The symbiotic foods are fully included in the category of functional products, to which all those foods able to perform one or more beneficial actions for the organism belong and to positively influence the state of psycho-physical well-being of man.
Returning to our symbiotics, this adjective is for those foods, drugs or supplements, containing a mixture of prebiotics and probiotics. More specifically, these are products containing live and viable probiotic microorganisms capable of exerting a positive action on the intestinal microflora and promoting the consumer's well-being. At the same time, symbiotics contain ingredients that are not easily digested by humans, but which can be fermented by the probiotic bacteria present in the intestinal lumen, which stimulate growth and activity, favoring the rebalancing of the intestinal microflora.
The association of probiotics and prebiotics is probably the best integration strategy, because it improves on the one hand the survival of probiotic organisms (increases the shelf life of the product) and at the same time provides a specific substrate for the resident bacterial flora.
Foods in which probiotic microorganisms and prebiotic substrates are simultaneously present are commonly referred to as SIMBIOTICS .
Some examples:
- Bifidobacteria + fructooligosaccharides
- Lactobacilli + lactitol
- Bifidobacteria + Galactoligosaccharides
The list of potential beneficial effects of symbiotics on human health is quite long. They range from improving lactose intolerance, to increased absorption of certain minerals (calcium, iron and magnesium), through an improvement in the selectivity of the intestinal mucosa that helps to determine the additional benefits ascribed to symbiotics, such as the cholesterol-lowering effect, immunostimulant and hypotriglyceridemizing, normalizing intestinal function (motility, absorption, selectivity and secretion), protective against inflammation and infections of the intestine, therapeutic against diarrhea due to antibiotics and anticancer. These symbiotic effects lay the foundations for a whole series of other beneficial activities related to them but still awaiting confirmation. It must be said, however, that the therapeutic effects depend very much on the type of probiotic bacteria contained in the symbiotic and their concentration (clearly superior in the symbiotics sold in pharmacies - as a real therapeutic device registered as a medicinal specialty - compared to those sold as a supplement) or functional food - intended for healthy individuals, not registered, but simply notified to the Ministry of Health -).
