage, food poisoning, and worse. It is true that unwanted microbes can ruin good food and make us sick if proper food handling procedures are not followed. But what if there were unique situations where food and bacteria did belong together? What if certain microbes could help transform milk, cabbage, cucumbers, grapes, and more into wondrously delicious and healthy foods? This idea is not that farfetched. Quite the opposite – it’s called fermentation and it’s been around for thousands of years.

Fermentation is the process of using specific microbes – for example, bacteria, yeast, and molds – to convert one food to another. Some examples? Milk can be changed into natural cheeses and yogurt. Cucumbers are transformed into pickles. Fermenting cabbage yields kimchi and sauerkraut. Grapes are converted into wine. Some of our most recognized foods are the products of fermentation. What are the benefits of these changes? First, fermentation creates new textures and flavors that increase palatability. Second, fermentation was, and in certain parts of the world continues to be, an important tool for converting a very perishable food into something that has a longer shelf-life. Finally, fermented foods are good for your overall health. For example, fermented foods:

• Represent a safe way to increase our consumption of live microbes
• Provide key nutrients as the microbes used in fermentation can make certain essential vitamins
• Can help inhibit pathogen growth in the intestine
• Can reduce the risk of developing certain chronic diseases. The most studied has been yogurt, which is associated with less weight gain and reduced risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Healthy, balanced diets should include live microbes. Adding fermented foods to your diet is an easy and delicious way to accomplish that. So – next time you think of bacteria and food together maybe you’ll think of a winning combination that can improve health!

February 2017. By Karen Scott, PhD, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Since the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, antibiotics have saved millions of lives, and have rightly been described as wonder drugs. Yet since the late 1990s we have become increasingly aware that bacterial resistance to antibiotics is threatening their very use. We can no longer be complacent that we will be able to treat outbreaks of infectious diseases using our existing antibiotic repertoire.

The indiscriminate use of antibiotics in their heyday has led to many bacteria developing resistance to survive. This creates an obvious problem in medicine, where previously treatable diseases become untreatable. The emergence of multi-drug resistant pathogens—methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and even multiple drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB)—is the result of this problem. Globalization means that no country can solve this independently; it requires a worldwide initiative. European countries were first to recognise that the widespread use of antibiotics in intensive agriculture, primarily to shorten the time for meat production, was resulting in the spread of resistant bacteria to the human population. In response, the EU banned the use of all antibiotics in farming except to actually cure disease, and certain medically important antibiotics, known as “antibiotics of last resort,” were banned completely. As early as 1969 the SWANN report suggested that the use of medically important antibiotics be restricted in agriculture and this came into practice in 1972 in many European countries. This was followed by a complete ban on the use of antimicrobials as growth promoters, first in Sweden in 1986 and subsequently Europe-wide in 2006. However, China and India have actively used antibiotics as growth promoters since the 1990s, after the European ban. Furthermore, unless procedures are put in place that offer alternatives and monitor compliance, such a ban does not work. Prebiotics are one such alternative in animal husbandry, promoting the growth and activity of the ‘good bacteria’ that are already resident in the animal gut.

Without enforcement, many farms find a way around the rules: in the Netherlands, the amount of antibiotics used did not change between 2006 and 2011, the ‘therapeutic use’ simply increased! There are still many countries around the world where there are no restrictions on the use of antibiotics and bacterial super-pathogens continue to evolve, killing people through treatment failures. Bacteria recognise no borders – travellers frequently return with more than what they intentionally packed in their luggage.

The development and overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics has created an additional problem. They indiscriminately kill not just the target pathogenic bacterium, but many other bacteria the antibiotic contacts. Pair this with our new awareness that humans are heavily colonised inside and out with diverse bacterial populations performing essential functions to keep us healthy, and the problem becomes apparent. In his book Missing Microbes, Martin Blaser posits that the diversity of our microbial symbionts is declining with each generation. The reduction is so severe that bacterial species that colonised our parents may not be around to colonise our kids. If one of those bacteria performed a unique function, that function would be lost as well. Consider Oxalobacter formigenes, a Gram-negative bacterium that resides in our gut and is capable of degrading oxalate and thus reducing deposition of calcium oxalate, the main component of kidney stones.  The prevalence of O. formigenes in a population ranges from 38% to 62%, with colonization lowest in people susceptible to kidney stones and in people with greater antibiotic exposure, indicating that the bacterium may be particularly sensitive to antibiotics. Are we dooming future generations to ever increasing rates of kidney stones if we eliminate our saviour bacterium from our gut microbiota?

While we are undergoing antibiotic therapy, bacterial diversity within the gastrointestinal tract decreases, although most bacterial species return to detectable numbers once the selective pressure is removed. However, during the time of decreased diversity our resilience to other infections decreases. One very important opportunistic pathogen, Clostridium difficile, has perfected the art of colonising the gut during the at-risk period. C. difficile produces toxins that affect the gut wall, and its infection can develop into a life threatening disease. It is important that we do as much as possible to alleviate the effect that antibiotics have on the commensal microbiota. One approach is using probiotics. There is evidence that consuming probiotics along with antibiotics can prevent C. difficile infection, possibly by creating a temporary bacterial barrier until the normal microbiota recovers. Despite difficulties in comparing scientific studies with different numbers of patients, different ages, and different probiotic strains, the general benefit is outlined in a recent review.

Overall, we need to reduce the use of antibiotics and recent evidence suggests that probiotics can also have a role here. Analysis of data gathered in 12 separate studies showed that routine consumption of probiotics can reduce the number of people developing upper respiratory tract infections (by 11%), reduce the duration of the infection, and importantly reduce the number of antibiotic prescriptions given out for these infections.

Bacteria are very resilient. Faced with extinction due to antibiotic killing, they will try everything to survive. They can acquire resistance genes from neighbouring bacteria lucky enough to contain them. They can even play dead by changing into spores: dormant, non-replicating bacterial forms that cannot be affected by antibiotics, and which can regenerate once the antibiotic pressure is removed. These strategies mean that bacterial antibiotic resistance is here to stay. In order to keep ahead of the game and make sure that antibiotics remain effective in treating infectious disease for our children through to our great-great-great grandchildren, we have to act now, saving antibiotics for situations where they are really needed. It may well be that probiotics and prebiotics will help us to do this.

September 2016.

By Prof. Robert Hutkins, PhD –

When I tell friends and family that I study gut bacteria and gut health, the most frequent question I am asked is why some foods cause intestinal gas.   The next question is almost always whether or not gas is such a bad thing.

Bloating, constipation, indigestion, and yes, intestinal gas, are among the most common health complaints among the general population.  Indeed, one of the main reasons for a person to see a gastroenterologist is due to excessive “passing of gas”.

According to the actual research, most healthy people have about 10 to 20 discharges per day.  In terms of volume, this represents about a liter of gas (about a quart’s worth).  And yes, some poor graduate student probably had to somehow measure this.

In general, intestinal gas or flatulence is only a problem in social circumstances, like business meetings, religious events, classrooms, or elevators.  Apart from the sound effects and associated aroma, gas is usually not a serious condition. At minimum it is usually only annoying or embarrassing.  When it’s more severe, however, excessive gas can have considerable impact on quality of life.  It may also be a symptom of a chronic condition, like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) or celiac disease, for which a physician should be seen.

Although there are many causes for intestinal gas, diet is certainly near the top of the list.  The notion that there are gas-generating foods has become part of our popular culture. On the American Gastroenterological Association list of such foods are milk (for lactose maldigestors only) and high-fiber grains, like whole wheat, oatmeal and oat bran.  Sweeteners like fructose and sorbitol can also be gas-producing.

Unfortunately, many of the healthy foods we are encouraged to eat, including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, and other cruciferous vegetables are known to cause gas.  Likewise for onions, leeks, garlic, figs, and prunes.  However, it’s the beans, lentils, and other legumes that are perhaps the most infamous gas-causing foods (thanks, in part, to the campfire scene in Blazing Saddles).

Ultimately, there are two main reasons for intestinal gas.  One is simply swallowed air. Some, but not all, of this air is expelled via burps.

The other source of gas, and the main reason why foods are implicated, is (micro)biological.  Specifically, the foods mentioned above (beans, bran, and broccoli) all contain carbohydrates that resist digestion in the stomach and small intestine and make their way to the colon.  Upon arrival, they become food for the trillions of bacteria that reside there.  These bacteria ferment these carbohydrates and produce gases, mainly hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane.  Some gases are absorbed, some are expelled via breathing, and some are recycled by other bacteria.  But the gas that remains – well, it’s got to go somewhere, and that somewhere is you know where.

It’s important to note that many of these gas-producing bacteria that feed on dietary fibers are often the same species that contribute to intestinal health.  That’s one reason why a little gas can be good, even smelly gases like hydrogen sulfide. It tells you the bacteria in your gut are doing their job.  Indeed, there is a new category of food ingredients called prebiotics that are now being added to yogurt, kefir, crackers, and other foods for the purpose of nourishing gut bacteria.

For people already struggling to get more whole grains, beans, vegetables, and fiber into their diet, intestinal gas can be quite unwelcome.  However, researchers have shown that patience is a virtue.  Consumers who increase their fiber consumption may experience gassiness, but they will often return to normal after a week or two. Gradual increases are often easier to manage. Finally, there is emerging evidence that some probiotic bacteria can reduce the frequency and volume of gas.

Prof. Robert Hutkins, PhD
Khem Shahani Professor of Food Science
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
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