A study conducted at the Technion and published in the journal Food Research International reveals a significant difference between the digestive systems of women and men: The digestion of milk and milk substitutes is not the same in both sexes.
The research was led by faculty members of the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering: Prof. Uri Lesmes, PhD student Lichen Mashiach, lab director Dr. Carmit Shani-Levi, and student Eden Beck, who joined the study during her undergraduate studies.
According to Prof. Lesmes, “The motivation for the research came from the global shift toward plant-based diets and the boom in meat and dairy substitutes. In light of the increasing consumption of these products, we wanted to understand whether men and women derive similar nutritional benefits from these substitutes, focusing on milk and milk alternatives. While similar studies have been conducted on the digestive system of the ‘average adult,’ very few studies address the differences between the sexes.”
The research group developed a unique digestion model that simulates the digestive systems of women and men, through which the following surprising findings were revealed: In the male digestive model, high efficiency of protein breakdown was found in dairy milk, while in the female model – it was found in the plant-based drink (an oat-based milk alternative).
The researchers believe the findings are consistent with what is known about hunter-gatherer culture, or more precisely, hunter-gatheress culture, where men were responsible for animal-based food and women for plant-based food. Although the food was ultimately shared with the entire community, it can be assumed that men consumed more animal-based food, and thus their stomachs adapted over the course of evolution to proteins from this source.
A deeper analysis showed differences in the concentrations of amino acids and peptides (protein fragments) produced during the digestion process – in men, more antimicrobial peptides were found, whereas in women, a peptide involved in bone formation (an osteoanabolic peptide) was found.
This finding is particularly intriguing given the fact that the incidence of osteoporosis (bone loss) is significantly higher among older women: One in three women over the age of 50 will experience an osteoporotic fracture, compared to only one in five men. It is therefore possible that the study may point to a unique nutritional advantage for women in choosing their protein sources.
In conclusion, the study reveals the influence of biological sex on food digestion and recommends taking it into account when planning nutritional policy, especially in future food engineering. According to Prof. Lesmes, “Food processing is what enabled the development of modern humans, and we should harness the study’s findings for a new era in 21st-century food processing, based on research in food engineering, nutrition, and health.”
The research was supported by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and the Food Engineering Research Fund at the Technion.