Probiotics From Food Products and Gastrointestinal Health

Human gastrointestinal (GI) tract is also known as a hidden metabolic organ. It contains more than 1500 pathogenic, opportunistic, and healthful microorganisms. Among them, probiotics regulate major biological processes in the human body and have positive therapeutic impacts on some diseases and GI disorders via a broad range of mechanisms of action. In the human life span, the gut microbiota is temporarily disrupted by changes in dietary habits, aging, over/excess antibiotic use, and diseases, leading to GI disorders and metabolic diseases. Within the last decades, foods enriched and rich in the probiotics (including milk, yogurt, kefir, beverages, cereals, snacks, chocolate, and confectionery) have gained significant attention for the prevention of GI disorders and the enhancement of consumers' health. In this chapter, we focus on probiotics from food products and share some of the recent knowledge in their impacts on the GI health. © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.