Considering that I am doing dissertation on biomedical science, I consider myself to be, when compared to the general public, relatively well-informed on matters having to do with -- well -- biomedical science.
This appears to not help at all in instances where I flip through the catalogs in the mail and find ones advertising all organic food stuff of some Very Healthy Name or other, proclaiming to feature both probiotics and prebiotics as part of their ingredients.
My first thought was: "What the hell is pro/prebiotic?" Probiotic, by its roots, should mean "for life". I like life. That is something I can get behind. But what is "before life?" Hot magma and UV radiation? On a pizza? I think I'll pass.
Being the good little (obsessive-compulsive) grad student that I am, I immediately went to look it up on the magical all-knowing internet. Wikipedia informed me that probiotic is a term coined to refer to microorganisms that are thought to benefit their host, so...a kind of mutualism like our lovely gut bacteria that digests fiber for us to provide some vitamins. Okay. Prebiotic, on the other hand, seem to mean indigestible components of food that stimulate those probiotics and make THEM healthier (which theoretically will also make us, their hosts, healthier). Sounds good, but this brings me up to a very puzzling discovery:
There's a particular food ad that claims to blend grain and prebiotic fibers, for nutrition and taste, which is all very well. Then it goes on to describe its ingredients as consisting of cheese, veggies, meat, and probiotics.
...so um, are they actively blending in gut microbes and such with their food ingredients? How do they decide which microbes because let me tell you, incorrect sampling and administration of the microflora our bodies carry can cause a lot of problems. (For example, since we were talking about the gut: traveler's diarrhea is a fairly mild case of something going wrong.) Further more, given that this is food that needs to be cooked, and cooking (thoroughly) kills of most of the microbes, if people are going to eat this cooked, the dead probiotics aren't going to be doing us a whole lot of good on the account of them being dead. Unless they sprinkle on probiotics with your mustard and mayo at the end ("I'd like pickles, no onions, and a dash of probiotics with that, please."), which strikes me as, well, surreal. Wholly impractical. Also, going back to point number one above, somewhat dangerous.
Am I missing something here?
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