I am a food scientist specializing in gut health and fibers. AMA.

There are powdered green bananas, I recommend that. It's not super tasy, but it works well in apple and strawberry smoothies.

Inulin and green banana resistant starches are very different. Inulin is a fructan - chain of fructose. Resistant starch in green banana is what we call, type 2 resistant starch: crystalline starch granules that don't digest in our body as long as it's not cooked, and acts as fibber.

Inulin ferment fast in proximal (ascending) colon. IT's considered a gold standard of fiber in the current market, but clinical research shows that it is more modulatory for people with some metabolic disease such as glucose impairment and hypercholesterolemia, not so much for healthy people. It feeds bifidobacteria which are important immune-boosting bacteria, so that's great and all but health benefit wise, it's meh. Also, beacuse it ferments in only the first part of colon, it neglects middle (transversal) and distal (descending) colon. This is important because the distal colon is where colon cancer is often found.

Resistant starch such as green banana ferment more slowly throughout the gut, and feeds more diverse array of bacteria. Plenty of clinical evidences for healthy populations and obese populations that it reduces blood glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, and fat mass.
 
lastresort said:


I don't know anything about KPV or KLOW because...they are not food.

Are you talking about actual stomach? small or large intestine?What are these exact issues.

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Sorry, I thought since you were in this forum that you were also talking peptides.
 
lastresort said:


Oh absolutely.

From disease perspective, think of your body as a factory, and colon as your waste management. Now, imagine if the "border' between the waste management and the rest of the body erodes. All the metabolic toxins such as uremic toxins, branched fatty acid, ammonia, etc, leak into your "factory," causing all kinds of issues. Leaky gut is a real thing.

From health perspective, bacteria in our gut is responsible for directly affecting gene expressions of enterocytes, managing gut lining integrity, neurological health, suppressing pathogenic bacteria like E.Coli or Strep, producing beneficial micronutrients such as vitamins. So yes, they are important.

Studies show that probiotics are not really effective because you are basically sending troops without rations. They have to be maintained by eating fibers to which your gut bacteria are conducive to. We have several hundred , or even thousands, species in our gut, and they respond differently to different fibers.

We could always eat more fibers and reduce excessive fat and sugar.

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What are the fibers you recommend?
 
lastresort said:


There are powdered green bananas, I recommend that. It's not super tasy, but it works well in apple and strawberry smoothies.

Inulin and green banana resistant starches are very different. Inulin is a fructan - chain of fructose. Resistant starch in green banana is what we call, type 2 resistant starch: crystalline starch granules that don't digest in our body as long as it's not cooked, and acts as fibber.

Inulin ferment fast in proximal (ascending) colon. IT's considered a gold standard of fiber in the current market, but clinical research shows that it is more modulatory for people with some metabolic disease such as glucose impairment and hypercholesterolemia, not so much for healthy people. It feeds bifidobacteria which are important immune-boosting bacteria, so that's great and all but health benefit wise, it's meh. Also, beacuse it ferments in only the first part of colon, it neglects middle (transversal) and distal (descending) colon. This is important because the distal colon is where colon cancer is often found.

Resistant starch such as green banana ferment more slowly throughout the gut, and feeds more diverse array of bacteria. Plenty of clinical evidences for healthy populations and obese populations that it reduces blood glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, and fat mass.

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Thanks for that thorough explanation. I'll look for powdered green bananas!
 
IronCircuit said:


What are the fibers you recommend?

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For general health, it doesn't have to be complicated. Fruits and vegetables are good sources, but I really recommend berries and apple. Fleshy fruits have medley of fibers like pectin, celluloe, arabinogalactans, xyloglucan. It's good to have a mix of fibers than a single source.

But if you really want targeted health benefits...these are what I would consider:

  1. Oat brans, Green banana powders, and xylo-oligosaccharides* for metabolic health, satiety and weight management.
  2. Carrot fibers to reduce flatulence.
  3. Yeast beta glucans for immunity
  4. partially hydrolyzed galactomannan (guar gum hydrolysate), potato resistant starch for improved stool
  5. Inulin as a general health maintenance (note: avoid if you have inflammed gut)
*Xylooligosaccharides are not considered fibers under FDA definition for some reason...even though it is clinically proven to be beneficial.

There are other fibers that have been tested but they are not available for consumer purchases because they were specifically developed for just research, and they are prohibitively expensive.
 
I know I am not the expert here, but psyllium husk is interesting, it is the only fiber I know of that can actually reduce diarrhoea. And there are a few scientific papers on the subject. Having ulcerative colitis in "remission" but with ongoing symptoms, plus or minus ibs-d, it actually worked, and probably reduced pain as well, until the GLP drugs slowed my gut down to the point where it caused constipation, and I had to stop it.

But it could be useful for those with GLP induced diarrhoea which is fairly common.
 
What are the "worst" food products for guts microflora? I believe these are all kinds of fast food and highly processed products, but maybe there's something else I do not know about?
 
lastresort said:


Oof....that goes into endocrinology, which I cannot answer fully.

But I can say this. Fibers ferment in our body into short chain fatty acids, namely acetate, propionate, and butyrate. These short chain fatty acids directly affect gene expression in our organs, namely liver. Acetate and propionates are known to downregulate gluconeogenesis in liver, which helps attenuate glucose levels and increase glycogenesis instead. Also, short chain fatty acids induce anti-inflammatory cytokines and downregulate inflammatory cytokines that impair signal pathways for insulin. I hope that makes sense?

As for your second question, its hard to determine the exact health outcomes from the diets alone. Each person has different gut flora, right? However, I would guess that high protein meals without any fiber (which is kinda unlikley in real scenario) will shift the gut fermentation from saccharolytic (sugar-releasing) to proteolytic (protein fermenting). Proteolytic gut fermentation produces toxins such as urea, sulfur oxides, nitrogenous compounds, branched chain fatty acids that are known to damage gut linings. Also, pathogenic bacteria can dominate the gut and cause general GI symptoms such as too much fart, constipation, diarrhea, etc.

Gut health is something you should maintain in a long term.

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I eat a ketogenic diet and I am almost completely 'fart free', I have no bad excrement and I feel good with consistent levels of energy.

I do have a little yoghurt and kimchi daily and sometimes eat keto bread but it's hard to justify it daily given how it costs more than a whole pound of pastured meat.
 
lessthanhalf said:


Allulose is actually fairly interesting. Another sugar substitute, definitely not fibre. Ever since seeing several papers showing erythritol was associated with increased risks of stroke and bbb damage ) not proven but suggestive, I needed to find an alternative and nearly everything in the shops has erythritol in it.

Allulose does not raise blood sugar and has been shown in more than one rodent study to reduce weight even at fairly small intakes , sadly no human studies on weight, but the animal studies are definitely good enough to justify them. And I cannot find any studies showing negative effects.

The way food additives are regulated is weird, once they get approved as " generally regarded as safe" it takes a lot of evidence for them to get taken off the market. So by far the most commonly used artificial sweetener ( or at least bulk agent in them ) is at best of doubtful safety, and there is some evidence erythritol, which is also naturally produced by the body is associated with increased cardiovascular risk.

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Did you know it was a Korean company (my homeland!) that lobbied it hard for it to be excluded from the added sugar label?
 
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