One hundred and fourteen projects carried out by 61 between universities and research centres distributed in 14 regions of Italy: are the first important results of the research announcement Food, microbiota and health, made by the historian Turin Academy of Medicine and Assets of Batasiolo, one of the Langhe wineries. Published in February, shortlisted for two research awards from 40 thousand 114 groups of Italian researchers from various specialist backgrounds (clinicians, biologists, computer scientists, engineers, veterinarians) responded.
The projects were therefore examined by a commission made up of 14 researchers, members of the Turin Academy of Medicine, which selected the 23 best projects from the major Italian universities and research centers (Rome, Milan, Turin, Eastern Piedmont, Florence , Parma, Perugia, Naples, Brescia, Padua, Pisa) and last July 23 the research was presented during the Microbiota and Nutrition day, a day of study and culture on the relationship between food and health, organized at woodland Resort & Spa, in the heart of the Langhe hills, a Unesco World Heritage Site. The two projects Winning, who will win the tender, they will be announced in the fall.
THE MICROBIOTA
But what is the microbiota and what has been discussed? Not everyone knows that the intestine hosts up to one million billion single-celled organisms, a number 10 times higher than that of all the cells of the human body, mainly bacteria, which make up the Gut microbiota, formerly known as Intestinal bacterial microflora. The bacteria maintain a close symbiotic relationship with the host and are not distributed homogeneously: they are relatively few in the stomach and duodenum, while in the jejunum and ileum they reach ten million per gram and in the colon they can be counted from one hundred to trillion bacterial cells per gram.
This impressive bacterial population has been the object of numerous researches in recent years and throughout the world, the results of which have been published in many works that have investigated its role on human health: the data that have been obtained indicate that in the presence of a "healthy" microbiota, many diseases are slow in manifesting themselves, while, conversely, when bacteria are not in good health, the appearance of numerous diseases is favoredespecially those chronic e degenerative very frequent in the elderlybut also of those neonates, all of which can affect health and quality of life.
The research call has offered substantial funding from the Academy of Medicine of Turin and from Beni di Batasiolo to support studies that clarify the role between Microbiota, food and health. The topics covered by the 23 projects who will compete for the research prize are extremely inhomogeneous, as there are many diseases that can occur following an alteration of the Microbiota: considering that Health it's directly related with the quality of the food introduced, most of the contributions examine the effects of some foods, while some focus on the role of the microbiota in specific pathological states, such as diseases of the central nervous system, oral and intestinal diseases, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, in rare genetic diseases, or on the health of the newborn.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A CORRECT DIET
“The quantity – he commented Giancarlo Isaiah, president of the Academy of Medicine of Turin -, but above all the quality of the projects received highlights how the theme chosen by the Academy of Medicine in agreement with Beni di Batasiolo has generated many expectations, expression on the one hand of the modernity of the Microbiota topic, on the other hand, the lack of public or private funding for scientific research. The projects presented are characterized by an excellent scientific level, the proposed approaches use the most modern technological supports, the proposed methodologies are rational and the experience of the researchers, documented by their scientific production, is on average of a high level. For this reason it can be assumed that the expected results will be able to generate not only important developments to deal more adequately, above all through correct and healthy nutrition, the health problems of the population in general and of the elderly in particular, favoring successful ageing, but also economic repercussions connected with the introduction of new technologies and the exploitation of patents”.
"When the Academy of Medicine of Turin presented us with the idea of establishing a prize for medical research on the microbiota - he said instead Valentina Dogliani, vice president Batasiolo SPA – namely on the determining factors that link food (and therefore also wine) with health, we immediately understood that it was the ideal form of investment for a new and qualifying production process in the wine field. Batasiolo is above all a company that has the responsibility of guaranteeing absolutely safe and qualitatively impeccable products. And all this is achieved by equipping yourself with the right technologies from the vine to the bottle. It is no coincidence that Batasiolo has activated large investments for production, such as for example new crushing systems, sorting tables for the manual selection of the grapes, vinification and maceration systems where everything is electronically controlled from the temperature to the pumping over and allows in the appropriate cases the elimination of grape seeds. Even in the barrel room, attention was paid to a gratifying aesthetic result, but above all to constant and appropriate temperature and humidity control conditions. Our help to scientific research on the microbiota goes in the same direction, indeed it comes first: from medicine we expect precise indications to operate with the aim of increasing the quality of our wines even more. It is a characteristic that every serious and advanced industry must apply to its work”.
