The power of food to impact your health is not a new idea, but it is only with emerging research on the human gut microbiota that scientists are beginning to understand exactly how this happens. Whether you eat a strawberry or a hamburger, the food components enter your digestive system and encounter the intestinal microbes. Through a series of complex events, the microbes living in your gut influence how your body processes the food. And in turn, the food can change the microbial community living inside you. The products of these diet-microbiota interactions can profoundly change your health. ‘You are what you eat’ has never been so true!
References:
Aguirre M, et al. (2015) Diet drives quick changes in the metabolic activity and composition of human gut microbiota in a validated in vitro gut model. Research in Microbiology doi:10.1016/j.resmic.2015.09.006
Belderbos ME, et al. (2012) Breastfeeding modulates neonatal innate immune responses: a prospective birth cohort study. Pediatric Allergy Immunology DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-3038.2011.01230.x
Roberfroid M, et al. (2010) Prebiotic effects: metabolic and health benefits. British Journal of Nutrition DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007114510003363
Frei R, et al. (2015) Prebiotics, Probiotics, Synbiotics, and the Immune System. Current Opinion in Gastroenterology doi: 10.1097/MOG.0000000000000151
