By Sadeq Dehqan & Leila Imani
Probiotic microorganisms help protect people’s health against disease-causing microbes, but industrial lifestyle has led to a decline in the reserves of them in the human body, said the head of the Society of Probiotics and Functional Food.
Maryam Tajabadi Ebrahimi told Iran Daily that the beneficial microorganisms are actually essential to maintaining good health and living a healthy life.
She said probiotics live in some parts of the human body and help promote good health and proper function in each of these areas, adding they help control various ailments, including cancer, and keep the immune system in proper balance.
Tajabadi Ebrahimi said industrial lifestyle and some other factors including stress, tobacco and fast foods destroy good microorganism in the human body.
She said microbe resistance poses as a major medical challenge for physicians worldwide, noting probiotics are the best replacement for antibiotics in the livestock.
“Antibiotics has been prohibited as growth promoter in livestock since 1997 and replaced by probiotics”, she said.
She said Russian scientists were the first groups who discovered the secret of probiotics.
“The medical tests conducted on Bulgarian people, who lead a long and healthy life, caused the scientists to find out that consuming foods which are high in lactic acid helped improve their health”, she said.
Pointing to lactic acid as the main source for probiotics she said, the above-mentioned experience caused the scientists worldwide to pay special attention to adding probiotic rich foods to the people’s diet and use the microorganism as a tool to protect the health of human, livestock, poultry and aquatics.
Tajabadi Ebrahimi said extensive researches on probiotics are being undertaken in developed countries, adding lots of probiotic rich foods are being sold in the international markets.
She said probiotics are added to various foods including meat, chicken, dairy products and even chewing gums and pastilles.
“In Iran, probiotics are used in some dairy products including yogurt and cheese,” she added.
Tajabadi Ebrahimi noted that probiotic industry is developing rapidly and various probiotic-based commercial products are being manufactured worldwide.
She said a large number of Iranian companies have recently launched activities in the field of producing probiotic foods.
Tajabadi Ebrahimi said Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI) has established 13 standards for companies willing to supply probiotic foods.
“Microbiologic laboratories perform various tests on probiotic products and present their results to ISIRI”, she reiterated.
She said a number of companies, offering probiotic products, claim that consuming such foods would help improve the function of digestive system, which has been approved.
“Others claim the products can help people gain or lose weight or prevent some types of cancer but it needs to be approved by ISIRI and other related organizations,” she concluded.