[Dietary behavior and digestive diseases].

The influence of alimentation on the digestive pathology is very important. In this report the authors review the principal results of epidemiologic studies and animals experimentations. According to this survey of the literature it can be stated that some presumptions exist for: -- the responsibility of diet without vegetal fibers in the frequency of constipation, colonic divercitular disease, piles and hiatal hernia. The comparison of the alimentary habits in the western Europe with rural Africa is very instructive on that matter; -- the responsibility of alcohol consumption, use of hypercaloric regimen and hyperlipidic ingestats as causative factors for chronic pancreatitis; -- the importance of an hypercaloric, hyperlipidic and low residue regimen as etiologic factors in biliary gallstones; -- the role of denutrition and alcoholism in liver steatosis and cirrhosis in developed country; -- more important, perhaps, is the suspicion of the role of nutrition in the development of digestive cancer: alcohol will facilitate oesophageal cancer, alimentary nitrites gastric cancer meanwhile fiberless regimen and biles salts will promote colonic cancer. Impairments of nutrition observed after digestive resections in case of inappropriate alimentation are also analyzed as well as the principal alimentary disturbances related to allergy or enzymatic deficiency.