New publication in the Journal Nature Metabolism
| by Ana Depetris Chauvin
With great pleasure, we share that our work “Resistant starch intake facilitates weight loss in humans by reshaping the gut microbiota” has been published in the Journal Nature Metabolism.
Obesity, excessive fat accumulation that could present a health risk, has nearly tripled worldwide in the last 50 years. Although not a disease per se, obese people are at major risk for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and some cancer types.
In our article published in Nature Metabolism, we investigated the effects of a diet supplemented with resistant starch (a fermentable dietary fiber that feeds the gut microbiota) on weight loss in obese people. Resistant starch helped patients lose weight and improve insulin sensitivity. Interestingly, these effects appeared to depend on the reshaping of the gut microbiome after consuming a daily dose of resistant starch for 4 weeks. We confirmed the causal relationship between resistant starch, the gut microbiome, and health outcomes in a mouse model of obesity. Moreover, we found that a specific bacterial species, Bifidobacterium adolescentis, significantly contributed to weight and fat loss and improved lipid absorption and gut barrier integrity.
Our work is a first step towards developing personalized lifestyle approaches that can help better manage health in a Westernized world.
MBD members Jun Li (alumni), Yueqiong Ni, Prof. Gianni Panagiotou, and external collaborators contributed to the study. We are very grateful to all our collaborators and funding sources from the European Commission (Horizon Europe) and the German agency DFG, who make this work possible.
If you want to learn more about our study, follow us on Twitter (@MBD_lab) and read our Thread highlighting the most relevant results.
Original Publication
Li H#, Zhang L#, Li J#, Wu Q#, Qian L, He J, Ni Y, Kovatcheva-Datchary P, Yuan R, Liu S, Shen L, Zhang M, Sheng B, Li P, Kang K, Wu L, Fang Q, Long X, Liu X, Wang X, Li Y, Ye Y, Ye J, Bao Y, Zhao Y, Xu G, Panagiotou G*, Xu A*, and Jia W* (2024). Resistant starch intake facilitates weight loss in humans by reshaping the gut microbiota. Nature Metabolism. DOI: 10.1038/s42255-024-00988-y
# These authors contributed equally to this work.
*Corresponding authors.
Figure Caption: Resistant Starch helps reduce weight and improve insulin sensitivity in a clinical trial. Green bananas, beans, and legumes are natural food sources rich in resistant starch. Image: SewcreamStudio-stock.adobe.com