“There is increasing evidence that microbiota interact with much more than only our digestive ability,” Kristin Verbeke, professor of Translational Research in GastroIntestinal Disorders at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, told us after the recent European Congress on Obesity in Lyon.
While understanding of the gut microbiota was evolving rapidly, professor Verbeke said more clinical trials were needed to understand the mechanisms of different prebiotics and to, ultimately, win health claims in an EU system that has to date not viewed pre- or probiotic science very favourably.
Shane Starling attended the European Congress on Obesity at the invitation of Roquette.