Research reveals power of dietary fibers to balance healthy or harmful substances in gut

26 Jun 2024 --- Scientists from DTU National Food Institute and the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that different types of bacteria in the colon compete to use tryptophan, an essential amino acid and that dietary fibers determine the outcome in favor of good health.

“These results emphasize that our dietary habits significantly influence the behavior of gut bacteria, creating a delicate balance between health-promoting and disease-associated activities. In the long term, the results can help us design dietary programs that prevent a range of diseases,” says Tine Rask Licht, a professor at DTU National Food Institute.

Fruits, vegetables and whole grains contain healthy dietary fibers. Tryptophan can only be obtained through the diet because the body cannot synthesize them. Protein-rich foods serve as sources of tryptophan, including chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, legumes, nuts and seeds.

The research, published in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology, found when we eat many dietary fibers, gut bacteria help turn tryptophan into healthy substances. But if we don’t eat enough fiber, our gut bacteria can convert tryptophan into harmful compounds.

Battle over tryptophan
Researchers have known that dietary fibers are converted into healthy short-chain fatty acids by gut bacteria in the colon for a long time. However, they have now discovered that it determines the battle over tryptophan and influences the bacteria to behave healthily.

The new study also shows that dietary fibers contribute to good health by preventing the conversion of the amino acid tryptophan into harmful substances and promoting its conversion into beneficial substances in the colon.

“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,” Anurag Kumar Sinha, researcher at DTU National Food Institute, explains.

Through multiple experiments in bacterial cultures and mice, the researchers demonstrated that fiber-degrading gut bacteria such as B. thetaiotaomicron regulate the indole-forming activity of E. coli. 

“B. thetaiotaomicron assists by breaking down fibers into simple sugars, which E. coli prefers over tryptophan for growth. The sugar components from the fibers prevent E. coli from turning tryptophan into indole, allowing C. sporogenes to use tryptophan to produce healthy compounds,” says Sinha.

Getting to the root of health outcomes
Dietary fibers alter the composition and quantity of bacteria in the gut microbiome. However, merely examining the composition and abundance of gut microbial species does not say much about their impact on health.

“The gut microbiome research field has had a strong focus on assessing effects, for example, of diet on the quantity of potentially good or bad gut bacteria, but often neglect that diet can regulate the gut bacteria’s activity without necessarily making major changes in the number of bacterial species in the colon,” says an associate professor at DTU National Food Institute, Martin Frederik Laursen.

Dietary fibers modify the types of bacteria in the gut for a healthier composition and influence the behavior of gut bacteria in ways that promote health.

“As a research community, we need to change focus from viewing gut bacteria and their abundances strictly as either good or bad, to understand instead how we make our gut bacteria behave good or bad,” says Laursen.

This understanding can help scientists develop better dietary recommendations for healthy gut rituals and to prevent disease.

In other dietary fiber research, scientists from the University of Minnesota and Brightseed spotlighted more reasons to prioritize fiber in our regular diets. The study reveals that each plant source of insoluble fiber contains bioactives that may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.