Functional Foods In Children
Functional foods are foods that, regardless of their nutritional value, exert a beneficial effect on health, either improving or reducing the risk of disease. There are functional foods for children. Discover functional foods in children and what effects they have.
What functional foods are there in children?
A functional food can be:
- A natural food.
- To which a component has been added or removed by some technology or biotechnology.
- Where the nature of one or more components has been varied.
- The bioavailability of one or more of its components has been modified.
- Any combination of the above possible.
In this set of functional foods are probiotics and prebiotics; they are the most used in infant nutrition. Probiotics and prebiotics modify the intestinal flora in order to achieve beneficial effects in the child.
There is also the combination of pro and prebiotics, such as symbiotics. All of them stimulate the selective growth of a limited number of bacteria in the colon.
Probiotics
This group includes living microorganisms (bacteria and yeasts) that have a positive effect on health. They are used in foods such as yogurt, other fermented dairy derivatives, or even fermented meat products.
The most widely used microorganisms are lactic acid bacteria ( Lactobacillus, Streptococcus and Bifidobacterium ). The mechanisms by which they exercise beneficial actions are:
- Better balance of the colic microbiota and prevention of rotavirus diarrhea in the infant.
- Competition with pathogenic microorganisms for their receptors and binding sites.
- Production of cytokines (proteins capable of coordinating the response of the immune system).
- Increased secretory IgA response.
Currently, there is great interest in demonstrating a relationship between probiotics and the following actions:
- The prevention and treatment of atopic eczema.
- Treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
- The prevention of food allergy.
Yoghurt
It is an excellent way to increase the intake of calcium and other nutrients, especially in infants and children with insufficient intake of formula or milk.
Yogurt is a type of milk that is fermented, acidified and coagulated by the action of L. bulgaricus and Str. Thermophilus. The addition of Lactobacillus casei or other lactobacilli to yogurt appears to increase the faecal proportion of lactobacilli and could therefore have beneficial effects.
Infant formulas supplemented with probiotics
On the market there are different types of infant formulas that we can classify according to whether they have only prebiotics added, prebiotics plus probiotics, or probiotics exclusively.
The declaration of the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) approves the addition of probiotics to the continuation formulas, but not the starter ones, since they are different species from the child’s own intestinal flora, therefore, due to to the state of the newborn’s immune system, there can only be continuation formulas with probiotics.
Prebiotics
Another group of functional foods in children are prebiotics. Prebiotics are substances that are not digestible by humans and that, as part of food, can provide benefits by selectively stimulating the growth or activity of a group of intestinal bacteria.
Inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) come, at an industrial level, from chicory, but they are also present in wheat, onions, bananas, garlic and leeks. FOS play a role in the development of the intestinal bacterial flora. Its fermentation in the colon produces short chain fatty acids such as acetic, propionic and butyric:
- They are a source of energy for the colonocyte.
- They improve the bioavailability of calcium, magnesium, zinc and iron.
Infant formulas supplemented with prebiotics
Breast milk contains a high amount of complex galactooligosaccharides (GOS) that function as natural prebiotics, promoting the development of bifidobacteria. Therefore, there are infant formulas with prebiotics to mimic the composition of breast milk.
The formulas with FOS and GOS favor the growth of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, both in the upper part of the colon and in the lower part. Because the development of flora is unique to each child, they can be included in both start, continuation and growth formulas.
