Probiotic Foods: Benefits to the Cereal Based Sri Lankan Diet
Ceylon Journal of Science 47(2) 2018: 105-123 DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/cjs.v47i2.7506 REVIEW ARTICLE Probiotic foods: Benefits to the cereal based Sri Lankan diet Anjani M. Karunaratne Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka Received:13/10/2017; Accepted:25/12/2017 Abstract: The Sri Lankan diet of which the staple is rice, has protein and micronutrients. A well-balanced Sri Lankan unacceptable levels of antinutritional substances, particularly diet composed of rice, spicy vegetable curries and protein phytic acid, which is associated with fibre, a dietary component sources (pulses or food of animal origin) at recommended originating from plant sources of food. Low anthropometric portion sizes (FBDG, 2011), is enriched with dietary fibre indicators among preschool children suggestive of undernutrition and antioxidants and hence, has the potential of being a have remained static over several years. Some microbes that healthy meal. However, as consumed by the masses, the ferment food are known to produce phytase that metabolize diet lacks both balance and variety (Jayawardena et al., phytic acid in addition to providing other benefits. Some of these 2012) which seems to have severe repercussions on the microbes in fermented foods serve as probiotics, which help nutritional status and health. In addition to several studies maintain homeostasis within the gut microbiota, thus providing a reporting the prevalence of undernutrition among children wide range of health benefits. At present, it is a worldwide trend (as discussed later), a national nutritional survey (Jayatissa to incorporate probiotics to the daily diet in fermented foods, et al., 2012) shows the prevalence of malnutrition (both while a market for novel probiotic foods is catching on.
[Show full text]