NutraIngredients - Gut microbiome and the role of prebiotics

In recent years, there has been tremendous interest in the importance of the intestinal microbiota, the microorganisms present in our gastrointestinal (GI) tract, in relation to health and wellbeing. Research has shown that the gut microbiome is of extreme importance for human health and that the human body benefits from the interaction with the microbiota. 

Understanding the gut microbiome and taking good care of it is essential to maintain and improve human health. The associations between a healthy gut and improved health and wellbeing are largely acknowledged by the academic community today. Prebiotics can play an important role in taking care of the microbiome, as the friendly microbes in the GI tract ferment them while growing in number. In the future, the microbiome might be used to predict how people respond to dietary interventions, which can create a wealth of opportunities for personalized nutrition. The microbiome is very complex and more research is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying the associations between the microbiome, dietary components, and human health.  

Read more about the role of prebiotics in a article our collegue Veerle Dam, Health Science & RA specialist wrote for NutraIngredients Europa.