Diet & Circulating Short-Chain Fatty Acids
Continuing from my last post on healthy gut microbiota, you may start wondering how the gut microbiota can affect our health. One proposed mechanism is via the production of short-chain fatty acids from food, which is a complex and dynamic saccharolytic fermentation process mediated by both human and gut microbial factors.
A randomized, controlled, crossover trial reported the temporal changes in short-chain fatty acid concentrations in response to 2 contrasting diets, a diet with high adherence to WHO healthy eating recommendations and a typical Western diet.[1] The unhealthy western diet was found to associate with a lower concentration of circulating short-chain fatty acids.[1] The results provide evidence supporting the roles of short-chain fatty acids mediating the effects of gut-brain axis.