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Prebiotics and Fibre

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Prebiotics

Sarah Ballantyne's Fiber Manifesto. Tim Steele's Fibre Series. Fiber Lists. Intl Scientific Assoc for Probiotics and Prebiotics. Everywhere you look there is an article or podcast or TED Talk about how important our colonizing microbes are to our health.

Intl Scientific Assoc for Probiotics and Prebiotics

But, like the weather, although everyone is talking about it what can we do about it? Prebiotics are a promising way to shape our gut microbiota (the term used for the total community of microbes colonizing your body) to be healthier for us. However they are not an alternative to a diverse healthy diet. Eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and other fibre-rich foods can also help boost numbers of our ‘healthy’ microbiota, and in turn contribute to gut health. A prebiotic is a substrate that is selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit. Everything You Need to Know About Fiber Consumption. Scientists reach consensus on the meaning of the word "prebiotic" 8 Misconceptions About Fiber. Feeding Your Microbiome Superheroes - Laura Paris. Why Dietary Fiber Is a Menace with Konstantin Monastyrsky.

Video: Digestible and Indigestible Carbohydrates and Your Gut Flora (50 min.) What happens to dietary fiber after we eat it? — The American Microbiome Institute. Complex carbohydrates from dietary fiber, such as from fruits and vegetables, are, with some exceptions, largely indigestible to normal human metabolism.

What happens to dietary fiber after we eat it? — The American Microbiome Institute

These polysaccharides though, form the basis for much of the gut microbiome’s nutrition because they pass into the colon largely unaffected. For this reason, many scientists are considering complex carbs as prebiotics, or foods that can manipulate the microbiome to improve health. At this point in time, the fate of many prebiotics in the gut, and the mechanisms by which they are broken down and shared by the microbiome bacteria, are still largely unknown. Last week a paper in Nature Communications investigated this question, and measured the breakdown of complex xylose molecules in the gut.

The researchers discovered that Bacteroidetes have many different enzymes to break down complex xylans, and regulate and induce different ones based on the type of xylan, e.g. whether or not it has many long chains stemming from its backbone. Dietary fiber promotes microbiome richness and stability — The American Microbiome Institute. The richness and stability of gut bacteria play an important role in microbiome homeostasis.

Dietary fiber promotes microbiome richness and stability — The American Microbiome Institute

We’ve chronicled many ways to perturb or alter the microbiome but diet is an area that has long been studied as a way to modify the microbiome. Specifically, dietary fiber has been shown to alter the microbiome and a recent study out of France looked at the microbiome of individuals who were given high fiber diets compared to normal diets. 19 people participated in a nutritional study and ate a normal diet for five days supplemented with 10 or 40 grams of dietary fiber per day. After the short-term intervention, there was a 15 day washout period and fecal samples were analyzed using qPCR and 16s RNA sequencing at various stages of the experiment. 9 out of 10 That Die From it Never Knew They Even Had This Preventable Disease.

Diverticula are out-pouchings of our intestine.

9 out of 10 That Die From it Never Knew They Even Had This Preventable Disease

Doctors like using a tire analogy: high pressures within the gut can force the intestines to balloon out through weak spots in the intestinal wall like an inner tube poking out through a worn tire tread. You can see what they actually look like in my video, Diverticulosis: When Our Most Common Gut Disorder Hardly Existed. These pockets can become inflamed and infected, and, to carry the tire analogy further, can blow out and spill fecal matter into the abdomen, and lead to death. Symptoms can range from no symptoms at all, to a little cramping and bloating, to “incapacitating pain that is a medical emergency.”

Nine out of ten people who die from the disease never even knew they had it. The good news is there may be a way to prevent the disease. How did a disease that was almost unknown become the most common affliction of the colon in the Western world within one lifespan? For more on bowel health, see: In health, Michael Greger, M.D. Myths and Truths About Fiber. Bifidobacterium or fiber protect against deterioration of the inner colonic mucus layer. Bifidobacteria or Fiber Protects against Diet-Induced Microbiota-Mediated Colonic Mucus Deterioration. JavaScript is disabled on your browser.

Bifidobacteria or Fiber Protects against Diet-Induced Microbiota-Mediated Colonic Mucus Deterioration

Please enable JavaScript to use all the features on this page. Highlights Western style diet impairs penetrability and growth of the colonic mucus layer in mice Mucus defects are accompanied by distinct alterations in microbiota composition Microbiota transplant from chow-fed mice prevents mucus aberrations in mice fed a WSD Mucus aberrations can be prevented by Bifidobacterium longum and inulin treatment Summary. Why Root Veggies Are Great for the Gut Microbiome. 3 High-Fiber Foods to Avoid - The Paleo Mom. Scientific research consistently supports the health benefits of a diet rich in vegetables and fruits.

3 High-Fiber Foods to Avoid - The Paleo Mom

In Defense of Fiber: How Changing Your Diet Changes Your Gut Bacteria. Why Raw Garlic May Be Friend. Review article: dietary fibre–microbiota interactions - Simpson - 2015 - Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Background Application of modern rapid DNA sequencing technology has transformed our understanding of the gut microbiota.

Review article: dietary fibre–microbiota interactions - Simpson - 2015 - Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Diet, in particular plant-based fibre, appears critical in influencing the composition and metabolic activity of the microbiome, determining levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) important for intestinal health. Aim.