Bees – Lectures by Rudolf Steiner

December 1st 1923

….honey is something that demands moderation from the human being who eats it. If you eat too much honey, you will upset your stomach.

This is based on a very simple fact. Honey is sweet and contains a lot of sugar. Your stomach, however, needs primarily an acidic content. So when you ingest too many sweet things, you will spoil the acidic effect the stomach is trying to produce. If you gave such an emaciated person who is thirty years old as much honey as such a person would need in order to bring about a positive outcome, he or she would, at first, suffer from indigestion, which would lead eventually to a chronic intestinal condition. You simply can't do it.

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Proc Nutr Soc. 2016 Feb 24:1-13. [Epub ahead of print]

Altered gastrointestinal microbiota in irritable bowel syndrome and its modification by diet: probiotics, prebiotics and the low FODMAP diet.

Staudacher HM1, Whelan K1.

• 1King's College London,Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division,London SE1 9NH,UK.

Abstract

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional bowel disorder characterised by abdominal pain or discomfort with disordered defecation. This review describes the role of the gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota in the pathogenesis of IBS and how dietary strategies to manage symptoms impact on the microbial community. Evidence suggests a dysbiosis of the luminal and mucosal colonic microbiota in IBS, frequently characterised by a reduction in species of Bifidobacteria which has been associated with worse symptom profile. Probiotic supplementation trials suggest intentional modulation of the GI microbiota may be effective in treating IBS. A smaller number of prebiotic supplementation studies have also demonstrated effectiveness in IBS whilst increasing Bifidobacteria. In contrast, a novel method of managing IBS symptoms is the restriction of short-chain fermentable carbohydrates (low fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAP) diet). Studies consistently demonstrate clinical effectiveness of the low FODMAP diet in patients with IBS. However, one unintentional consequence of this dietary intervention is its impact on the microbiota. This leads to an interesting paradox; namely, increasing luminal Bifidobacteria through probiotic supplementation is associated with a reduction in IBS symptoms while in direct conflict to this, the low FODMAP diet has clinical efficacy but markedly reduces luminal Bifidobacteria concentration. Given the multifactorial aetiology of IBS, the heterogeneity of symptoms and the complex and diverse nature of the microbiome, it is probable that both interventions are effective in patient subgroups. However combination treatment has never been explored and as such, presents an exciting opportunity for optimising clinical management, whilst preventing potentially deleterious effects on the GI microbiota.

KEYWORDS:

FODMAP fermentable oligosaccharides; GI gastrointestinal; GOS galacto-oligosaccharides; IBS irritable bowel syndrome; IBS-D diarrhoea-predominant IBS; RCT randomised control trial; disaccharides; monosaccharides and polyols; FODMAP; Irritable bowel syndrome; Prebiotic; Probiotic

PMID:  26908093