Are tummy bugs the secret to a long life?

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Are tummy bugs the secret to a long life?

July 17th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Suggests varied diet could ward off host of ills

By
Fiona Macrae

PUBLISHED:

17:25 EST, 16 July 2012

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UPDATED:

17:25 EST, 16 July 2012

They have long been associated with upset stomachs. But tummy bugs could hold the secret to a healthy old age.

Researchers have linked the trillions of ‘friendly bacteria’ that live in the gut to the health of men and women aged 60-plus following a landmark study.

With the food eaten affecting the types of bugs that thrive, the study suggests something as simple as eating a varied diet rich in fruit and vegetables could help ward off a host of ills from frailty to memory loss.

Secret to a healthy old age? Researchers have linked the trillions of 'friendly bacteria' that live in the gut to the health of men and women aged 60-plus

Secret to a healthy old age? Researchers have linked the trillions of ‘friendly bacteria’ that live in the gut to the health of men and women aged 60-plus

The researchers said: ‘This work gives people strong motivation not to just give granny enough calories and vitamins – diversify it because you are feeding the bacteria in granny’s intestine.’

Suggested foods include fruits such as apples and grapes, as well as nuts, bean sprouts, oily fish and wholegrain bread and cereals.

The study, unveiled at the Euroscience Open Forum, is the first to make a clear link between a boring diet, lack of variety of bugs in the gut and poor health.

The advice comes from scientists who asked 178 men and women aged between 64 and 72 for information about their diet, analysed the bugs in their guts and put them through a battery of health tests.

Some of the volunteers lived at home, others were in hospital.

The study found those who had been in hospital for more than six weeks had less variety of bugs in their guts than the others. They were also in poorer health and had less varied diets.

Researcher Paul O'Toole said there are several ways the bugs in our guts help keep pensioners fit, with some helping release energy from fruit and vegetables to keep the bowels healthy

Researcher Paul O’Toole said there are several ways the bugs in our guts help keep pensioners fit, with some helping release energy from fruit and vegetables to keep the bowels healthy

They ate a smaller variety of fruit and vegetables, ate more sugary and fatty foods, more meat and smaller amounts of wholegrain breads and cereals.

The University College Cork researchers said it wasn’t that they were being given inferior food. The menus were varied, but the pensioners made less exciting choices, with problems with their teeth or digestion or loss of interest in what was going on around them leading them to subsist on snacks such as tea and toast.

Researcher Paul O’Toole said there are several ways the bugs in our guts help keep pensioners fit.

Some help release energy from fruit and vegetables and keep the bowels healthy.

Others are thought to strengthen muscles and keep the brain working quickly – both essential in preventing slips and falls.

He said more effort should be made to ensure those in long-term care eat a varied diet.

And if they can’t eat the foods on offer, the food industry might be able to come up with easier to eat alternatives. Researcher Dr Fergus Shanahan said: ‘A substantial proportion of the population are tea and toasters – that’s not enough.’

Professor Paul Ross, another of the study’s authors, said: ‘This is undoubtedly one of the major ways diet affects health. This is a landmark study.’

Dr O’Toole said: ‘Few of us in our research make a difference. This is one time in my career when I can see making a difference to a substantial sector of society.’