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

[lastresort]

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?"

 

[Calm Logic]

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?

 

[lastresort]

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?

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.

 

[LongevitybroTX]

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?

 

[lastresort]

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?

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.

 

[IronCircuit]

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?"

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?

 

[ColdSmoke]

Does BPC-157 really improve gut health?

 

[lastresort]

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?

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]

Does BPC-157 really improve gut health?

That is not my field, sorry.

 

[AgingRegenDamaged]

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?"

Are the healthiest gut foods still kimchi and L. Reuteri yoghurt or are there any better ones?

 

[BNLFL]

Wife and I do a scoop of Oat Bran in our lunch time protein shake, good fiber and worth it?

 

[lastresort]

Are the healthiest gut foods still kimchi and L. Reuteri yoghurt or are there any better ones?

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.

 

[lastresort]

Wife and I do a scoop of Oat Bran in our lunch time protein shake, good fiber and worth it?

Yes!

oat brans are great for diversifying good bacteria (Bacteroides and Parabacteroids) that helps utilizing other fibers too.

 

[dondada109]

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.

 

[lastresort]

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.

 

[Donstofikus]

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?"

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.

 

[lastresort]

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.

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.

 

[Estarossa19]

Will those David protein bars make me leak

 

[lastresort]

Will those David protein bars make me leak

Lol probably no. But if they have maltitol, polydextrose, sorbitlo or any fast fermenting sugar alcohol/oligosaccharides, you might produce a biiiiig brap.

 

[Chili777]

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.