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15th
World Congress Clinical Nutrition
19th
– 22nd September 2010 El Sokhna Resort - Egypt
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Copyright © 2010.
WCCN2010.COM
All rights reserved |
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Protective
nutrients and functional foods for
the gastrointestinal tract
Aly Ezz El-Arab
National Research Center, Depart
Food Sc& Nutrition, Giza , Egypt.
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Gastrointestinal cells (Epithelium,
Lamina propria, Smooth muscle,
others) rely on both luminal and
bloodstream sources for their
nutrition. The term functional food
was coined to describe foods or
nutrients whose ingestion leads to
important physiologic changes in the
body that are separate and distinct
from those associated with their
role as nutrients, and some of these
nutrients are proposed to promote
gastrointestinal mucosal integrity.
I discuss the recent in vitro,
animal, and clinical experiments
that evaluated the role of several
types of gastrointestinal functional
foods, including the amino acids
glutamine and arginine, the
essential micronutrients vitamin A
and zinc, and 2 classes of food
additives, prebiotics and probiotics,
which have relevance in maintaining
GI mucosal health. Many of the data
from preclinical studies support a
strong role for enteral nutrients in
gastrointestinal health; in
comparison, the data from human
studies are limited for several
reasons: impressive data from in
vitro and animal studies have not
been replicated in human trials,
some of clinical trails were plagued
by flaws in study design or analysis
and the methods available to detect
important changes in human
gastrointestinal function and
structure are still limited. This
may facilitate the development of
phase 3 clinical trials designed to
more rigorously evaluate the effects
of a particular nutrient by focusing
on valid and reliable outcome
measures. Regulatory changes in the
way in which health claims can be
made for dietary supplements should
also be encouraged
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