Our diet plays a fundamental role in our state of health. By influencing the balance of our intestinal microbiota, directly connected to our brain, its importance for our organism is fundamental.
The role of the intestinal microbiota for our body is essential. Depression, eczema, obesity, diabetes and many other diseases are directly caused or influenced by the imbalance of our intestinal microbiota. It is therefore essential to take care of its balance to be in good health.
The Fundamental Importance of Gut Microbiota
The intestinal microbiota is composed of a multitude of microorganisms located in the digestive tract. It has about 40,000 billion bacteria whose organization is very balanced and contributes to the proper functioning of the digestive system and the immune system. Medical treatments, prolonged stress or poor nutrition can weaken this balance and affect our ability to defend ourselves against bad bacteria.
Our intestinal flora, made up of bacteria, is connected to our brain. Thanks to cortisol, it manages to communicate with the organ that controls our body, which may explain its influence on extra-intestinal diseases. A recent study has even shown that this connection is ultra-fast and that a privileged information circuit exists between the two. There would be a connection from the intestine directly to the nervous system, allowing information to be transferred in a few tens of milliseconds.
Foods to favor
This connection between the intestine and the brain, and the influence of the microbiota on our body, reflect the importance of our diet on our state of health. Since this can modify the balance of the microbiota, it can subsequently influence the functioning of our organism. So, which foods should be favored for our microbiota? “By feeding it with prebiotics, which the good intestinal bacteria feed on,” says André Burckel, author of the book Burckel Diet for the health of the intestinal microbiota.
Concretely, this means “a varied diet rich in fiber, present in fruits and vegetables, allows the microbiota to find its ration of prebiotics”, specifies, at 20 Minutes, Harry Sokol gastroenterologist at Saint-Antoine Hospital in Paris . In addition, foods rich in animal fats should be limited because they promote the development of bacteria that are less favorable to the microbiota. Conversely, “fermented foods, such as fresh sauerkraut, lacto-fermented preserves or even kefir, a fermented drink rich in probiotics: that is to say, they directly contain micro-organisms that make it possible to restore the balance of its microbiota”, adds Harry Sokol.
Microbiota transplants to treat certain pathologies
Given the fundamental role of the microbiota on our body, researchers are now looking at how it can be used to improve our state of health. Harry Sokol, who works at the gastroenteritis and nutrition center at Saint-Antoine Hospital, is studying the possibility of microbiota transplants to treat certain pathologies.
“A study carried out on faecal transplantation in diabetic patients thus showed a very slight improvement in their pathology,” he reveals. “At this point, this means that faecal transplantation is probably not the therapeutic solution, but that a more targeted treatment on a particular type of bacteria present in the microbiota could be successfully developed in the future, and that this Therapeutic track could have multiple applications.”
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