Who benefits from vegetarianism

Intestinal microflora turned out to be the key to the effectiveness of a plant-based diet

Elizaveta Ivtushok, N+1

The effectiveness of a plant-based diet can be predicted by the presence of certain bacteria in the human intestinal microbiota. This conclusion was reached by Danish scientists who tested the effectiveness of two different diets for six months. They found out that a diet rich in fiber is suitable only for those people whose intestines are dominated by prevotella, a genus of bacteria characteristic of the human intestine, whose food contains a lot of plant products. The work was published in the International Journal of Obesity.

Changing the usual diet in favor of eating healthier foods (low-calorie foods, foods of plant origin or rich in protein) is one of the most effective ways to lose weight and prevent obesity. Choosing an individual diet, however, is very difficult: some types of nutrition are useful in terms of weight loss for some people, while other people, on the contrary, can gain weight by eating the same way. The analysis of the intestinal microbiota of rodents showed that individual differences in the level of intestinal bacteria play an important role in obtaining energy from food and, as a consequence, in the rate of weight gain. It is assumed that the human intestinal microflora can also play an important role in determining the right nutrition, but this has not yet been systematically studied.

The authors of the new work conducted a study in which 118 overweight volunteers received dietary recommendations for 26 weeks. The participants of the experiment were divided into two equal groups: the first group adhered to the "new Scandinavian diet" (Eng. New Nordic Diet), consisting mainly of plant foods and cereals with a high fiber content, and the second group was prescribed food in accordance with the standard eating habits of the Danes. The new Scandinavian diet differed from the standard Danish diet with a high fiber content (40 percent more), as well as a high protein content (2 percent) and a lower fat content (3 percent).

Stool samples were also collected from 62 participants. As the main indicator of differences in the intestinal microbiota of the participants, the scientists took the ratio of the content of two intestinal bacteria: Prevotella (Latin Prevotella spp.), whose high content is associated with the predominance of plant foods in the diet, and bacteroids, predominant in the intestine when fed mainly animal proteins.

After six months of the diet, the scientists found that the participants in the experiment, in whose intestinal microflora the ratio of prevotella to bacteroids was higher before the experiment, on average lost 3.15 kilograms more on a diet with a predominance of plant-based food (new Scandinavian) than on the standard Danish nutrition plan. Participants with a low ratio of bacteria content did not differ (p > 0.25) in the number of kilograms lost on the two diets.

Thus, the results of the study show that biological samples that speak about the state of human health are a necessary part of an individual approach to choosing their nutrition. The authors of the work are convinced that an approach to nutrition based on the individual characteristics of the human body will be more effective in losing weight and preventing obesity than popular diets, the creators of which promise results to everyone.

Scientists are often actively searching for effective ways to combat overweight and obesity, based on various individual characteristics of people. For example, scientists have recently found out that the last meal closer to the onset of the "inner" night leads to the appearance of excess weight. Also, in our note you can learn about how walnuts can be useful in preventing obesity by reducing appetite.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  13.09.2017