| Health / Health News |
Human Gut Microbe Could Make Processed Foods Healthier
A new study sheds light on how human gut microbes break down processed foods, especially potentially harmful chemical changes often produced during modern food manufacturing processes.
Human gut microbe could make processed foods healthier. Photo: Eaters Collective/Unsplash
Scientists have identified a specific human gut bacterial strain that breaks down the chemical fructoselysine, and turns it into harmless byproducts.
Fructoselysine is in a class of chemicals called Maillard Reaction Products, which are formed during food processing. Some of these chemicals have been linked to harmful health effects.
These findings raise the prospect that it may be possible to use such knowledge of the gut microbiome to help develop healthier, more nutritious processed foods.
Human gut microbial communities see foods as collections of chemicals. Some of these chemical compounds have beneficial effects on the communities of microbes living in the gut as well as on human health.
The gut microbiome plays a vital role in a baby's early development, with healthy gut microbes contributing to healthy growth, immune function, and bone and brain development. But modern food processing can generate chemicals that may be detrimental to health. Such chemicals have been associated with inflammation linked to diabetes and heart disease.
The researchers are interested in understanding the complex interactions between human gut microbes and the chemicals that are commonly consumed as part of a typical American diet.
In the new study, the researchers showed that a specific bacterium called Collinsella intestinalis breaks down the chemical fructoselysine into components that are harmless.
Fructoselysine is common in processed food, including ultra-pasteurized milk, pasta, chocolate and cereals. High amounts of fructoselysine and similar chemicals in the blood have been linked to diseases of aging, such as diabetes and atherosclerosis.
When fed a diet containing high amounts of fructoselysine, mice harboring Collinsella intestinalis in their gut microbial communities showed an increase in the abundance of this bacteria as well as an increase in the gut microbial communities' ability to break down fructoselysine into harmless byproducts.
This specific bacterial strain thrives in these circumstances. And as it increases in abundance, fructoselysine is metabolized more efficiently.
Close cousins of Collinsella intestinalis did not respond to fructoselysine in the same way. These bacterial cousins, whose genomes vary somewhat, do not thrive in a fructoselysine-rich environment.
The researchers said future studies are required before scientists will be able to identify and harness the specific capacities of individual microbes to clean up the array of potentially deleterious chemicals produced during some types of modern food manufacturing. (Tasnim News Agency)
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