Probiotic Food Consumption Research Articles

PERBANDINGAN EFEKTIVITAS DAYA HAMBAT DADIH DENGAN YOGURT TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN BAKTERI STREPTOCOCCUS MUTAN

Dadih and yoghurt are functional food products that gives health benefits because it contains probiotic bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria in probiotic foods can produce antimicrobial lsubstrates, organicacids, ethanol, hydrogenperoxide, andbacteriocins. Streptococcus mutans is a gram-positive coccibacteria that became a major factor of caries. The aim of this reseacrh is to determine the effective ness differences between dadih and yoghurt to inhibit growth of Streptococcus mutans. This research is a laboratory experimental with well agar diffusion method on blood agar as a medium to see a inhibition zone by antimicrobial activity. This research used 36 well-agar which contains 50 μl of dadih and 50 μl yoghurt respectively. Result showed that mean rank of dadih’s inhibition zone is 12,75 mean while yoghurt’s inhibition zone is 24,25. Mann-Whitney test showed that p value=0,001. There was a significant inhibition effect between dadih and yoghurt on growth of Streptococcus mutans.It concluded that dadih and yoghurt have an antimicrobial effect to inhibit growth of Streptococcus mutans. Daily consumption of probiotic foods gives benefit for oral health.

Perceived life stress and anxiety correlate with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms in runners

ABSTRACTNumerous causes of exercise-related gastrointestinal (GI) distress exist but scarce research has evaluated potential psychological causes. Runners (74 men, 76 women) prospectively recorded running duration, intensity (Rating of Perceived Exertion [RPE]), and GI symptoms for 30 days. Six GI symptoms were rated on a 0–10 scale. The percentage of runs over 30 days that participants reported at least one upper, lower, or any GI symptom ≥3 was calculated. After 30 days, participants completed a questionnaire on GI distress triggers (demographics, anthropometrics, experience, analgesic use, antibiotic use, probiotic consumption, fluid/food intake, stress, anxiety). Stress and anxiety were measured via the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). The median percentage of runs that participants experienced at least one GI symptom ≥3 was 45.6% (interquartile range [IQR], 16.6–67.3%). Age and running experience negatively correlated with GI distress occurrence (rho = −0.17 to −0.34; p < 0.05). Run RPE, probiotic food consumption, PSS scores, and BAI scores positively correlated with GI distress occurrence (rho = 0.18 to 0.36; p < 0.05). Associations between GI distress, stress and anxiety remained significant after adjustment for covariates, except for lower GI symptoms. This study suggests that stress and anxiety contribute to running-related GI distress.

Current applications of probiotic foods in Africa

Currently, there is a growing interest in the consumption of probiotic foods due to their reported health benefits. In developed countries, probiotics have been extensively studied and this has led to the production of a variety of probiotic foods especially with dairy milk. However, the use of beverages from plant materials as a potential carrier of probiotic microorganisms is receiving increasing attention. Various indigenous fermented foods containing probiotic bacteria have been part of local diet in Africa due to reported medicinal properties they possess. However, the usual challenge confronting the commercialization of the probiotic beverage drinks in Africa is the safety assessment of probiotic strains due to lack of requisite facilities as well as technical manpower. This review therefore, captures local fermented drinks that are usually consumed as probiotic foods by Africans. Key words: Probiotics, functional foods, non dairy sources, safety assessment, African applications.

Indication of proliferation of lactic acid bacteria in mixed cultures

The supply and consumption of probiotic foods, and particularly probiotic dairy products, has grown steadily in recent years. In the production of dairy products of this type other microbes must also be used in addition to the microbes which provide the probiotic effect and which generally have a proliferation optimum at 37°C. The probiotic microbes have a neutral taste in dairy products consequently the taste of fermented dairy products is supplied by other microbes. These microbes are likewise lactic acid bacteria, and their proliferation optima are either below (mesophilic) or above (thermophilic) that of the probiotic microbes. It is imperative to have an indication of whether the probiotic bacteria have multiplied at the fermentation temperature used during the technology, since they provide the beneficial physiological effect of the product. Isothermic calorimetry appeared a suitable method for the indication of this process, because the amount of heat released during lactic acid bacterial proliferation differs from the probiotic one. In order to analyze the heat flow curves a deconvolutional program was developed which decomposed them into Gaussian curves, because the proliferation of individual microbes follows a lognormal distribution. The Gaussian curve characteristic for the culture was determined, and from the area under the curve the heat liberated during the creation of one microbe was calculated.