Prebiotics and synbiotics: concepts and nutritional properties

The main role of diet is to provide enough nutrients to meet the requirements of a balanced diet, while giving the consumer a feeling of satisfaction and well-being. The most recent knowledge in bioscience supports the hypothesis that diet also controls and modulates various functions in the body, so as to contribute to the maintenance of a state of good health and

reduce the risk of some diseases. It is such an hypothesis which is at the origin both of the concept of “functional food” and the development of a new discipline of the 'functional food science. A” functional food” is a food which contains (in adequate proportion) one or a combination of components which functions in the body so as to have positive cellular or

physiological effects' (Roberfroid, 1996). Research and development of 'functional food' is part of the science of nutrition and the benefit associated with its intake has to be in

the context of the diet.

The strategy for research and development of a 'functional food'

requires:

(1) the demonstration of an interaction with (a) function(s) in the body;

(2) some understanding of the mechanism thereof;

(3) the establishment of the effect in relevant biological systems;

(4) the formulation of sound hypotheses;

(5) the testing of these hypotheses in human nutrition studies.

The concepts of prebiotics and synbiotics

In the context of this paper the potential 'functional foods' to be discussed are the prebiotics and the synbiotics. A prebiotic is defined as a nondigestible food ingredient that beneficially

affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon. It is a substance which modifies the composition of the colonic

microflora in such a way that a few of the potentially healthpromoting bacteria (especially lacto-bacilli and bifidobacteria) become predominant in numbers. A synbiotic is the product in

which both a probiotic and a prebiotic are combined in a single product. It is defined as a mixture of a probiotic and a prebiotic that beneficially affects the host by improving the survival and

the implantation of live microbial dietary supplements in the gastrointestinal tract, by selectively stimulating the growth and/or by activating the metabolism of one or a limited number

of health-promoting bacteria'. The prebiotics developed so far are the non-digestible oligosaccharides and especially the non digestible fructans among which chicory fructans play a major role.

СРС 15

Task 1. Write the essay: The importance of English in my future profession

Example :

Why English is important in my future career.

Frankly speaking, I don't like learning English because I have bad memory about English in third grade, high school. I did my best to get a good grade in English because I was not good at English. I lived with English almost all days. However, the result was terrible. And English has been my first weakness. In university, I meet English again as a wall that I should overcome someday. I don't know what I'm going to do to meet English score that University demands and pass the English exam like TOEIC, TEPS. Nevertheless, as an economic student, my goal is to be an global economic professional. And I want to be a seminar or forum where Global Economic is developed. To be that, English is essential part that I need. There is some reason why English is important in my career. First, English is the way that communicate many other people that come from various country. Actually, English is the only way because each people have their own languages. Second, I can’t accept a lot of information and knowledge of Economics and etc without English because almost document, book and article is written in English. In information-oriented society, Lack of Information is a handicap in career at anywhere. Third, English is important to show as many people as possible my opinion. In global seminar or forum, I will need to discuss and persuade people in other country but without English, I can’t do it. So to speak, English is a window that connect me with people in earth.