Heteropolysaccharides from Lactic Acid Bacteria: Current Trends and Applications

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) produce a wide variety of exopolysaccharides (EPS) and oligosaccharides that have immense food applications. EPS can be used as prebiotics. Prebiotics are food ingredientsthat cannot be digested other than by some specific bacteria and are involvedin selectively stimulating the growth of probiotics to benefit the health ofthe host. Oligosaccharides are carbohydrate polymers of monomeric residues with degrees of polymerization (DP) between 2 and 10 linked by O-glycosidic bonds they can also be the degradation product of their related EPS.

LABs have aroused interest for their ability to secrete extracellular polysaccharides which are either associated with the cell surfacein the form of capsules (Capsular exopolysaccharides) or secreted into the extracellular environment in the form of slime (Slimy exopolysaccharide).

Timing of Intake and Exercise: Creating a Public Probiotic

Human brain efficiency depends highly on lifestyle properties. Timing of food intake has been an innovative subject for recent research and practice. Large evening meals are not recommended for those seeking optimal metabolism and health in the new times. From an evolutionary perspective, human endocrinology has evolved to assimilate and metabolize glucose and other energy precursors preferably in morning and day-time when the body is prepared to work actively and metabolize intensely. However, evening isthe time when the body prepares to rest and relax towards overnight sleep, thusbeing a rather inactive metabolic phase. As such, glucose tolerance and insulin efficiency decrease as evening and night begins. This evolutionary principle leads to formulating a public nutritional program that is based on frequent small energizing meals during morning and day and very few even smaller fruity low-energy meals during evening and night.

Scheduling exercise for evening times has the capacity to improve cellular energetic and human endocrinology. This helps the body to atleast in part maintain its high efficiency in insulin function. But, such an evening exercise must not be followed by large high-starch high-fat food meals that could harm the body even more than when no evening exercise is scheduled.