dietary fiber Archives

Could This Superfood Protect Your Gut Health?

How often do you eat broccoli? (Your responses to this question can range from every day! to no comment!)

No matter how much you love broccoli (or not), health experts consider it a superfood — a natural food that features an array of nutrients your body needs every day, including Vitamins A and C, potassium, calcium and dietary fiber — which is always good for the health of your gut.

A recent study from Penn State University has discovered a new reason to eat broccoli related to protecting your gut health.

Protection From Leaky Gut

If your intestinal wall is healthy, the cells lining it allow water and nutrients to pass into your body safely and screen out undigested food, toxins and other bugs from harming your health, protecting you from problems related to leaky gut.

Some cells lining the intestines absorb water and nutrients (enterocytes) while others secrete a layer of mucus to protect the intestines from being overly permeable (goblet cells) and generate digestive enzymes that maintain a healthy, balanced environment (Paneth cells).

Penn State researchers tested the health benefits of broccoli by comparing the health of mice that were fed a daily diet that included the equivalent of 3.5 cups of broccoli a day for humans to a control group fed a typical lab diet.

Then, they examined the bodies of these test animals for signs of molecular signaling from a specific protein (aryl hydrocarbon receptor or AHR) and often it was activated.

Unsurprisingly, the guts of mice on a high broccoli diet had higher amounts of AHR that protected their tiny bodies from harm.

On the other hand, “The gut health of the mice that were not fed broccoli was compromised in a variety of ways that are known to be associated with disease,” says Dr. Gary Perdew, who works in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Studies.

Good News For Broccoli Haters

All of this news is good if you enjoy cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and even Brussels sprouts. But there are limits, as you may remember in our recent article on tomatoes.

No matter how good a specific food is for your health, the challenge remains eating enough of that one thing every day to make a real difference. A better, healthier approach is to eat a fiber-rich diet, which takes about 1 ounce (30 grams) daily to do the job.

If you’re not crazy about broccoli and want to protect your gut health, consider taking a daily probiotic formulated with 10 lab-tested strains of beneficial bacteria and a proven prebiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

Laboratory Investigation

Penn State University

MedicineNet

Harvard Health Publishing

Could This Superfood Protect Your Gut Health? Read More »

Are You Really Eating Enough Whole Grains?

Diet / By @drHoberman

Are You Really Eating Enough Whole Grains?

A critical part of a gut-healthy diet is eating the right amount of dietary fiber every day.

Depending on which experts you study, the amount of fiber you need to consume in order to make a healthy difference varies between 20-38 grams a day. Those numbers may sound like a lot, until you realize 30 grams of fiber amounts to 1 powerful ounce of protection.

When people go to the grocery store in search of good sources of dietary fiber, they often look for processed foods made from whole grains. You can find them listed on the product labels of many foods, including breads, cereals, brown rice and pastas.

Still, you may not be eating enough whole grains and it may not entirely be your fault, according to a recent study appearing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

What’s A Whole Grain Food?

The heart of the problem are overlapping definitions of what really constitutes a whole grain food based on competing interests, ranging from the FDA and American Heart Association to the American Association of Cereal Chemists and Whole Grains Council.

Using data collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2003-18, scientists at Tufts University and New York University compared those definitions of whole grain foods to the diets of nearly 40,000 adults.

Overall, patients participating in the survey ate anywhere from 40-62 percent of the suggested healthy daily amount of whole grains, depending on those same inconsistent definitions.

The confusion between healthy and less healthy sources of whole grains becomes easier to understand, when you know that many processed foods labeled as containing wheat, multigrain or whole grains probably don’t contain nearly enough to make a real difference.

In fact, the lead author of the study, Mengxi Du from Tufts’ Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, admitted having problems identifying foods labeled as rich in whole grains in her own trips to the grocery store.

So, what do you do if food labeling is inconsistent and unreliable and even big organizations don’t agree on what whole grain means?

Know What You’re Buying

There are plenty of things you can do to increase your fiber intake with help from whole grains. Looking back on our recent feature on the benefits of dietary fiber, search for whole grain foods like these in their purest, unprocessed form.

Brown rice
Spelt
Whole oats
Quinoa

Be sure to examine all food labels very closely. If the list of ingredients in foods feature whole grain or whole wheat at the top, experts say you’re making a good choice.

Foods containing refined grains may contain essential nutrients, but once they have been milled, they lose iron, many B vitamins and dietary fiber.

While you’re on the lookout for good foods to complement your gut-friendly diet, be sure to give your gut all the help it needs by taking a probiotic, ideally with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria and a prebiotic (that feeds the bacteria in your gut) like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

References

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Are You Really Eating Enough Whole Grains? Read More »

Are Tomatoes Good For Your Gut?

Diet / By @drHoberman

Are Tomatoes Good For Your Gut?

You’d be surprised by the number of calls we get every time a story pops up on the evening news about the latest probiotic food “discovery.”

Suggestions — whole foods like walnuts — make some sense, but others — beer or kombucha tea — are more challenging and depend on factors largely out of your control.

Recently, tomatoes joined that growing list of foods based on a joint study from a research team at Ohio State and Penn State University specializing in food, crop and animal sciences and the microbiome

Their focus made sense, given that tomatoes make up more than 20 percent of the vegetable intake in the average Western diet and their consumption has been associated with reduced risks for the development of some forms of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

However, there’s always caveats when it comes to evaluating the efficacy of most foods in the laboratory for their microbial benefits, and this case is no different.

How Tomatoes Affect The Gut

To measure the benefits, scientists fed two sets of recently weaned pigs either a standard diet or one that was fine-tuned slightly to include a 10 percent mix of freeze-dried powder made from tomatoes for two weeks.

Gut changes were measured from fecal samples taken before the study started, then seven and 14 days after the tomato-laden diet started. Then, researchers used shotgun metagenomic sequencing, a technique used to sequence genomes to calculate the composition of microbes, to compare those samples.

Overall, the pigs eating a tomato-based diet experienced increased gut microbial diversity, and higher ratios of beneficial bacteria linked to good health outcomes. For example, previous research has linked tomato consumption with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

Although the results were positive and measurable among animals eating tomatoes, scientists did not learn how or why that change occurred.

That said, pigs have GI tracts that more closely resemble those in humans than mice, which suggests a future trial in humans could happen, says Dr. Jessica Cooperstone, senior study author and an assistant professor at Ohio State.

The Takeaway For Your Health

Still, the real unknown is understanding how foods like tomatoes make an impact on human gut health, says Dr. Cooperstone.

Even taking these positive results into account, the real test for any food is to consume enough of it to have a positive impact on the balance of bacteria in your gut without creating more health problems, like worsening conditions like GERD (gastroesophageal reflux) or migraines.

Very simply, it’s hard to eat enough of a single food to make a gut healthy difference, but a diet rich in dietary fiber can do a lot of good and only takes about 1 ounce of fiber a day to notice a difference.

But there’s more you can do to give your health a gut-friendly boost every day, especially if you have a hard time eating enough fiber.

Taking a multi-strain probiotic formulated with beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families and a proven prebiotic (FOS) contained in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic every day can make a gut-healthy difference in your health.

And, you can save the tomatoes for a salad or your favorite sandwich…

References

Microbiology Spectrum

Ohio State News

Health

News-medical.net

Are Tomatoes Good For Your Gut? Read More »

Your Gut or Your Blood: What Affects Your Health More?

Diet / By @drHoberman

Your Gut or Your Blood: What Affects Your Health More?

We posted an article last year that asked a provocative question about what affects your health more: Your gut or your genes.

From that report, we learned once again how the quality of our daily diets shaped the diversity of our microbiomes in ways that can leave us more vulnerable to serious health problems or protect us from them.

That’s not all, according to a pair of recent studies conducted in Sweden and America.

The human gut exerts its influence through diet and even the medications you take on the composition of metabolites that drive countless functions throughout your body’s bloodstream.

But how much does your gut really affect your health? Much more than you would ever assume…

The Connection Between Your Gut and Your Blood

Two recent studies conducted in Sweden and America came to strikingly similar conclusions. In both cases, gut microbiomes drove variances in blood metabolites.

After examining the presence of 930 blood metabolites in more than 1,500 patients, researchers from the Institute of Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle concluded more than 60 percent of those metabolites were tied directly to the gut microbiome, a patient’s genetic makeup or both.

Of that number, 69 percent of those connections were driven solely by the microbiome and an additional 16 percent were controlled by a genetic-microbiome hybrid. Only 15 percent of the metabolites tracked were associated with a patient’s genetic makeup.

Swedish researchers from Lund University and Uppsala University came to similar conclusions, estimating as much as 58 percent of the variances of individual blood metabolites are linked to the microbiome.

Moreover, this team documented more than 546,000 associations between specific gut species and blood metabolites.

The Main Takeaway

So, in simple terms, what does this knowledge really mean for our understanding of the gut microbiome and your own health?

For one, understanding the variances between the composition of bacteria in the gut and metabolites in the blood can help scientists find more targeted approaches to health problems, says Dr. Sean Gibbons, an ISB faculty member and study co-author.

Also, these findings suggest that our gut health drives a majority of the metabolites in our blood, and that they can be treated and enhanced by basic lifestyle interventions.

For example, eating a diet rich in dietary fiber can make a huge difference. Just adding one ounce of fiber is all it takes, and it’s doable if you enjoy nutrient-dense foods like lentils, green beans, oats and mushrooms.

Researchers also suggested taking a probiotic could provide a healthy boost to your metabolites.

To the end, be sure that any probiotic you take is formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families as well as a prebiotic (that feeds the good bacteria in your gut) like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

Nature Metabolism

Institute for Systems Biology

Gut Health News

Uppsala University

Nature Communications

ScienceDirect

Your Gut or Your Blood: What Affects Your Health More? Read More »

Fruits and vegetables spread out on a table

Can Dietary Fiber Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?

Diet, Disease / By @drHoberman

Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease: Dietary Fiber on Your Brain

How much dietary fiber you eat each day reveals a lot about how healthy your body and your gut really are…

Unfortunately, less than 10 percent of all American adults eat the amount of dietary fiber their bodies need to maintain their good health, according to recent findings from the American Society For Nutrition (ASN).

This dietary fiber deficit has led to serious health problems related to the heart (inflammation and circulatory issues), not to mention diabetes, that often start in the human gut.

Add an elevated risk of Alzheimer’s disease to the growing list of health problems related to a lack of dietary fiber, according to researchers at LSU Health New Orleans.

The Inflammatory Path to Alzheimer’s

LSU scientists recently discovered the pathway that a potent neurotoxin — lipopolysaccharide (LPS) — takes from its creation in the gut to the brain in a study appearing in Frontiers in Neurology.

Considered the most inflammatory class of neurotoxic chemicals in the human body, many laboratories have detected different forms of LPS in the neurons of brains harmed by Alzheimer’s disease, says Dr. Walter Lukiw, co-lead researcher on this study and a professor at the LSU Health School of Medicine.

Based on their work with human and animal brain cells, scientists learned LPS generates a “messenger molecule” that travels from the gut through the bloodstream and to the brain, where it shrinks cells, increases inflammation and robs neurons of their signaling abilities, Lukiw says.

Although this new information has the potential to offer new treatments for neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, the better news here is that we can lessen the production of LPS in our bodies very simply by increasing the daily amount of fiber we eat in our daily diets.

More Fiber and Healthier Brain

So, if eating more fiber is good for your gut and your brain, how much do you really need and where do you get it?

Generally, men need a bit more dietary fiber (30-38 grams) than women (21-25 grams) depending on their ages (people over age 50 require a little less fiber).

Eating about 30 grams of fiber may sound challenging, but it really amounts to 1 powerful ounce of protection for your health. And, it’s very doable if you enjoy nutrient-dense whole foods like fruits (raspberries and mangoes), vegetables (green beans, cauliflower), legumes (chickpeas and lentils), oats and mushrooms.

But that’s not all you can do, especially if you want to give your gut and your health some extra protection…

Taking a probiotic with proven strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families and a prebiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic does a lot of good behind the scenes by enhancing the natural fermentation of fiber that feeds your gut and protects your brain!

References

Frontiers in Neurology

NOLA.com

LSU Health New Orleans

American Society For Nutrition

Can Dietary Fiber Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease? Read More »

The Aging Gut 101

Diet, Disease, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

The Aging Gut 101: Healthy Aging, Healthy Gut

“Does my gut age just like the rest of me?”

We get this question a lot, especially from older folks who are starting to understand the connection between the gut and their health in ways that matter directly to them, like maintaining their bones and preserving their cognitive skills.

The simple answer: The composition of bacteria in your gut evolves with time just like your body. Your microbiome develops rapidly from infancy to age 3, stabilizes through middle age, then changes rapidly later in life, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Those changes can be a good thing. In fact, the more your gut bacteria evolves as you age, the better your overall health may be, based on recent research appearing in Nature Metabolism.

Your Evolving Gut

This study compared a wealth of data on human health along with gut microbiome genetic sequencing data on more than 9,000 patients ranging from ages 18-101.

However, the real focus of the research team (led by scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology) was a subset of more than 900 older patients (ages 78-98) to better understand the makeup of their microbiomes and how they matched up with their overall health.

To the good, older adults whose microbiomes kept evolving enjoyed better overall health, as evidenced by lower levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, higher vitamin D levels and more beneficial blood metabolites produced by the gut (including one that reduced inflammation and extended lives in previous animal studies).

Not only did those with more unique microbiomes feel better, they experienced greater overall mobility and could walk faster than their peers whose gut health didn’t change as much with age.

To the bad, patients with less diverse microbiomes took more medications and were nearly twice as likely to die during the course of the study.

Scientists also learned that microbiome uniqueness was more prevalent among women, which may go a long way toward explaining why women often outlive men…

Your Diet Matters

So, what drives microbial evolution and longevity among seniors? The healthiest patients with the most dramatic shifts in their microbiomes experienced steep drops in Bacteroides, a species commonly found in people who eat more processed foods and far less fiber.

When patients eat less fiber, the Bacteroides in their guts have little to eat which can trigger an immune response leading to chronic inflammation and an array of age-related conditions from arthritis to heart disease.

These results certainly mirror previous articles we’ve shared about the many health benefits of dietary fiber, especially if you want to maintain a resilient, healthy gut microbiome that evolves as you age.

How much fiber your body needs every day to maintain optimal health depends on your gender — men need a bit more (31-38 grams) than women (21-25 grams) — and the quality of your diet.

Are You Taking A Probiotic?

If you’re having challenges getting enough fiber, taking a daily probiotic formulated with proven strains of beneficial bacteria and a prebiotic can do a lot of good.

Taking a probiotic with a prebiotic may also reduce low-grade inflammation. This was the key finding in a recent review of studies appearing in Nutrients.

One of the real benefits of taking a probiotic comes from the production of butyrate (short-chain fatty acids created when your gut digests soluble fiber) that reduces chronic low-grade inflammation in your gut.

If you’ve been looking for a good probiotic, find one with multiple strains of beneficial and proven bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families plus a prebiotic that feeds the good guys in your gut, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

National Institute on Aging

Nature Metabolism

New York Times

Gut Microbiota For Health

Nutrients

Nutraingredients Asia

The Aging Gut 101 Read More »

Illustration of a digestive system and a curled arm showing bicep muscle. Text: Your gut and muscle growth

How Gut Affects Muscle Growth

Diet, Digestive Health, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Your Gut and Growing Muscles

Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your body, whether it’s strength training, swimming, tai chi or walking.

What’s more, the benefits of exercise — from losing weight and reducing your risks of serious disease to strengthening your bones and muscles — are many and well-proven.

We already know exercise changes our gut for the better based on the production of butyrate, short-chain fatty acids that protect your gut from more harmful bacteria.

Did you know the health of your gut microbiome may affect the growth of your muscles too?

The Antibiotic Angle

Researchers at the University of Kentucky put this question to the test by taking an interesting approach using 42 female mice.

During the nine-week trial, some mice were fed water laced with a variety of low-dose antibiotics, no friend to the gut, while others were fed plain water. During this period all test animals had access to running wheels to encourage exercise.

No surprise, the muscles of mice that were fed antibiotics didn’t grow nearly as much as the group protected from antibiotics, although both sets of test animals exercised for about the same amount of time.

Of course, these results provoke new questions regarding the kinds of antibiotics used and whether the gender of the test animals really made as difference.

The fact remains that there is a connection between the presence of specific gut bacteria and muscle growth, according to Dr. John McCarthy, and associate professor at the University of Kentucky.

McCarthy cited a recent study in Nature Medicine that linked endurance for elite marathon runners and mice to the abundance of a specific species of gut bacteria (Veillonella).

The goal here isn’t limited only to improving athletic performance. This growing body of knowledge will help to identify substances made by gut bacteria to promote muscle growth among people dealing with cancer or aging, says study co-author Taylor Valentino.

The Lesson Learned

For now, no matter what researchers learn about muscle growth, our take-home message remains pretty simple…

Even after taking in all of this research, we’re still learning about the wide-ranging benefits the gut has to offer as well as the many problems associated with antibiotics.

If you have concerns about what to do when you’re prescribed an antibiotic by your family physician, be sure to take a look at our recently updated antibiotic protocol for guidance.

Antibiotics have a depleting effect on the bacteria in your gut that keep your immune system strong and healthy. One of the easiest and most effective ways to protect and support is to take a probiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic, formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families, about two hours before that scheduled antibiotic.

That extra time gives those beneficial bacteria to make it to your gut and protect your gut, the center of your immune system.

Resources

The Journal of Physiology

The Physiological Society

Harvard Medical School

MedlinePlus

Clinical OMICs

Nature Medicine

How Gut Affects Muscle Growth Read More »

Yellow illustration of a gut with a magnifying glass being held up to it and showing probiotic bacteria while enlarged red illustrations of coronavirus are being smashed against the gut illustration and breaking

Does Diet Affect Covid Symptoms?

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

How Your Gut Health May Affect The Severity of the Coronavirus

Eating a poor diet like the typical Western diet — full of processed foods full of sugar, fats, and refined grains — creates all kinds of problems for your health related to your gut.

For starters, these nutrient-poor diets increase your risks of obesity and your vulnerability to a cluster of serious health conditions (cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer) known as metabolic syndrome.

Now, some health experts believe unhealthy diets may also increase your risks of a more severe case of the coronavirus too, based on a recent review of research published in mBio, the journal of the American Society of Microbiology.

Another Culprit: Leaky Gut

The report stems from a question posed by Dr. Heenan Stanley Kim, a microbiologist at Korea University’s Laboratory for Human Microbial Interactions: Why are countries like the U.S with solid medical infrastructures being hit so hard by the coronavirus?

As we know very well, the common link, the Western diet already disrupts the healthy balance of bacteria in the gut.

Another gut health problem Dr. Kim points to is leaky gut, a condition in which breakdowns in the intestinal wall allow toxic waste products, undigested food, bacteria and viruses to break through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream.

Leaky gut may be a pathway in which the coronavirus spreads from the gut into the bloodstream and other organs in the body, leading to more severe cases. (A healthy gut supported by the presence of butyrate may block that kind of response.)

Rebalancing Your Gut

This report supports a study we shared with you recently that found a link between imbalances in the gut and the severity of coronavirus. Its chief finding: The guts of coronavirus patients contained fewer strains of beneficial bacteria that could muster an immune system response.

What’s more, studies appearing in other medical journals (Gastroenterology and Clinical Infectious Diseases) in 2020 have found similar links to gut health imbalances and the coronavirus, so there’s a likely connection.

Fortunately, you can improve the health of your gut very easily by taking some simple steps.

First and foremost, it’s critical to eat a healthy, balanced diet, especially when you’re prescribed an antibiotic, a well-known disruptor to your gut health.

Make sure that diet includes a daily “dose” of dietary fiber. Just 1 ounce (30 grams) is all it takes and that’s pretty easy to do, especially if you enjoy eating strawberries, lentils, beans, apples, and whole grains.

Another way to ensure the bacteria in your gut stay in balance: Take a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotics,‑with 10 buildings blocks from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families, plus a prebiotic (FOS) that feeds the good bacteria in your gut.

Resources

mBio

Gut Microbiota For Health

Mayo Clinic

Clinical Infectious Diseases

Gastroenterology

Does Diet Affect Covid Symptoms? Read More »

Graphic of dietary fiber foods: carrots, bananas, broccoli, and cabbage.

The Benefits of Dietary Fiber

Disease, Healthy Aging, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Are you eating enough dietary fiber to protect the health of your gut?

You may be eating lots of fiber in your diet if you enjoy…

Fruits (raspberries and mangoes)
Legumes (lentils and chickpeas)
Vegetables (cauliflower, green beans)
Chocolate (the darker kinds with more cocoa)
Popcorn (just skip the butter)
Oats and barley
Mushrooms

Many foods claim to have lots of fiber in them. Even processed foods like corn or potato chips and fruit juices contain some fiber, but it’s far less compared to more minimally processed foods.

Understanding dietary fiber

To really understand dietary fiber is to know the differences between the different kinds: Soluble (the kind dissolved by water) and insoluble (the kind not dissolved by water).

Both soluble and insoluble fiber are good and come in different amounts depending on what you’re eating.

Insoluble fiber works best in your gastrointestinal tract by “attracting” water to your stool, making it easier to pass with less stress on your bowel.

Conversely, soluble fiber is dissolved by water and fermented into beneficial by-products including short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs).

What are the benefits?

When you digest fiber-rich foods, your gut generates a number of beneficial SCFAs. One of them — butyrate — provides nourishment for healthy bacteria, but that’s not all.

Butyrate acts to strengthen the structural integrity of the gut, protecting it from leaky gut, a problem created when breakdowns in the intestinal wall allow undigested food and other toxic waste products to seep into the bloodstream.

Butyrate also improves heart health by lessening problems with inflammation and the presence of fatty plaque that can clog arteries — a sure sign of atherosclerosis.

Eating more soluble fiber also delays the emptying of your stomach, which promotes more fullness, meaning you won’t feel the need to each as much as you did before.

In fact, a very recent review of studies, appearing in the medical journal Nutrients, underscored these important benefits and generally reported healthy alterations of gut bacteria among patients.

How much dietary fiber do you need for your health?

Despite all the good dietary fiber can do, the quality of your diet and the amount of fiber you consume each day determines how much you’ll really benefit.

Eating the right amount of fiber every day can be a challenge, especially for men who need a bit more of it (30-38 grams) than women (21-25 grams), depending on age.

That problem can be more difficult if you’re always eating on the go and your diet is chock full of highly processed, sugary and fatty foods, the kinds with little to no fiber content.

Adding roughly 30 grams of fiber may sound like a lot yet, in reality, that amounts to about 1 powerful ounce of protection.

But that’s not all you can do…

Taking a probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic with 10 strains of beneficial bacteria and the prebiotic FOS (fructooligosaccharide) enhances the natural fermentation of fiber that feeds your gut and protects your health.

If you’ve been wanting to lose weight, you may want to consider EndoMune Metabolic Rescue, a special probiotic/prebiotic blend that stimulates the production of hormones in your gut and decreases your appetite.

References

Nutrients

Science

Frontiers in Immunology

American Heart Association

Harvard Health Blog

Healthline

The Benefits of Dietary Fiber Read More »

heart and stethoscope being held by mother and daughter

How Eating Dietary Fiber Promotes Heart Health

Diet, Digestive Health, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

One of the easiest and best things you can do to give your health a much needed boost is to eat more foods rich in dietary fiber.

When you hear people talking about eating more dietary fiber (found in whole grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables), it’s mostly associated with treating.

However, eating more dietary fiber — the indigestible parts of plant foods that pass through your lower gastrointestinal tract relatively intact — does a lot to promote good heart health too.

Based on previous research, it doesn’t take eating a whole lot more dietary fiber to make a heart-healthy difference. But the hows and whys have been a mystery to scientists…

A recent study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UCLA and the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) may go a long way toward explaining the reasons behind this gut-healthy benefit that gets far less attention than it should.

The fatty acid connection

Wisconsin scientists identified one species of gut bacteria — Roseburia — linked to the production of the beneficial fatty acid butyrate in the guts of germ-free mice. Conclusions from the study appearing in Nature Microbiology showed reduced inflammation and atherosclerosis.

But there’s one catch: The presence of Roseburia alone wasn’t enough.

Feeding mice a high-fiber diet was the catalyst that provided extra protection. Even test animals who had Roseburia in their gut microbiomes but not enough fiber in their diets just didn’t produce enough butyrate to make a heart-healthy difference.

To ensure their high-fiber results were valid, researchers fed germ-free mice that lacked butyrate-producing bacteria a slow-release version of butyrate that would survive intact through their gastrointestinal tract.

No surprise, the presence of butyrate alone reduced signs of atherosclerosis and inflammation along with the amount of fatty plaques.

Leaky gut issues

This study really underscores the important link between dietary fiber and gut health, given previous research that found human patients with cardiovascular disease had diminished levels of gut bacteria and butyrate-producing Roseburia.

Not to mention, the presence of leaky gut, a condition in which unintended substances penetrate the vulnerable intestinal lining of the gut and into the bloodstream, is linked in a huge way to inflammation.

The good news: It doesn’t take much dietary fiber to make a big difference in your health. Increasing your intake of dietary fiber by 1 ounce (30 grams) can lower your cardiovascular risks and help you lose weight too.

In addition to eating a bit more dietary fiber every day, taking a probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria and a prebiotic like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic can do a lot of good by promoting the natural fermentation process that feeds and protects your gut.

How Eating Dietary Fiber Promotes Heart Health Read More »