If you’ve been keeping up-to-date with healthy food stories then no doubt you have heard about phenolics in fruits and teas and how their antioxidant activity can protect you against free radicals. But did you know that cereals also contain phenolics sometimes at levels higher than those in fruit and tea?
The reason you probably have not is due to bioavailability. In cereals, the phenolics are bound and so are not easily used by the body. But researches from Norway and Germany have shown that fermenting the cereals with Lactobacillus, one of the bacteria responsible for turning milk to yogurt, can convert these phenolics into ones which can be used by the body.
The paper is published ahead of print on the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry website.