[Innovation in the incorporation of macronutrients to enteral nutrition formulas]

Enteral nutrition consists of the administration of chemically defined nutrients which are partially or fully metabolised in the intestinal tract, by the oral route or through a tube, to get an adequate and efficient nutritional supply. Enteral nutrition is the first option when one needs artificial nutrition, keeping parenteral nutrition only for those cases for which enteral nutrition would be insufficient or impossible. Enteral nutrition formulas are classified according to their composition with complete or uncompleted supply of nutrients, administration route, and protein content, energy density and type and content of fibre, and in second term according to general or special purposes utilization. Indeed, enteral nutrition formulas can be grouped as polymeric, oligomeric, organ-specific, therapeutic formulas, and nutrition supplements and modules. All these formulas are susceptible of improvement and innovation based mainly on the knowledge of diseases physiopathology, composition and functionality of food ingredients, which in turn contain a number of specific nutrients and bioactive compounds able to exert particular effects on the patient, and on technological treatment technology that will result in the amelioration of nutrient bioavailability. The present work reviews some of the most relevant functional ingredients used today in the innovation of enteral formulas, as well as their main physiological and biochemical effects in selected pathologies.