Desenvolvimento de produtos alimentares enriquecidos em fibras como promotores de psicobióticos para a saúde cerebral

The important challenge to address in MoodFood is to achieve the relationship between the structure of the carbohydrates present in soluble dietary fibre and its functionality as selective promoters of a specific lass of probiotics, the psychobiotics. MoodFood addresses the question: WHICH FIBERS CAN IMPROVE MOOD? The main objectives to achieve the answer are to identify the structure of the fibres that can feed our gut in other to promote the growth of psychobiotic populations. The objectives are ambitious and are clearly beyond the state of the art, the novel concept is to develop Mood Food, this novel approach is hypothesis based. The hypothesis is established on the premise that some diets such as Mediterranean diet, promotes the mental health and ameliorate mental diseases comparing to western diets. Also, with the prevalence of distinct microbiome populations between the healthy mental and sick individuals. MoodFood HYPOTHESIS: the soluble fibres (poly- and oligo- saccharides) present in the vegetables, cereals, fruits, and pulses are enrolled in psychobiotics growth. The main objectives of MoodFood are 1) find the structural details present in the obtained soluble fibres (homogalacturonans - HG, arabinoxylans - AX, ß-glucans, galactans, arabinans, xyloglucans) that will selectivity promote the populations of psychobiotics; 2) evaluate the amounts of metabolites related with psychobiotics metabolism (butyrate, tryptophan derivatives, neurotransmitters related molecules e.g. gama-aminobutyric acid - GABA) produced during the oligosaccharide and soluble polysaccharide fermentation in a gut model; 3) test the effect of the metabolites produced during fermentation in neuronal function; 4) develop 2 functional foods (prototypes) rich in soluble fibres targeted to ameliorated cognition (soup and fruit juice) in collaboration with Sumol+Compal industry. To attain the main objectives, some specific objectives should be attained overcoming the challenge that only a small proportion of the dietary fibre present in fruits and vegetables is capable to be used by the microbiota because the majority are insoluble dietary fibre. Specific objectives related to the conversion of insoluble fibres into soluble fibres, at a laboratory scale and at a pilot scale, will be based on different strategies: 1) physical pre-treatment of the insoluble fibres for their destructuring using a disruptive extraction technology, 2) enzymatic approaches, 3) partial acid hydrolysis, and 4) combinations of the 3 proposed strategies. Find in nutrition, based on Mediterranean diet, a solution for a global scourge that is the decline in mental health of the world wield population, mostly related to the busy lives but intrinsically connected to the poor plant-base food ingestion. In this way, the project MoodFood has the OBJECTIVE to produce in an accessible form, as a commodity, a MoodJuice and a MoodSoup. The knowledge gathered in the MoodFood project will be valorised in other more complex prototypes and products.