BACKGROUND & AIMS Changes in gut microbiota have been reported to alter signaling mechanisms, emotional behavior, and visceral nociceptive reflexes in rodents. However, alteration of the intestinal microbiota with antibiotics or probiotics has not been shown to produce these changes in humans. We investigated whether consumption of a fermented milk product with probiotic (FMPP) for 4 weeks by healthy women altered brain intrinsic connectivity or responses to emotional attention tasks. METHODS Healthy women with no gastrointestinal or psychiatric symptoms were randomly assigned to groups given FMPP (n = 12), a nonfermented milk product (n = 11, controls), or no intervention (n = 13) twice daily for 4 weeks. The FMPP contained Bifidobacterium animalis subsp Lactis, Streptococcus thermophiles, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and Lactococcus lactis subsp Lactis. Participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after the intervention to measure brain response to an emotional faces attention task and resting brain activity. Multivariate and region of interest analyses were performed. RESULTS FMPP intake was associated with reduced task-related response of a distributed functional network (49% cross-block covariance; P = .004) containing affective, viscerosensory, and somatosensory cortices. Alterations in intrinsic activity of resting brain indicated that ingestion of FMPP was associated with changes in midbrain connectivity, which could explain the observed differences in activity during the task. CONCLUSIONS Four-week intake of an FMPP by healthy women affected activity of brain regions that control central processing of emotion and sensation.

KeywordsDietary patterns, digestive symptoms, health-related quality of life, women Running title Dietary patterns and digestive symptomsAuthorship BH was involved in the dietary analysis, interpretation of the results and preparation of the manuscript. DP, DG and BT designed the study and were involved in the analysis and the preparation of the manuscript. FHR and PR were responsible for the statistical analysis and commented on the manuscript. KW and BF advised on the analysis and interpretation of the results and preparation of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.Digestive symptoms are reported to result from a wide range of dietary components. Dietary 4 pattern analysis is a useful method of considering the entire diet, rather than individual foods or 5 nutrients, providing an opportunity to take interactions into account. The objective was to 6 investigate the relationship between diet, digestive symptoms and health-related quality of life 7 (HRQoL) in women reporting minor digestive symptoms, using a dietary pattern approach. 8 9 Research methods 10Analysis was performed on dietary and digestive symptoms data collected in France. Females 11 (n=308, aged 18-60yrs) reporting a bowel movement frequency within the normal range (3-21 12 stools/week) but with minor digestive symptoms in the previous month were investigated. 13Dietary data was collected using three 24-hr recalls. K-means was used to divide the dietary data 14 into clusters. The frequency of digestive symptoms (abdominal discomfort or pain, bloating, 15 flatulence, borborygmi) and bowel movements were evaluated over a two week period. HRQoL 16 was also assessed. Our results demonstrate that even within a relatively homogeneous sample of French women, 27 distinct dietary patterns can be identified but without significant differences in digestive 28 symptoms (except for flatulence), and HRQoL. 29

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This study aimed to explore the potential role of plant-based “dairy-like” products (PBDL) in sustainable diets. For each individual from a representative sample of French adults (INCA2 survey 2006–2007; n = 1816), a diet optimized to be more sustainable (nutritionally adequate while having a 30% reduced carbon impact with minimal change from the actual diet and isocaloric content) was modelled. The food content of the optimized diets was compared to actual diets, with a focus on PBDL and dairy products. The presented quantitative results focused on women. Optimized diets contained more plant-based products and less meats than actual diets. PBDL products were present in 7.3% and 55.7% of the subjects’ actual and optimized diets, respectively, increasing significantly from 7 to 48 g/day. Regarding dairy products, cheese decreased (−14 g/day), milk increased (+14 g/day), and yogurt remained constant (87 g/day) between the actual and optimized diets, such that the intake of this food group remained constant (214 g/day). Women for whom PBDL products were introduced as new foods in their optimized diets were found to be those with actual low energy intake (1755 kcal/d on average). As a complement to dairy products, fortified PBDL products may help to achieve more sustainable diets, especially for individuals with low energy intakes.

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