From mothers playing “airplane” with their toddlers’ food to assisted-care facilities where the meals look quite similar to toddler fare, the human body requires fuel. Through the teeth and past the gums goes whatever is seen as fit to ingest, starting the journey of digestion. First, chewing begins the mechanical breakdown as the enzyme amylase starts the chemical process. Swallowing triggers peristalsis, an involuntary muscular movement that propels food through the esophagus into the stomach. Here, it will be broken down both mechanically and chemically by the digestive juices of hydrochloric acid and enzymes into chyme. This mixture is doled out slowly into the small intestine for further enzymatic breakdown and nutrient absorption. Finally, anything left undigested passes into the large intestine, where the majority of the body’s beneficial bacteria—between 400 and 500 bacterial types on average—reside. The large intestine absorbs any excess water before the waste is expelled from the colon.
This, of course, is an ideal scenario. It is a rare individual who has never felt the pain of indigestion or heartburn associated with reflux of gastric acid; possibly less common would be one who hasn’t experienced gripes in the guts. However, the most recent estimates from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) state between 60 million and 70 million Americans are afflicted by digestive disease—everything from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to cancers of the digestive tract. The cumulative effect includes 50 million physician visits and 10 million hospitalizations annually, with a direct and indirect cost on the economy of more than $107 billion.
Some gastric conditions are amenable to the use of nutritional ingredients. IBD is a catch-all category that includes Crohn’s disease, a chronic disorder associated with inflammation of the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and ulcerative colitis, which affects only the colon. The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) estimates as many as one million Americans have IBD. Two other common digestive dysfunctions include gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), also known as acid reflux, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is characterized by abdominal bloating, irregular bowels and pain in the abdominal area.
