Broccoli is much more than a  great source of nutrients. It contains phytochemicals that help protect your gut from damage by toxic chemicals.

A recent study proved that Broccoli activates  a protective ligand called AHR. AHR protect cells in the intestinal tract from fibrosis and helps suppress inflammation.

It would be very hard to avoid in-digesting any traces of harmful chemicals so it’s good to know that eating broccoli , other cruciferous vegetables  and fruits  help protect our gastrointestinal tract from the toxins in our environment.

In contrast eating junk food provides no protection of your gastrointestinal lining, it causes inflammation,  delivers toxins into your gut and a heap of empty calories that usually end up as fat.

Source

Troy D. Hubbard, Iain A. Murray, Robert G. Nichols, Kaitlyn Cassel, Michael Podolsky, Guray Kuzu, Yuan Tian, Phillip Smith, Mary J. Kennett, Andrew D. Patterson, Gary H. Perdew, Dietary broccoli impacts microbial community structure and attenuates chemically induced colitis in mice in an Ah receptor dependent manner, In Journal of Functional Foods, Volume 37, 2017, Pages 685-698, ISSN 1756-4646, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2017.08.038.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464617305029)

Consumption of broccoli mediates numerous chemo-protective benefits through the intake of phytochemicals, some of which modulate aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) activity. Whether AHR activation is a critical aspect of the therapeutic potential of dietary broccoli is not known. Here we administered isocaloric diets, with or without supplementation of whole broccoli (15% w/w), to congenic mice expressing the high-affinity Ahr^b/b or low-affinity Ahr^d/d alleles,for 24 days and examined the effects on AHR activity, intestinal microbial community structure, inflammatory status, and response to chemically induced colitis. Cecal microbial community structure and metabolic potential were segregated according to host dietary and AHR status. Dietary broccoli associated with heightened intestinal AHR activity, decreased microbial abundance of the family Erysipelotrichaceae, and attenuation of colitis. In summary, broccoli consumption elicited an enhanced response in ligand-sensitive Ahr^b/b mice, demonstrating that in part the beneficial aspects of dietary broccoli upon intestinal health are associated with heightened AHR activity.

Diets are fads. None work as they claim to do. Diets are the  snakes oil cure for a post war problem. The consumption of high calorie high sugar processed foods that lead us to becoming overweight and the obesity epidemic.

There are so many myths about food and diets that go unquestioned we’ve forgotten to listen to our body and remember what people used to eat before processed foods were mass produced and fruit and vegetables were imported.  Today we can eat our favourite fruit all year round. Unfortunately  non-organic food is produced on such a massive scale that their nutritional value has dropped considerably since post war era.

People used to only eat what was available during the seasons. They ate whole foods and hormone and antibiotic free meat. Now we eat whatever we want when we want and without question. We put on weight, become unhappy with our body shape and decide to choose a diet. The diet usually fails.  But there is another diet that may work and that is your diet. The one that works for you. Of course all humans need certain nutrients and we know that vegetables and fruits, nuts and source of EFAs, and some meats are an important part of any diet.

We also know that too much of one type of food can be detrimental to our health. Perhaps the most important thing is eating the infamous “balanced diet” and also being aware of our needs throughout life and as the seasons change. You are usually going to better off ignoring your afternoon craving for mars bars but craving red meat or leafy greens is useful information and a  clue we are in need of nutrients from these food sources. Once you stop the junk , return to home cooking and whole foods you will crave healthy foods not empty calories that leave you feeling unsatisfied.

Ever our bacteria in our gut influences what we crave and how we metabolise food. So don’t believe the hyperbole , follow you gut instinct. Your little friends may be trying to tell you something .

Here’s a short article below that explains how the composition of our gut microbiota can determine whether we are better off on brown or white bread.

Author: Cristina Sáez posted on http://www.GutMicrobiotaforhealth.com

There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all nutrition. In 2015, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel laid the foundation for this statement with an article that proved that each of us metabolises food differently due, in part, to gut microbiota.

Researcher Niv Zmora explained to Gut Microbiota for Health the main results of that study during the GMFH World Summit held in Paris in March 2017.

Now, this same team has focused on bread, one of the most frequently consumed foods worldwide. And they have shed some light on one of the eternal questions in nutrition: is it healthier to eat white bread or brown bread? Until now, nutrition experts often shunned white bread because of its low fibre content and potential to spike the blood sugar.

For the study, published in Cell Metabolism, Israeli researchers recruited 20 healthy people; half ate whole-wheat sourdough bread and the other half white bread for a week. Then both groups took a two-week break and switched bread diets.

Researchers measured 20 health markers and focused on blood sugar levels after eating, what is known as the glycaemic response, a biological measurement of how quickly the body can process glucose consumed in the food.

The scientists found that on average, neither of the breads emerged as less likely to affect blood sugar.

For first author Eran Elinav, “The findings of this study are not only fascinating but potentially very important, because they point toward a new paradigm: different people react differently, even to the same foods”.

So, according to the results of the study, individuals can differ in their response to the same food, in this case bread, due to individual differences in the gut microbiota. So there is no good or bad bread, but it depends on each person’s gut microbiota.

The findings of this new research are linked with other current research from the Weizmann Institute of Science and to a series of earlier studies that suggested diets should be tailored to each person’s gut microbiota in order to maximize health benefits.

SOURCE

http://www.gutmicrobiotaforhealth.com/en/brown-bread-healthier-white-answer-depend-gut-microbiota/?utm_source=Gut+Microbiota+For+Health+-+NW+%28EN%29&utm_campaign=b2e05ad4ef-NW29_EN_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_36413f3333-b2e05ad4ef-128301553

Reference:

Korem T, Zeevi D, Zmora N, et al. Bread affects clinical parameters and induces gut microbiome-associated personal glycemic responses. Cell Metabolism. 2017. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2017.05.002

A useful article from Gut Microbiota New Watch

Introduction

For many years, humans have known that bacteria and other microorganisms are capable of transforming food substrates, making them both tasty and nutritious. More and more, chefs and other food-makers are putting bacteria to work to produce fermented foods. With delicious results.

Besides flavour, though, are there other reasons to seek out fermented foods? Scientists around the world are trying to answer this question by studying the possible health benefits of consuming live cultures.

Robert (Bob) Hutkins, Professor of Food Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USA), studies bacteria in fermented foods and factors that affect their survival in the gastrointestinal tract. In untangling the health benefits we can attribute to fermented foods, he says, it’s important to address the common misconception that fermented foods are the same thing as “probiotics”—the latter being live bacteria that confer health benefits when consumed in adequate numbers, according to the definition set by an international panel of experts in both 2001 and 2014.

“Not all fermented foods contain live organisms,” Hutkins tells GMFH editors. “Beer and wine, for example, undergo steps that remove the organisms [like yeasts that allow fermentation]. Other fermented foods are heat-treated and the organisms are inactivated. Bread is baked and sauerkraut is often canned. So while these foods may be nutritious, they do not have probiotic activity.”

He continues, “That being said, there are still lots of fermented foods that do contain live organisms, including yogurt and other [fermented] dairy foods, most cheeses, non-heated sauerkraut and kimchi, even many of the European-style dry fermented sausages.”

So then, can the term probiotic be applied to the subset of fermented foods that do contain live microorganisms when consumed? Hutkins says it cannot: “The live organisms present in these products are there for one main reason – to perform the fermentation (i.e., convert milk into yogurt or cheese, or cabbage into kimchi). These cultures do not necessarily have any probiotic functions. By definition, probiotics must ‘confer a health benefit’. That means the probiotic must have been characterized and have clinical evidence of a health benefit. Cultures are not probiotic unless they have met this requirement.”

Click on link to read the full article 

Gut Microbiota News Watch

About the Author

Kristina Campbell
Science writer Kristina Campbell (M.Sc.), from British Columbia (Canada), specializes in communicating about the gut microbiota, digestive health, and nutrition. Author of the best selling Well-Fed Microbiome Cookbook, her freelance work has appeared in publications around the world. Kristina joined the Gut Microbiota for Health publishing team in 2014