Scientists: Eat More of This Carb – Even Supplements Make a Big Difference



Customers could find it difficult to chose from the wide variety of dietary fiber supplements in the pharmacy or grocery store aisle. Additionally, they make a number of health claims without getting FDA permission or review. So how do you choose the supplement that will work the best for you?

Those who had been ingesting the least amount of fiber prior to the study profited most from supplements, regardless of the type they took, according to a detailed analysis of the gut microorganisms of research participants who took three different types of supplements in different regimens.

According to research author and associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University Lawrence David, "The persons who responded the best had been consuming the least fiber to start with."

Beyond the supposedly simpler defecation, dietary fiber has other benefits. The nutrients your gut microbes require to remain healthy are found in fermentable fiber, which is made up of dietary carbs that some bacteria can digest but the human gut cannot.

The co-author of two recent articles on fiber and a former Ph.D. student in the David lab, Zack Holmes, claimed that "we've evolved to depend on nutrients that our microbiomes create for us." However, due to recent dietary changes away from fiber-rich foods, we are no longer providing our bacteria with what they require.

Short-chain fatty acids are produced more frequently by your gut bacteria when they consume a high-fiber diet, protecting you from gut disorders, colorectal cancer, and even obesity. They particularly boost the creation of butyrate, a fatty acid that provides the intestinal cells with their own source of energy. Butyrate has been found to improve intestinal lining cells' happiness and health, as well as their ability to fight off infections and inflammation.

Given the variety of supplements available on the market, David's study team wondered if it would be essential to "personalize" fiber supplements for various individuals. Individual differences in the impact of various fermentable fibers on the synthesis of short-chain fatty acids have been observed.

"The fiber supplements we evaluated didn't differ much from one another, we found. David gave a tour of his brand-new lab in the MSRB III building, which includes a special "scientific toilet" for collecting samples and a collection of eight fermenters for a "artificial gut" that can be used to grow healthy gut bacteria outside of a person.                                                                                                
Whichever test supplement you choose, it seems your microbiota will thank you by producing more butyrate, according to David.

Only 20 to 40 percent of the daily recommended quantity of fiber is consumed by the average American adult, which is thought to be the main contributing factor to many of our prevalent health problems, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, digestive problems, and colon cancer. Convenient fiber supplements that can boost the formation of short-chain fatty acids have been developed as an alternative to going completely vegetarian or eating pounds of kale every day.

The Duke studies looked at inulin, dextrin (Benefiber), and galactooligosaccharides (GOS), which are sold under the brand name Bimuno. The 28 participants were divided into three groups and given each of the three supplements for one week in a different order. There was a week off between supplements to allow individuals' guts to return to their pre-supplement states.

The sort of supplement didn't really matter, and participants who had been eating the most fiber before exhibited the least change in their microbiomes. This is likely because they were already supporting a more ideal population of gut bacteria, according to David.

Contrarily, regardless of which supplement was taken, those who had been ingesting the least fiber experienced the biggest increase in butyrate.

The gut microbes responded to a new addition of fiber within a day, significantly altering the populations of bugs present in the gut and changing which of their genes they were using to digest food, according to a second study the David lab conducted with funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

The researchers discovered that the gut microorganisms were primed by the first dose to absorb fiber and quickly digested it on the second dose using their artificial gut fermenters.

The primary author of the second study, graduate student Jeffrey Letourneau, called the results "encouraging." "If you don't drink a lot of fiber, worrying about what sort to add is generally not worth it. Simply finding something that benefits you in a long-term way is crucial.

Holmes continued, "It doesn't have to be a supplement either. "It might just be a food high in fiber. People with high fiber diets, which include foods like citrus, leafy greens, and legumes, already had well balanced microbiomes.

Several sources are cited, including "Microbiota Responses to Different Prebiotics Are Conserved Within Individuals and Associated with Habitual Fiber Intake," On July 29, 2022, the microbiome was published by Zachary Holmes, Max Villa, Heather Durand, Sharon Jiang, Eric Dallow, Brianna Petrone, Justin Silverman, Pao-Hwa Lin, and Lawrence David.

The National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, the NASA Translational Research Institute, and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation all provided funding for the study.

By DUKE UNIVERSITY 

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