Photo Credit: CSIRO

BARLEYmax® contains more than twice the amount of insoluble and soluble fibre found in wheat or oats, as well as resistant starch, which helps promote healthy digestive bacteria.

BARLEYmax Business Manager, CSIRO’s Geoff Ball, says clinical testing by CSIRO Human Nutrition has shown that products made with BARLEYmax – such as breakfast cereals, muffins and breads – have a low Glycaemic Index and strong bowel health attributes.

“Further testing showed BARLEYmax has excellent processing properties and foods made with the new grain have a naturally sweet, slightly nutty taste,” Mr Ball says. “With large volumes to be produced soon by Austgrains, healthy foods made with BARLEYmax are likely to be on Australian breakfast tables in the near future.”

Source: CSIRO

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High-Fibre BARLEYmax® Soon to Be Available in Australia

What makes Yakult healthy? Yakult UK summarizes the health benefits of Yakult:

The good gut flora helps to neutralise some of the toxic by-products of digestion, reduce harmful substances (such as toxins and carcinogens), and discourage harmful bacteria and yeasts from setting up home within the gut. In addition, the products of its growth help the cells of the gut grow and stay healthy.

Basically, what Yakult does it to introduce good microorganisms in your gut (Lactobacillus casei Shirota strain) which can displace the harmful ones. If you’re keeping tabs on your sugar consumption, there’s also the Light version, which only contains 3.6g sugar (instead of 11.2g).

Have you tried Yakult?

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Yakult Probiotic Drink

Although I find this article to be a bit too negative on the use of antibiotics, it does explain well how probiotics can put our body microflora into balance, particularly after a long treatment regimen with antibiotics.

“It’s important to remember that the other half of the therapy is to replant the forest with the good bacteria,” Huffnagle says. And while scientists are still trying to determine exactly how the microflora in the digestive tract affect the immune system, he says, studies have shown that probiotics can be a powerful tool to help strengthen immune systems and reduce the effects of allergies.

Probiotics, found in foods like yogurt and aged cheeses, “are eventually eliminated after a couple of days,” he says. “But they straighten up the house while they’re there, making an effort to create a more normal flora and to get the ratios right by the time they’ve disappeared.”

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Probiotics May Reduce Allergies, Stengthen Immune System

• digestive disorders, including diarrhea, Crohn’s disease, and irritable bowel syndrome
• urogenital diseases, such as bacterial vaginosis, yeast infection, and urinary tract infection
• allergies and eczema

Let’s zoom in on the last one. There’s a new study published in the the Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology, supporting previous findings that the consumption of pre-and probitics does prevent the onset of atopic dermatitis (also called neurodermatitis, atopic eczema) in children.

Apparently, supplementing a pregnant women’s — and later, their newborns’– diet with probiotics/prebiotics resulted in a reduction of eczema and atopic eczema cases.

For an overview of the study and the major results, see the feature report from NutraIngredients.

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Probiotic Supplementation May Prevent Eczema

I’ll start slowly and I’ll add more as I encounter relevant sites, so you’ll soon see that list on the sidebar grow. There are hundreds (maybe thousands?) of blogs and websites on food and health and diet and nutrition. I’ll try my best to screen for trustworthy ones and those relevant to the discussion of functional foods, nutraceuticals, medifoods or healing foods.

Wanted to get listed? Do you have a blog? A website? An online resource? Drop me an email or leave a comment below. I can’t promise I’ll link to it, but I’ll definitely check it out!

(If you want to advertise your company or product, though, that’s something else. Send me an email and I’ll direct you to someone with whom you can discuss rates.)

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The Eating Fabulous Link List

And like yoghurt, kefir seems to have probiotic effects, enhancing the populations of beneficial bacteria in the gut, and inhibit the growth of potentially harmful bacteria. According to a new study on mice, milk kefir and soymilk kefir significantly increased the fecal populations of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, while it significantly decreased those of Clostridium perfringens.

Additionally, data suggest that kefir may also help prevent food allergies, by inhibiting the allergen specific antibody Immunoglobulin E (IgE), which is responsible for the release of histamine, a chemical which stimulates allergic responses, such as inflammation and constriction of airways.

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Probiotic and Anti-Allergenic Properties of Kefir

Our digestive tracts (or other parts of our body, for that matter) are full of microorganisms. Not all of them are bad and cause disease. In fact, some of them are beneficial. In contrast to antibiotics which we take to kill the disease-causing bugs, probiotics are composed of microorganisms that help promote the growth of beneficial bacteria. By competing for space and nutrients, these “good” bacteria can inhibit the growth and/or activity of the “bad” bugs. For probiotics to be able to weild their power, though, they must reach the destination (usually, the gut) alive, and in significant numbers.

Most probiotic bacteria are sold as components of dairy products (Danone, Nestle and Yakult are some of the most popular brands), although capsules and tablets containing freeze-dried probiotic bacteria are also available in the market. And though there are many microorganisms involved in the production of probiotic dairy products, those which have probiotic activity belong to the Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium genera.

There have been many health benefits attributed to probiotics, some with more scientific backing than others. Do you need to consume probiotic products? Are probiotics safe? The US Probiotics FAQ webpage has a good primer about probiotics and will answer most of these questions. For specific health benefits, we’ll tackle them one by one in the succeeding posts.

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What are Probiotics?

What is this blog gonna be about?

The star of the show are foods that does more than simply fill in an empty stomach. More than satisfying nutritional requirements, functional foods and nutraceuticals provide specific health benefits. We’ll be talking about why and how tomatoes help in reducing heart disease and some cancers. Or how probiotic yoghurt helps keep disease-causing bacteria in the gut in check. Or, hey, did you know that apple cider vinegar can help lower blood sugar? Such are the stuff this blog will be made of: Fabulous foods!

Consider this blog as a revelation of how fabulous some food are. Food that might already be in your fridge or an arm’s reach away at the grocer’s. Food that’s good for your health.

I know that for some, “healthy eating” is equated with boring, tasteless, utterly unappetizing plant-based diet. But stick around, and you’ll be surprised how sumptuous and flavorful healthy eating can be. You might even discover a justification for that bar of chocolate you keep in your drawer

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Welcome to Eating Fabulous!