Are you always eating out, with lots of oil and few fruits and vegetables? If so, your intestines may be in a state of emergency preparedness as an army of bad bacteria approaches the blood vessels in the intestinal wall, ready to invade.
Fiber somehow controls the ‘safe distance’ between gut bacteria and the human gut wall
If the bacteria get too close to the surface of the intestine, they will invade directly into the body, leading to a siege by immune cells and chronic inflammation of the intestine.
Bacteria too close
The inner surface of the intestine is covered with a layer of mucus that protects the intestinal wall from being damaged by digestive juices and enzymes. In a healthy intestine, bacteria are “floating” on the surface of the mucus layer. When there is not enough fiber, the mucus secretion will become less and the bacteria will fall down with the water level. This condition has been confirmed in experimental rats.
The process of “air attack” by bacterial troops in the intestine of mice is very fast, not a month or two months, but within 3-7 days. The same thing in humans, although it is not clear how long it takes, the test results have been alarming.
Unhealthy strains of bacteria
In addition to inflammation, a second consequence of fiber deficiency is that the balance of the flora itself can go awry, reshuffling into a less healthy flora. A team led by Andrew Gewirtz, a professor at the Center for Immunity, Inflammation and Infection at Georgia State University, examined the DNA fragments of bacteria remaining in mouse feces and found that a low-fiber, high-fat diet caused the death of a large number of intestinal bacteria, which is called a “bacterial mouth collapse”.
Eating out, fast food people should be especially careful. Another team from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, conducted a similar experiment, the host, medical professor Fredrik Bäckhed, said frankly: “This diet is basically what you would eat if you went into a fast food restaurant,” a lot of oil, a lot of sugar, and a lot of animal protein. Bäckhed found that the mucus layer in the intestine continues to thin, and the diversity of bacteria in the intestine is greatly reduced, with fewer bacteria common to a healthy intestine and an increase in rare species. The report of these two teams has been published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.
Grosz pointed out that a few days after changing the food to a low-fiber diet, chronic inflammation appeared in the mice. After a few more weeks, the team observed that the mice began to show changes in their appearance or that could be seen with simple instruments, such as fat gain and spikes in blood sugar.
Buckingham used a phrase to illustrate their theory: fiber “does not” directly bring benefits to the body, the trillions of bacteria in the stomach and we divide the food is the real driver.
A diet rich in fiber can reduce the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and has even been reported to reduce the incidence of arthritis and pneumonia. Evidence shows that the effects of fiber are not limited to specific organs in the body. This effect has led to a mystery in nutritional science: “Why is fiber, which is not well digested by the intestines and cannot be absorbed by the body, so powerful that it can maintain the whole body? The study provides a possible answer.
The two teams further fed the mice a dietary fiber called inulin (alias chicory fiber) and found that if the amount of fiber was sufficient, the mucus layer of the intestine could keep the bacteria away from the safety line even if the food was greasy. The bacterial phase was also healthier, and the mice lost weight.
However, scientists have repeatedly stressed that simply adding one type of fiber to the diet is by no means a panacea, and giving mice inulin in the study only partially restored their health. This may be because we must get a variety of different fibers from fruits and vegetables, each type of fiber may feed a specific group of bacteria, the pocket to be a complete health.
According to nutritionist advice, adults are recommended to eat 25 to 35 grams a day, you can change the three main meals into mixed grains (such as brown rice, root vegetables), at least half a bowl of vegetables per meal, and then eat 2 to 3 servings of fruit every day (1 serving is about a fist big), you can eat a sufficient amount of fiber.
Recommended reading:
