Psychobiotics... An attractive word suggesting an improvement in mental state through the consumption of ingredients of interest. Newcomers to the world of 'Biotics', they are not easy to identify. How can they be defined? How do they work? What are their health benefits? Psychobiotics: an emerging concept It is only in 2013 that the term "psychobiotics" appears. Its creators, clinical psychiatrist Professor Ted Dinan and neuroscientist Professor John Cryan, define it as "live organism that, when ingested in adequate amounts, produces a health benefit in patients suffering from psychiatric illness”. At that time, they were only applying the definition to a [...]

Several names can be attributed to them: parabiotics, paraprobiotics, ghost or inactivated probiotics. This is an emerging concept in the field of health nutrition. They can confer a range of health benefits to the host, just like probiotics. Definition of parabiotics Its definition is close to the probiotics one according to the WHO and the FAO. Only few modifications have been made. They are therefore "inactivated (non-viable) microbial cells which, when administered in sufficient amounts, confer benefits to consumers". Thus, parabiotics are inactivated/dead/non-viable microbial cells of probiotics, intact or broken, containing cellular components of probiotic cells upon lysis, such as teichoic [...]

We know the Probiotics, the Prebiotics, the Synbiotics… But have you ever heard of Postbiotics? Postbiotics mean “after the probiotic”. These are by-products of fermentation processes taking place in the gut. In concrete terms, these are metabolites secreted by living bacteria or released after bacterial lysis. Among them: enzymes, peptides, organic acids, polysaccharides, cell surface proteins… Postbiotics are of interest to the scientific community for their many advantages: They have an identified chemical structure Their safety can be easily assessed They can be kept for a long time They are provided with signaling molecules that can present very interesting activities for [...]

Prebiotics are non-digestible fibers from our diet. Their goal is to selectively stimulate the beneficial bacteria of our intestinal microbiota. Prebiotics are mainly short chains carbohydrates (i.e. sugars). After consumption, prebiotics cross the digestive tract without being digested until the colon. They are used as a substrate by the “good” bacteria, which ferment and turn them into short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, acetate, lactate or propionate. Inulin and fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are the most represented prebiotics in quantity in our diet. They are found in certain fruits and vegetables (bananas, endive, chicory…), and some cereals (wheat, rye…). However, there are other [...]

According to World Health Organization (WHO), probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts,