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Scientific minds have long identified food and digestion as two of the biggest factors that influence human health. Some 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, also known as the “father of medicine,” was said to have declared bad digestion as “the root of all evil.” Centuries later, a Russian scientist named Elie Metchnikoff discovered a link between longevity and a certain type of food that promotes good digestion.
In the early 1900s, Metchnikoff observed that rural people in Bulgaria who regularly ate fermented dairy products lived extraordinarily long lives. He later associated this benefit with a Bulgarian bacillus that may be counteracting the “putrefactive effects” of digestion. These effects, described by Metchnikoff as the production of toxins caused by bacterial putrefaction in the colon, are what he believed to be contributors to illness and aging.
But because of the huge influence of food that he observed on intestinal microbes, Metchnikoff proposed that it can also be used to replace harmful microbes with useful ones. This notion paved the way for the concept of probiotics, which are live microorganisms cultured through the fermentation of foods. These “good” microbes, when consumed in adequate amounts, have been proven to provide health benefits to the human body. In a similar way, helping these microbes increase in number in the colon also delivers certain benefits.
For instance, a recent study has found that eating foods that help good bacteria flourish in the gut may be a natural way of combating or preventing autoimmune diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, commonly develops during childhood or adolescence. Unlike Type 2 diabetes, where the body’s response to insulin is impaired, Type 1 diabetes is caused by the pancreas producing little to no insulin. Insulin is the hormone that enables the body to utilize glucose (sugar) from foods.
According to Eliana Marino, the lead author of the study, a diet that encourages the growth of gut bacteria that produce high levels of acetate or butyrate “improves the integrity of the gut lining, which reduces pro-inflammatory factors and [promotes] immune tolerance.”
“We found this had an enormous impact on the development of [Type] 1 diabetes,” said Marino.
According to Marino and her team, an imbalance in the ratio of good and bad bacteria in the gut is linked to the development of Type 1 diabetes. When they studied non-obese but diabetic (NOD) mice, they found that Type 1 diabetes had an inverse relationship with blood and fecal concentrations of acetate and butyrate. These metabolites are short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) produced by gut bacteria when fermenting soluble fibers from food.
The production of acetate and butyrate can benefit your gut in many ways. Acetate, for example, helps regulate the pH levels in your intestine and controls appetite. Acetate also protects against harmful microbes and nourishes the bacteria that produce butyrate. Butyrate, on the other hand, serves as an energy source for cells in your colon. Butyrate also has anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities and can help prevent leaky gut.
When the researchers fed NOD mice specialized diets that promote the production of acetate and/or butyrate, they found that the diet that increased the levels of both metabolites provided the mice complete protection against Type 1 diabetes. Further analysis revealed that the acetate-promoting diet decreased the amount of autoreactive immune cells in lymphoid tissues. These autoreactive cells are heavily implicated in the development of autoimmune diseases.
Meanwhile, the butyrate-promoting diet increased the number and function of regulatory T cells, which prevent autoimmune diseases. The diet that promoted both acetate and butyrate production, on the other hand, strengthened the gut lining and reduced the concentration of pro-Type 1 diabetes molecules that also trigger inflammation. These findings convinced Marino and her team that certain foods can be used to counter the immune-related defects that contribute to autoimmune diseases like Type 1 diabetes.
The researchers described the foods they fed the NOD mice as foods rich in resistant starches. Resistant starches are carbohydrates or fibers that resist digestion in the small intestine. These starches are only broken down by fermentation of gut bacteria in the colon.
Here are examples of foods that contain large amounts of resistant starch:
Take note that the amount of resistant starch in bananas decreases as the fruit ripens. When it comes to legumes, white beans and lentils contain the highest amounts of resistant starch. When eating rice, it’s best to let it cool first as cooled rice is higher in resistant starch than newly cooked rice. And because cooking reduces the amount of resistant starch in food, try to soak your oatmeal in yogurt or milk and refrigerate it overnight instead of cooking. This will help preserve the resistant starch in your oats so you can enjoy the benefits of nourishing your good gut bacteria.
Lastly, remember to drink plenty of water when eating high-fiber foods and visit Digestion.news to learn more about boosting your gut health.
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