Probiotics and prebiotics: potential prevention and therapeutic target for nutritional management of COVID-19?

Scientists are working to identify prevention/treatment methods and clinical outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Nutritional status and diet have a major impact on the COVID-19 disease process, mainly because of the bidirectional interaction between gut microbiota and lung, that is, the gut-lung axis. Individuals with inadequate nutritional status have a pre-existing imbalance in the gut microbiota and immunity as seen in obesity, diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases. Communication between the gut microbiota and lungs or other organs and systems may trigger worse clinical outcomes in viral respiratory infections. Thus, this review addresses new insights into the use of probiotics and prebiotics as a preventive nutritional strategy in managing respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and highlighting their anti-inflammatory effects against the main signs and symptoms associated with COVID-19. Literature search was performed through PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus and Web of Science databases; relevant clinical articles were included. Significant randomised clinical trials suggest that specific probiotics and/or prebiotics reduce diarrhoea, abdominal pain, vomiting, headache, cough, sore throat, fever, and viral infection complications such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. These beneficial effects are linked with modulation of the microbiota, products of microbial metabolism with antiviral activity, and immune-regulatory properties of specific probiotics and prebiotics through Treg cell production and function. There is a need to conduct clinical and pre-clinical trials to assess the combined effect of consuming these components and undergoing current therapies for COVID-19.

Nopal beverage (Opuntia ficus-indica) as a non-traditional food: Sensory properties, expectations, experiences, and emotions of low-income and food-insecure Brazilian potential consumers.

The objective of the present study was to analyze a nopal beverage (Opuntia ficus-indica) as a non-traditional food, considering its sensory properties, expectations, experiences, and emotions of low-income and food-insecure Brazilian potential consumers. The study was carried out in two main stages. First, the sensory appeal of a nopal beverage was evaluated before and after tasting with expected and actual sensory characterization, respectively, distributed into three different groups: Control, Advantages, and Inconveniences. Secondly, a Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) was applied to learn more about expectations, experiences, and emotions involved in the food pattern of this population. The expected sensory properties for the Inconveniences group showed the lowest grades for all variables, mainly compared to the Advantages group, which showed a difference of 21.98% for nutritious, 16.47% for overall liking, and 55.13% for acceptance. However, after tasting in the Inconveniences group, the acceptance changed from "I would hardly ever eat this" to "I would frequently eat this". In a similar way, the overall liking had an increase of 25.35% from before to after tasting. The interrelationship between the socio-economic characteristics and the treatments revealed significant effects for education level, household income, and gender on the beverage acceptance. The Multiple Factor Analysis showed how socio-demographic aspects impact emotions. For the majority of participants, the attribute they are most concerned about when choosing a food is that it needs to fill them (satisfy their hunger). Therefore, this is the first study of its kind in Brazil, and the results provide good insights on factors that influence food choices of low-income and food-insecure Brazilian potential consumers.

Consumer perception and use of nopal (Opuntia ficus-indica): A cross-cultural study between Mexico and Brazil.

The objective of the present study was, in a first moment, to observe the consumers' perception, qualitatively and quantitatively, with respect to nopal through a cross-cultural study among participants from Mexico (n = 200) and Brazil (n = 200), traditional and potential consumers, respectively. And, secondly, to use a Brazilian nopal cookie to complement the perception of the Brazilians regarding the nopal, evaluating their sensory acceptance and possible commercial potential in this country through the Check All That Apply (CATA) test. The cross-cultural study using the word association task has shown that although nopal is not part of the Brazilian food culture, people are willing to accept it as food because of its functional properties. This result, coupled with the positive acceptance of Mexican nopal cookies, confirmed the primary objective of working with products made from this unfamiliar vegetable in Brazil. In this context, the use of Brazilian nopal cladodes resulted in cookies with satisfactory sensory acceptance. This acceptance was similar to the one obtained by the Mexican commercial cookies. The affective and the CATA tests constitute a potential tool to evaluate and develop innovative products made with nopal, thus increasing their commercial potential. The results obtained provide support for a better utilization of this food, mainly in the arid and semi-arid regions, where this cactus is generally abundant, considering the social and cultural context to which the nopal is inserted in each country.