Dietary Intake Use Research Articles

Intestinal microbiota; relevance to obesity and modulation by prebiotics and probiotics.

The intestinal microbiota has several beneficial functions related to host health. Studies suggest that it may be related to the presence of metabolic diseases, including obesity. A bibliographic survey was carried out upon the relationship between the intestinal microbiota and obesity and the possible impacts of the use of prebiotics and probiotics, aiming to understand this complex and promising interaction. A search was conducted in the Lilacs, PubMed, SciElo and ScienceDirect databases, using the keywords "gut microbiota" and "obesity". We identified 613 original studies. After careful selection, 61 original articles were included in this review. The others indicated that there are differences in the microbial composition between obese and non-obese patients and the possible mechanisms involved. Alteration is caused in the energy homeostasis, in the use of dietary intake and storage of lipids due to the composition of the intestinal microbiota. Among the studies that evaluated the microbiota modulation, seven used probiotics; 24 used prebiotics, and five studies were performed using food. After dietary manipulation, the growth of bifidobacteria was obtained in 10 studies, in association with weight reduction, adipogenic effects of diet, intestinal permeability and inflammatory markers. Knowledge on the impact of the microbiota on metabolic pathways allows to conceive new factors associated with obesity and modulation by prebiotics and probiotics. In this sense, the main effect observed was the increase in bifidobacteria, usually accompanied by weight loss and enhancement of parameters related to obesity.

Use of Diet and Probiotic Therapy in the Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The goal of this report is to review the use of dietary intake and probiotics in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in published reports. Dietary factors can be important in inducing symptoms that occur in patients with the IBS. Dietary intolerances, dietary allergies, specific food metabolites, and regular diet contents all may act as triggers and aggravate the symptoms of IBS; but when any of these mechanisms can be proven to cause the symptoms, then their elimination results in the resolution of that patient's IBS. Our previous review was updated. In addition, a careful Medline search was made for the years from 1975 to 2004 to evaluate human research reports on diet and probiotics in the IBS. Forty-six manuscripts were reviewed on diet and six were available on probiotic use in IBS. The most common dietary factor evaluated in the literature was bran, and the most common probiotic used was Lactobacillus plantarum. Although investigations have shown that bran may be helpful in some patients, a complete review of the literature does not reveal conclusive evidence that diet therapy is effective in IBS. From the limited reports on probiotics, there appears to be a trend to decreasing symptoms. It is clear that much more prospective research is needed to study both dietary factors and probiotics in these areas.

Determinants of endogenous calcium entry into the gut

In addition to food sources, calcium enters the gut by way of digestive secretions and shed mucosa. In health, such entry is as large as or larger than urinary calcium excretion. Because calcium absorption is inefficient, most of this endogenous intestinal calcium is excreted. Our aim was to determine the dietary, anthropometric, and physiologic determinants of calcium entering the digestive stream from endogenous sources. Multiple regression modeling of intake and excretion data was used with 553 metabolic balance and kinetics studies performed in 190 midlife, white women. Endogenous intestinal calcium averaged 3.29 +/- 0.83 mmol/d. Multiple regression models explaining variation in this endogenous intestinal calcium were developed with use of dietary intake, anthropometric, and serum mineral variables. All 3 groups of predictor variables individually explained up to 22% of the variation in measured values for endogenous intestinal calcium. A composite model, incorporating all 3 groups explained 29% of the variation, with phosphorus and meat protein intakes, height, weight, and serum calcium and phosphorus concentrations all independently entering the model. Phosphorus intake dominated over all the other predictors, explaining 20% of the variance all by itself, with endogenous intestinal calcium rising by 0.037 mmol for every 1 mmol of phosphorus ingested. Meat protein (but not nonmeat protein) was the only other significant dietary contributor, exhibiting a negative coefficient. As a first approximation, the amount of endogenous calcium entering the digestive stream rises with body size and with the amount of phosphorus-rich food consumed.