Two theories of nutrition: ideal food and ideal nutrition

The concept of ideal food and ideal nutrition in general is based on strict scientific postulates. It is scientifically developed on the basis of the classical theory of nutrition, which was formed under the influence of the works of the greatest scientists, especially of the 19th and 20th centuries. Again, we note that this theory is characterized by a balanced approach, and its main position is the idea that nutrition is primarily a process of maintaining and balancing the molecular composition of the body, that is, a process of compensating for the expenses that occur in the body. As a result of the absorption and digestion of various food substances, which must be well balanced, the necessary components are extracted from them and ballast is discarded. At the same time, there is a good balance between the spectrum of incoming and lost substances. With the help of special mechanisms, such balance is maintained very accurately. In essence, we are talking about the fact that, thanks to special sensitive systems, the loss of the corresponding substances by the body is detected, which leads to the transformation of food activity, specialized selection of different types of food, etc. In other words, as stated above, the theory of balanced nutrition is based on the application of the basic laws of conservation of matter and energy to biological systems.

At the end of the 19th century, the basic concept of improving nutrition emerged. Thus, already at that time, the idea of discarding ballast substances and forming maximally enriched food, consisting mainly or exclusively of nutrients, arose. At the beginning of the 20th century, many prominent scientists believed that it was possible to create an ideal food that would be introduced into the gastrointestinal tract in the form of highly purified nutrients.

In its final form, the theory of balanced nutrition, based on balanced approaches to assessing food and diet, was formulated in the late 19th - early 20th century. We noted that the theory of balanced nutrition was one of the first, if not the first molecular theory in biology and medicine and largely served the development of new ideas and forecasts in the field of nutrition. Moreover, based on the theory of balanced nutrition, the most important practical and theoretical results were obtained, in particular, essential amino acids, vitamins, mineral salts, microelements, etc., necessary for the vital activity of the body, were discovered. Finally, the theory of balanced nutrition is the scientific basis for the transition from agricultural technology to industrial technology. The advantages of the latter, as mentioned above, were noted by A.N. Nesmeyanov. The greatest achievements of the modern food industry and modern dietetics are a consequence of the strikingly beautiful theory of balanced nutrition.

It is now clear that, despite significant advances, many of the basic practical consequences and recommendations of the theory of balanced nutrition have led us in a very dangerous (though not entirely wrong) direction. They have stimulated the development of numerous diseases that are still among the most common in civilized human society. This circumstance can be explained by the fact that the idea of improved, enriched food is perfect only at first glance. Indeed, it is possible to construct ideal food, it is possible to store not a huge amount of food products, but, having discarded the ballast, only that part of them that is necessary for nutrition, it is possible to transport from one part of the world not all products, but only their components that have nutritional value, etc. However, in reality it turned out that refined foods and enriched foods are defective in many ways and cause many serious diseases. Perhaps these products stimulated the development of diseases that have not yet been discovered or explained, such as beriberi and a number of others. (Beri-beri disease is common in countries where rice is the main food product. The poorly digestible rice shell is removed as ballast. But it contains one of the essential vitamins - vitamin B1 _, the absence of which leads to muscle atrophy, cardiovascular disorders, etc.)

An equally important conclusion from the theory of balanced nutrition, which is the possibility of parenteral nutrition directly through the blood, also turned out to be erroneous. Parenteral nutrition, although necessary in many cases, will probably never be able to replace normal human nutrition.

The idea of ideal food found its most complete expression in elemental nutrition. This idea, which seemed extremely important, boiled down to the fact that the food we consume should be replaced by substances that enter the bloodstream from the gastrointestinal tract and directly participate in metabolism. Such substances include the end products of food digestion - glucose, amino acids, fatty acids, etc. In other words, food should consist of a set of amino acids that replace proteins, a set of monosaccharides that replace oligo- and polysaccharides, a set of fatty acids, etc. Elemental diets should also include various salts, microelements, vitamins. Preliminary experiments on animals and observations on humans demonstrated the broad possibilities of an elemental diet. Theoretical analysis showed that in this case it is possible to control the flow of nutrients through any component, which is excluded when eating natural products. Thus, elemental nutrition apparently provided a number of valuable advantages.

It should be noted that the concept of nutrition in space was developed based on the theory of balanced nutrition. Despite significant differences in the views of various authors, in the 1970s it was assumed that astronauts during long flights would be able to use elemental diets containing an optimal set of necessary elements and a minimum of ballast substances.

At the same time, elemental diets are not contraindicated. They simply cannot replace a normal diet for a long time. But in some diseases and in certain situations (stress, sports competitions, special working conditions, climatic conditions, etc.), it is quite advisable to replace part of the usual food or all of it with elements. At present, such a replacement is successfully implemented, and one can even recommend a temporary transition to elemental diets. At the same time, it has become quite obvious that in the course of evolution, man has adapted not to elemental (monomeric), but to polymeric diets, that is, to the food that he has consumed for many thousands of years.

We have come to a very important aspect of the nutrition problem, which, in essence, was one of the reasons for the formation of the new nutrition theory. Let us recall once again: the point is that the exceptionally fruitful classical theory of balanced nutrition was not evolutionary enough. More precisely, it was not evolutionary and biological enough at its core. This is precisely what is characteristic of the emerging theory of adequate nutrition.

As the name of the theory suggests, its meaning is, firstly, that nutrition should not only be balanced, but also served in a form that corresponds to the evolutionary characteristics of the species and population. This circumstance is extremely important and should not be underestimated. Secondly, some fundamental concepts of human nutrition should be reviewed and even revised on the basis of new achievements in physiology, biochemistry, medicine and biology in general. A number of new discoveries in biology and medicine have demonstrated that nutrition is not simply the process of supplying the body with nutrients, as we imagined it quite recently. It is extremely difficult to exhaust this complex problem. Therefore, we will try once again to briefly highlight only some of its most important aspects.

First of all, it is necessary to mention once again the important role of the gastrointestinal tract microflora in the vital functions of the organism. The intestines have a unique set of closely interacting bacteria that implement a lot of important transformations concerning both endogenous and exogenous substances. As a result of the transformational changes of the said substances, as well as ballast dietary fibers, additional nutrients appear. This fact alone indicates the impossibility of creating ideal food and ideal nutrition.

It is no less important that the population of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract implements a special type of homeostasis - trophostasis, i.e. maintaining the constancy of the trophic flow from the gastrointestinal tract to the internal environment of the body. In the absence of bacterial flora, trophic stability is sharply disrupted. It is also essential that to maintain normal endoecology, contacts are required with a sufficiently large group of people who have their own specific endoecology. Normal endoecology can be disrupted as a result of various effects, which causes an increase in the flow of bacterial metabolites and provokes a number of serious diseases.

Thus, it is now quite obvious that we are constantly receiving a somewhat defective diet and our bacterial flora helps us to resist the unfavorable conditions that arise. At the same time, the bacterial flora produces a certain amount of toxic substances. Therefore, the creation of ideal food and ideal nutrition is already completely unrealistic in light of these circumstances. The idea of the possibility of a person with a reduced gastrointestinal tract is just as unrealistic.

Indeed, it is worth keeping in mind the astonishing fact that we have mentioned many times: the gastrointestinal tract is not only an organ that provides the body with the necessary substances. It is an endocrine organ, which, as it turned out in the last decade, surpasses all other endocrine glands combined in its power. This discovery is one of the so-called silent revolutions in biology and medicine. The endocrine system of the gastrointestinal tract is larger in volume than the pituitary gland, thyroid gland, adrenal glands, sex glands and other endocrine structures, and produces more different hormones than these endocrine organs.

Consequently, nutrition is a process of intake of not only food but also regulatory substances produced by the endocrine apparatus of the gastrointestinal tract, that is, chemical signals that control our organism in a certain way. It is therefore not surprising that in young organisms a certain set of food components causes a greater effect than in old ones. In the latter case, even their more optimal set may not cause ascylatory effects. This is explained by the fact that the endocrine system of the gastrointestinal tract implements not only digestive peptic and trophic effects, participating in the regulation of food assimilation and a number of other vital functions.

Finally, depending on the evolutionary features of nutrition, food should contain a greater or lesser amount of ballast structures that are not directly involved in the body's metabolism. It turned out that the 19th century was a century of dramatic mistakes, when, under the influence of the theory of balanced nutrition, industry sought to obtain, for example, highly refined flour, grain used to produce cereals, and other refined products. However, it turned out that dietary fiber significantly affects the activity of the gastrointestinal tract, electrolyte metabolism, and a number of other functions of primary importance. It was also discovered that in the absence of ballast substances, the bacterial flora of the gastrointestinal tract produces significantly more toxic substances and performs protective and other functions less effectively. Moreover, in the course of evolution, ballast substances themselves became involved in a number of body functions, including steroid metabolism. Thus, human consumption of whole grain bread leads to a decrease in cholesterol in the blood, which is comparable to the result of the introduction of cholesterol-lowering drugs. The explanation for this phenomenon is that the processes of cholesterol, bile acids and steroid hormone metabolism are interconnected.

Thus, dietary fiber should be used both for normalizing endoecology and for direct influence on the exchange of cholesterol, salts, water exchange, etc. It must be said that this is used quite often now.

In the West, industrial production of dietary fiber is widely developed. In our country, they have also stopped producing, for example, pure fruit juices and instead have established the preparation of various products from fruits and vegetables containing dietary fiber. Indeed, one of the most valuable components in fruits and vegetables is dietary fiber. The same can be said about many other products.

Conclusions

The basic idea of ideal food and ideal nutrition is to ensure the best possible manifestation of all the body's capabilities and its optimal functioning. However, it seems that achieving this goal is unrealistic. Indeed, some types of food are favorable during heavy physical exertion, while in cases where there is significant psychological stress, a different diet is necessary. Moreover, changes in the emotional background also require corresponding changes in the diet. The types of nutrition in hot and cold climates also differ significantly, and the differences in the nutrition of northern and southern peoples cannot be reduced to economic factors alone. Finally, to increase life expectancy, low-calorie diets should be consumed. At the same time, with intensive work, a fairly high level of nutrition is required. Thus, there are a number of patterns of adequate food and nutrition for different conditions. But none of them is ideal.

Moreover, nutrition today cannot be interpreted as simply supplying the body with a certain set of chemical elements. It is a complex process in which the gastrointestinal tract interacts with the rest of the body's organs and systems and serves as a source of a huge number of nerve and hormonal signals.

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