EATING key foods can ‘reprogram’ your gut to make you healthier and slash your risk of diseases, scientists say.
Having plenty of fibre has previously been linked to a lower risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and bowel cancer.
Not to mention, fibre-rich foods can help you got to the bathroom regularly and keep you fuller for longer, according to the NHS.
Recent research has even linked a daily fibre supplement to improved brain function and lower risk of Alzheimer’s.
Now, scientists at DTU National Food Institute and the University of Copenhagen say they’ve got to the bottom of why fibre can be so beneficial to our health.
At the heart of this process is an essential amino acid called tryptophan, which is found in foods like turkey, cheese, and eggs.
When it reaches our gut, tryptophan is transformed by bacteria into a variety of compounds.
These bacteria compete to use the amino acid, converting it into substances that can either be harmful or beneficial to our health.
The research, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, revealed that eating lots of fibre can help gut bacteria help transform tryptophan into healthy substances.
But if we don’t eat fibre, tryptophan can be converted into harmful compounds by our gut bacteria.
“These results emphasise that our dietary habits significantly influence the behaviour of gut bacteria, creating a delicate balance between health-promoting and disease-associated activities,” Tine Rask Licht, a professor at DTU National Food Institute, said.
“In the long term, the results can help us design dietary programs that prevent a range of diseases.”
Dietary fibre – known as roughage – refers to the carbohydrates found in plants that doesn’t get digested into your small intestine.
Instead, it’s only broken down in your large intestine and it’s essential for keeping your gut working normally, according to the The Association of UK Dietitians.
It’s found in foods like:
According to the NHS, most of us don’t eat enough fibre on a daily basis.
It recommends consuming about 30g a day.
Scientists said eating fibre can boost health by reprogramming the gut, preventing the conversion of tryptophan into harmful substances and instead promoting its conversion into beneficial substances.
Anurag Kumar Sinha, a researcher at DTU National Food Institute. explained: “The gut bacterium E. coli can turn tryptophan into a harmful compound called indole, which is associated with the progression of chronic kidney disease.
“But another gut bacterium, C. sporogenes, turns tryptophan into healthy substances associated with protection against inflammatory bowel diseases, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological diseases,” he added.
Researchers conducted a series of experiments on in bacterial cultures and mice to shed light on a process is known as cross-feeding.
When we eat fibre, certain bacteria break it down into simple sugars.
Most adults only eat about 20g of fibre a day, but government guidelines say our dietary fibre intake should increase to 30g a day
Make sure you’re getting your fibre from a number of sources, not just one.
The NHS recommends doing the following to increase your intake:
Source: NHS
These sugars become food for other bacteria, including some that would otherwise be busy converting tryptophan into indole.
As they’re too focused on breaking down fibre-derived sugars, these bacteria produce less indole, leaving more tryptophan available for other bacteria to convert into beneficial compounds.
Anurag Kumar Sinha, another scientist involved in the study, explained: “B. thetaiotaomicron – gut bacteria that degrades fibre – assists by breaking down fibres into simple sugars, which E. coli prefers over tryptophan for growth.
“The sugar components from the fibres prevent E. coli from turning tryptophan into indole, thereby allowing C. sporogenes to utilise tryptophan for the production of healthy compounds.
Fibre has long been touted for promoting healthy bacteria in the gut.
But researchers said their study showed that fibre can not only help modify the types of bacteria in the gut – leading to a healthier composition – it can also influence the behaviour of gut bacteria in ways that boost health.
Martin Frederik Laursen said: “As a research community we need to change focus from viewing gut bacteria and their abundances strictly as either good or bad – to instead understand how we make our gut bacteria behave good or bad.”
This could help scientists develop better diet recommendations that for keeping our gut healthy and preventing diseases, researchers said.
