Gut Flora, Nutrition, Immunity and Health by Roy Fuller

Some foods, as well as contributing essential nutrients to the body, also contain additional components that improve disease resistance and general health status over and above that induced by ingestion of conventional foods. The so-called functional foods, and prebiotics and probiotics exemplify the relationship that exists between nutrition, the gut (the largest element of the bodys immune system) and its flora, immunology and health.This important book contains chapters covering the basic principles of nutrition, gut microecology and immunology, as well as chapters which discuss the way in which this knowledge may be used to explain the positive and negative effects of food consumption, metabolism, probiotics and prebiotics. Food hypersensitivity and allergic reactions, carcinogenesis, and the role of nutrition in the reduced immunity of the aged are also discussed in detail.