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Efficiently digested whole food matrices provide the human body with assorted bioavailable nutrients some of which directly interact with the human genes after absorption. Gene-nutrient interaction generates signals, which in part trigger protein synthesis. Enzymes, which are highly bioactivity proteins, are synthesized this way.
Predigestive processes such as the germination of legumes, oilseeds and cereals, and fermentation of complex liquid food matrices like milk and edible plant extracts have for long been known to open up the protective vaults of compact nutrients' matrices. Entire downstream digestion in principle liberates most of the hitherto inaccessible nutrients protected by these vaults. Intense fermentation by microbes (probiotics) in the colon usually completes the nutrient liberation process thereby guaranteeing maximum bioavailability. Downstream disruption of the digestive and absorptive processes at certain stages which occurs as a result of metabolic inadequacies induced either by malfunctioning genes or lack of critical probiotics, cause some degree of metabolic stagnation or syndrome. Thus predigestion is of utmost importance particularly in aging people where metabolic processes progressively slow down.
Thus, health and wellness foods for certain people that exhibit some digestive adequacies outlined above could be produced by predigestion. Optimized predigestive processes generally could provide a significant means for producing dietary supplements after downstream fractionation to yield target nutraceuticals and bioactive compounds as follows:
Activated lipids
Polyphenolic antioxidants and anti-inflammatories
Bioactive peptides
Prebiotics (oligosaccharides)
Enzyme inhibitors and activators
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