Miguel Freitas, PhD-Danone USA-Probiotic-Rich Foods, Human Health and the Microbiome, and the Gut-Brain Interaction
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Miguel Freitas, Ph.D., has been studying probiotics for 20 years and now serves as Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Danone USA, a company that offers multiple probiotic-rich products that primarily beneficially affect the structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract. Recently having undergone a big transformation in the US, Danone now includes plant-based products in addition to dairy products, all of which are extremely well-known, such as Silk, Activia, and Danone yogurt.
Freitas discusses what it is about yogurt that makes it a particularly good medium for beneficial bacteria, the necessary distinction between probiotics and general cultures, the different strains of beneficial bacteria and how each interact with the body differently, the involvement of the human microbiome in disease and the gut-brain interaction, and how probiotic research has evolved in recent years based on new information we've learned about the microbiome.
Tune in to hear the full conversation, and visit danonenorthamerica.com to learn more.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Almost Here, Around the Corner of Future Technology Podcasts with Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:07.0 | Future Technologies is to transform our lives for better or worse or the focus of this podcast. |
| 0:13.0 | Almost here means these technologies are now here and starting to be used. |
| 0:17.0 | Or just around the corner, for Bitcoin to artificial intelligence, |
| 0:21.0 | 3D printing, blockchain, virtual reality, and more. |
| 0:25.0 | Hello this is Richard Jacobs with the Future Tech Podcast. My guest today is Miguel Afratis. |
| 0:32.0 | He's a PhD and Vice President of Scientific Affairs of Danone. |
| 0:37.0 | We're talking to Danone USA, we're going to be talking about how they're using probiotics and their products and how this is interacting with people's |
| 0:46.1 | microbiomes. |
| 0:47.1 | So Miguel, how you doing? |
| 0:48.1 | Good, thank you Richard. |
| 0:50.1 | Thank you for the introduction and for the invitation and opportunity to be here chatting with you today. |
| 0:55.5 | Yeah, no problem. |
| 0:57.0 | Can you give just a brief description of Denon, you know, the products you have and then |
| 1:01.3 | we'll talk about the microbiome aspect of them. |
| 1:04.7 | Sure, as you know, Danone went through a big transformation recently, |
| 1:09.7 | especially in the United States after the acquisition of White Wave. |
| 1:15.0 | So we extended our product portfolio to include a plant-based product in addition to our main business, which is the dairy business. |
| 1:25.0 | So we call that essential dairy and plant-based products, |
| 1:29.0 | that's most of our portfolio in the United States, but probably you already know that the known also has other business units, specifically the water division, the baby division and medical nutrition division, which are very different from from |
| 1:52.0 | dairy and plant-based. |
| 1:53.5 | So some of our main brands on the Dairy and Plant-based portfolio |
... |
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