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

lastresort

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Pretty much the title. My PhD was in novel food innovation and I have been working on developing new dietary, prebiotic fibers for diverse gut health for a few years now.

It's thursday evening and I am bored. Ask me almost anything.

Mods, please delete if not allowed. SOZ in advance.

NOTE: I cannot give you any explicit nutritional advice, so pleasn't ask questions like "how much protein shold I eat? Shold I do exercise?"
 
Last edited:
To prevent diarrhea or constipation from GLPs, common advice is soluble fiber like psyllium husk.

Any other fiber advice regarding diarrhea or constipation from GLPs?
 
Calm Logic said:
To prevent diarrhea or constipation from GLPs, common advice is soluble fiber like psyllium husk.

Any other fiber advice regarding diarrhea or constipation from GLPs?
Click to expand...
Insoluble fibers such as green bananas and viscous fibers like oat beta glucans can improve your stools by bulking and increasing stool moisture. They are also good for gut bacteria in general.
 
Nerd here. How are you measuring success for new prebiotics that you're working on? Are you measuring the microbiota, some sort of imaging? Also, what types of hypotheses are you most interested in in your space?
 
LongevitybroTX said:
Nerd here. How are you measuring success for new prebiotics that you're working on? Are you measuring the microbiota, some sort of imaging? Also, what types of hypotheses are you most interested in in your space?
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It depends on a few things: Market needs, clinical evidences, and customer awareness. Our company is very conservative in terms of scientific rigor, and we are meticulous about quality of available clinical evidence. We also have a marketing team that measures cumulative business needs often in million dollar units.

You never actually get to "test" hypotheses as a corporate scientist like an academic scientis would because you have to follow your business demands. We did however recently do a clinical trial on a new fiber to test metabolic benefits and natural GLP-1 responses. Unfortunately, it was somewhat lackluster.

Currently, there is a huge focus on delivering satiety, natural GLP-1 responses, metabolic health benefits not as a standalone fiber, but a fiber that is applicable in food matrices.
 
lastresort said:
Pretty much the title. My PhD was in novel food innovation and I have been working on developing new dietary, prebiotic fibers for diverse gut health for a few years now.

It's thursday evening and I am bored. Ask me almost anything.

Mods, please delete if not allowed. SOZ in advance.

NOTE: I cannot give you any explicit nutritional advice, so pleasn't ask questions like "how much protein shold I eat? Shold I do exercise?"
Click to expand...
I believe that there is a lot more to the gut on overall health, including mental health. What are your thoughts on this?

What do you think are the best things to add to and remove from a diet to maximize gut health?
 
IronCircuit said:
I believe that there is a lot more to the gut on overall health, including mental health. What are your thoughts on this?

What do you think are the best things to add to and remove from a diet to maximize gut health?
Click to expand...
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.
 
lastresort said:
Pretty much the title. My PhD was in novel food innovation and I have been working on developing new dietary, prebiotic fibers for diverse gut health for a few years now.

It's thursday evening and I am bored. Ask me almost anything.

Mods, please delete if not allowed. SOZ in advance.

NOTE: I cannot give you any explicit nutritional advice, so pleasn't ask questions like "how much protein shold I eat? Shold I do exercise?"
Click to expand...
Are the healthiest gut foods still kimchi and L. Reuteri yoghurt or are there any better ones?
 
AgingRegenDamaged said:
Are the healthiest gut foods still kimchi and L. Reuteri yoghurt or are there any better ones?
Click to expand...
Kimchi is great as a "synbiotic" that is a mix of prebiotic (cabbages) and probiotic (lactic acid bacteria), but in my personal opinion lactic acid bacteria are just Okay....LABs are one hell of bullies when it comes to suppressing pathogens, but honestly thats where it ends. Same goes for yogurt.

So yeah keep eating those, but I would add green banana resistant starch and oat brans.
 
How does fiber impact insulin sensitivity, what about fiber in a pre-workout carb meal (maybe for constant energy)?

And one of my biggest questions:
Two people have the same calorie maintenance, same body composition, same workout, and the same day for 365 days. Both go into a caloric deficit and eat the same meals, high protein, etc. BUT Person A builds a good amount of 25–30 g fiber into his diet, while Person B doesn't.

What difference will there be after 1 year in their journey? Will one person have lost more fat and maybe protected more lean mass? Give me anything you know.
 
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.
 
lastresort said:
Pretty much the title. My PhD was in novel food innovation and I have been working on developing new dietary, prebiotic fibers for diverse gut health for a few years now.

It's thursday evening and I am bored. Ask me almost anything.

Mods, please delete if not allowed. SOZ in advance.

NOTE: I cannot give you any explicit nutritional advice, so pleasn't ask questions like "how much protein shold I eat? Shold I do exercise?"
Click to expand...
I was wondering if you have any thoughts on KPV or KLOW? My wife has always had stomach issues. I don’t want her to try it because she had a recent tumor, but I have also read that it can have some healing effects.
 
Donstofikus said:
I was wondering if you have any thoughts on KPV or KLOW? My wife has always had stomach issues. I don’t want her to try it because she had a recent tumor, but I have also read that it can have some healing effects.
Click to expand...
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.
 
You mentioned green bananas. I read an article a while ago that inulin, found in them, was good for digestion and your overall health. I've been adding 2 tsp of powdered inulin to my coffee every morning. Is this adequate? I tried green bananas as I'll pass on those.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that thorough explanation. I'll look for powdered green bananas!
 
IronCircuit said:
What are the fibers you recommend?
Click to expand...
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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