some effects partially explained via the microbiota

Mediterranean food gives many virtues to those who adopt it. Part of these benefits could be due to its action on the intestinal microbiota, especially on the elderly.

The Mediterranean diet is one of the most studied diets, if not the diet, in the scientific literature. Multiple benefits associated with it such as reduction cardiovascular events or neurodegenerative diseases. This is a fairly widely accepted and little disputed fact: the Mediterranean diet is generally "good" for health.

In question, a significant dietary diversity, fresh food, little transformed filled with compounds sometimes called "protectors" such as polyphenols where the antioxidants and of course, the high fat content, especially fatty acid oleic present in the inimitable olive oil. As often, we find it difficult to grasp all the efficient causes in the health effect of a diet. Indeed, all the interactions, which occur between our complex foods, the genetic of the individual, his intestinal flora, etc., are real puzzles for the scientific method, fond of reductionism in the elaboration of its protocols for the purpose of bias exclusions. A recent study published in the review Gut tells us a little bit more about the links between the Mediterranean diet and microbiota.

Action on the microbiota: a serious avenue

A recent randomized study, Controlled, multi-centered single blind in 612 elderly people, was conducted simultaneously in five European countries (France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands) for one year. It highlights the decline in “fragility” (the syndrome of frailty is a set of symptoms risk characterizing a deleterious state of health in the elderly), the improvement of cognitive abilities and the decrease of inflammation. These three beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet could be explained, in part, thanks to induced modifications within the intestinal microbiota.

Among the individuals in the intervention group (those following a Mediterranean diet), several markers have drastically evolved in parallel with their microbial population, unlike the control group. What is even more surprising is that these associations were more or less independent of the factors specific tohost such as age or weight status. Among these beneficial effects, the decrease in “brittleness” seems to be caused by peripheral effects of the microbial modification while, for the other advantages, the induced microbial modification would occupy a preponderant place.

Food must be more present in prevention

These results support the fact that modifying diet in order to modulate the intestinal microbiota to promote healthy aging is a more than conceivable practice. In addition, in the study, the complex analysis of the microbiota revealed a small list of taxa (conceptual entity grouping together organisms with common traits) microbial which may be the subject of further investigations. According to the authors, testing inoculation of these strains as living biotherapeutic agents for direct administration on older subjects in order to reduce the onset of frailty before a change in diet could prove relevant.

We notice again preventive potential that food has on our health. Too little exploited potential, with almost non-existent dietetic consultations in the medical course of the general population, not reimbursed by social security, negatively connoted by anachronistic preconceptionss food restriction and finally by the presence of bad apples whose objective is above all mercantile.

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