Live Dietary Microbes

Live dietary microbes are safe, live microorganisms.

Live dietary microbes are the safe bacteria and other microorganisms consumed through a person’s daily diet. For millennia, humans ingested a wide variety of live dietary microbes through consuming raw and unprocessed foods. Today, many foods are processed in a way that removes or kills most of these microbes.

Key sources of live microbes in the diet include raw fruits and vegetables, due to the bacteria and yeasts that are naturally present on a plant during its growth. Fermented foods are another common source of live microbes – particularly those foods which have not been heat treated, retaining the live microorganisms. Consumption of higher levels of live dietary microbes is  linked with health benefits.

 

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  • Live Dietary Microbes: A Role in Human Health
    Recent research has linked consumption of higher numbers of live dietary microbes with general health benefits — so it may be worth trying to include more of them in your daily diet.

  • A Classification System for Defining and Estimating Dietary Intake of Live Microbes in US Adults and Children
    This paper estimated dietary intake of live microorganisms in US adults and children, using cross-sectional data from NHANES dietary database. The authors assigned foods an estimated level of live microbes per gram and estimated the percentage of individuals with low, medium and high intake.

  • The Big Breakup of Lactobacillus

  • Should There Be a Recommended Daily Intake of Microbes?
    Evidence from various sources suggests beneficial effects from regular consumption of safe live microbes — also called live dietary microorganisms. In this ISAPP-led opinion article, authors propose assessment of the types and quality of the data available on microbe intake, and in particular the evaluation of evidence available from dietary databases.

  • Your guide to new probiotic names: Lactobacillus

  • Fermented foods in a global age: East meets West
    Among the variety of fermented foods produced globally, many differences exist with respect to substrates and products and the microbes involved in their creation. This review discusses such differences and considers the influence of geography and industrialization on fermented food production.

  • Fermented foods
    To create fermented foods, certain types of bacteria, yeasts and/or molds change the flavor and texture of the starting materials. Some fermented foods and beverages still contain live microorganisms when they’re consumed, but other fermented foods undergo processing steps that kill or eliminate the live microorganisms.

  • Episode 27: Investigating the benefits of live dietary microbes
    In this episode, the ISAPP podcast hosts themselves are the experts: Prof. Colin Hill PhD from APC Microbiome Ireland / University College Cork and Prof. Dan Tancredi PhD from University of California – Davis talk about their recent work investigating the health benefits from consuming higher quantities of live dietary microbes – and not just…

  • Episode 3: The science of fermented foods, part 2
    Prof. Hutkins talks about how the microbes associated with fermented foods may confer health benefits, as well as how food scientists choose strains for fermentation. He emphasizes how the live microbes in fermented foods differ from probiotics.