by Anna Fregonara
The most diverse population of intestinal bacteria was found in the Yanomami. But also in Italy there are good examples, where the food is still (really) Mediterranean
They have the most diverse gut microbiota of any human community studied to date. They are the Yanomami, an indigenous population that lives in the Amazon forest. But if it is true, as they say, that the microbiota, the zoo of bacteria, viruses and fungi that lives in our bellies and works to keep us healthy, harmonized with the world in which we live, an explanation of this primacy in the lifestyle of the Yanomami. For them the rule applies if it moves you can eat and piranhas, boas, monkeys, caterpillars, larvae arrive on the table. From their vegetation they harvest, for example, plantain, one of the main ingredients of their diet. All of this suggests that eating the right locally available foods can affect the trillions of microorganisms that live in the gut. true, everyone’s microbiota is harmonized with the world in which we live and its composition and modulation depends on many factors: lifestyle, movement, drug intake, genetics, environment. Diet counts for over 50%, begins Luca Masucci, aggregate professor at the Institute of Microbiology, head of the Molecular Diagnostics and Microbiota Manipulation Operating Unit, Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome.
30 kinds of plant foods
To get an idea of how a varied plant-based diet can help diversify the microbes in the gut, just read a study that appeared in the American Society for Microbiology Journals: people who eat more than 30 types of plant-based foods a week have a more diverse gut microbiota than those who consume up to 10 types of plant-based foods a week. The Yanomami are one of the examples of how a varied and natural diet is necessary for our well-being. In Western industrialized societies, processed foods predominate, with added compounds to enhance their palatability, rich in sugars and pro-inflammatory refined carbohydrates and low in fibre, continues Masucci. Fibers are our bacteria’s favorite food. They transform them into new compounds, such as short-chain fatty acids, which, as emerges from the scientific literature, can have beneficial effects on the metabolism and the immune system and in fighting inflammation. The latter is the common feature of all chronic-degenerative diseases today: from metabolic syndrome to some tumors, from diabetes to obesity, from allergies to autoimmune disorders, from cardiovascular to neurodegenerative diseases. Rare or absent pathologies among the Yanomami who have always lived in total isolation and only in recent years have had some contact with Western civilization.
Blue zones, where life expectancy is higher
Even in Italy there is a microcosm that isolation has protected and made unique: Sardinia. Although it is in fact a “Western” region and most of the living habits and the type of diet are Western, insularity has determined over time a selection of genetic characteristics that make the Sardinian population somewhat characteristic. In particular, in Ogliastra or in the villages of Barbagia, the inhabitants have greater affinity with populations that are less or at all westernized. Sardinia, together with the island of Okinawa in Japan, Loma Linda in California, the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica and Icaria in Greece, is one of the five blue zones in the world, geographical areas in which the life expectancy of residents is considerably higher than the world average, specifies Aldo Manzin, full professor of Microbiology and Clinical Microbiology at the University of Cagliari, co-author of a study published in the journal Nutrients which shows that the intestinal microbiota in Sardinian centenarians is special. In fact, it reveals a high and consolidated complexity of microbial populations which reflects both the greater representation of several species and their relative abundance in quantitative terms: in practice, a greater qualitative and quantitative richness of the microbiota compared to that of the young and the elderly, in particular nonagenarians, which limits the development of pathogenic bacterial species and favors, in addition to intestinal eubiosis (balance), the health of the entire organism, continues Manzin.
Healthy eating and physical activity (even dancing is good for you)
Healthy eating is not enough: daily physical activity is essential, both work and playful (traditional dances); but also the value and social role of belonging to the community and within the family, life in the open air, awareness of the meaning of life, felt as a gift to be defended and preserved. These are all characteristics which belong to the Sardinian culture and which make the island a unique microcosm from an anthropological point of view.
True Mediterranean diet
In Sardinia, the food scheme of the true Mediterranean diet is in force. In some inland areas it could be defined as a Sardinian-Mediterranean diet, explains Manzin. a cuisine based on extra virgin olive oil, vegetables, fruit, whole grains, dried fruit and legumes (almonds, broad beans and chickpeas), wild fennel and wild herbs; moderate consumption of eggs, oily fish, seafood and dairy products (goat and sheep cheeses) and low intake of strictly local meat and alcohol. Foods, therefore, mainly vegetable with a small amount of animal necessary for essential amino acids. A balanced diet in terms of quantity and composition. Hence the tradition of the unique vegetable-based dish with a minimal animal component. In the morning, space for the breakfast of the Sardinian centenary: from a consolidated pastoral tradition, it includes cow’s or goat’s milk, Sardinian yoghurt (gioddu) and wholemeal bread. To sweeten no refined sugar, just honey.
July 22, 2023 (change July 22, 2023 | 08:37)
© breaking latest news