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Researchers Produce ‘Anti-Colon Cancer Spaghetti’

Researchers Produce ‘Anti-Colon Cancer Spaghetti’
Researchers Produce ‘Anti-Colon Cancer Spaghetti’

Iranian researchers at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences have produced a type of prebiotic spaghetti that can prevent or considerably reduce the chances of developing colorectal cancer.

“This particularly enriched type of spaghetti is rich in nutritional properties and a functional food that contains healthy additives,” said project manager Amir Amini, Mehr News Agency reported.

A functional food is a food given an additional function (often related to health-promotion or disease prevention) by adding new ingredients or more of existing ingredients. Functional foods may be designed to have physiological benefits and/or reduce the risk of chronic disease beyond basic nutritional functions, and may be similar in appearance to conventional food and consumed as part of a regular diet.

Amini noted that the majority of functional foodstuff are either probiotic or prebiotic. Probiotics are live microorganisms that are good for health, live in the lining of colon, and feed on prebiotics. Probiotics are naturally found in the body but in few numbers. The consumption of prebiotic food increases their number and has healthier impact on the body. Prebiotics reduce the amount of bad cholesterols in the body and have clinical effects for the consumer.

The increasing incidence of colorectal cancer in the past three decades in Iran has made it a major public health burden. The age for developing colorectal cancer has decreased due to poor diet. The primary role of diet is to provide sufficient nutrients to meet the nutritional requirements of an individual. There is now increasing scientific evidence to support the hypothesis that some foods and food components have beneficial physiological and psychological effects over and above the provision of the basic nutrients.

Today, nutrition science has moved from the classical concepts of avoiding nutrient deficiencies and basic nutritional adequacy to the concept of “positive” or “optimal” nutrition. Research focus has shifted more to the identification of biologically active components in foods that have the potential to optimize physical and mental well being and which may also reduce the risk of disease.

Noting that it is the first prototype of prebiotic spaghetti in the world, he said the product needs sponsors for mass production.

 

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