Lower prevalence of diarrhoea in young children fed lactic acid- fermented cereal gruels

Abstract

In vitro studies have shown a strong inhibitory effect of lactic acid-fermented weaning gruels on the proliferation of diarrhoea-causing pathogens. A prospective epidemiological study was carried out to measure the prevalance of diarrhoea in a group of young children in Tanzania who were given a lactic acid-fermented cereal gruel on a daily basis. The mean number of diarrhoea episodes over the study period was 2.1 for children eating fermented gruels, compared with 3.5 for those eating non-fermented gruels. -from Authors