Fermented dairy products and postbiotics

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is a complex, multifunctional system where immune, endocrine, and nerve cells affecting the body functioning are localized. There live more than 100 trillion microorganisms forming an extracorporeal organ collectively called the intestinal microbiota. It has been proven that a balanced microbial community contributes to the body safety. In this context, special attention is paid to the tactics aimed at maintaining the microbiota in an eubiotic state. The most important among them is an adequate nutrition that provides the body with wholesome nutrients. Enriched baby food products are of great interest, since the child's body is most susceptible to the positive effects of nutritional factors. The use of fermented milk products enriched with prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics (as a result of the probiotic microorganisms metabolism) in children's nutrition seems to be an extremely promising therapeutic and preventive tactics in clinical pediatrics. This article analyzes numerous aspects concerning the interaction of metabolic products and microbiota components with the immune system, as well as their effect on the body as a whole. The article also presents the results of our studies on the effect of enriched fermented milk products included in the child's nutrition on his health. KEYWORDS: microbiota, microbiome, immune system, probiotics, postbiotics, nutraceuticals. FOR CITATION: Khavkin A.I., Kovtun T.A. Fermented dairy products and postbiotics. Russian Journal of Woman and Child Health. 2023;6(4):417–424 (in Russ.). DOI: 10.32364/2618-8430-2023-6-4-15