Currently browsing posts about: Microbiome

I read about this one in NutraIngredients.com.

While previous animal studies have suggested a significant impact of the gut microbiota on the development and maturation of brain networks that underlie emotional behaviour, fewer studies have been conducted on humans. Intake of a galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) prebiotic over 3 weeks has been shown to lower the secretion of the stress hormone cortisol and emotional processing in healthy adults, suggesting that GOS intake may be useful in modifying anxiety-related psychological mechanisms. However, reviews and meta-analyses on the efficacy of prebiotics for reducing anxiety symptomology are mixed, calling for further well controlled trials in human participants.

I am always curious to know who pays for this kind of research, so I looked up the study.

Anxiolytic effects of a galacto-oligosaccharides prebiotic in healthy females (18-25 years) with corresponding changes in gut bacterial composition.  Nicola Johnstone , Chiara Milesi , Olivia Burn, Bartholomeus van den Bogert, Arjen Nauta , Kathryn Hart , Paul Sowden, Philip W J Burnet, Kathrin Cohen Kadosh.   Sci Rep 2021 Apr 15;11(1):8302.

The study: “We examined multiple indices of mood and well-being in 64 healthy females in a 4-week double blind, placebo controlled galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) prebiotic supplement intervention and obtained stool samples at baseline and follow-up for gut microbiota sequencing and analyses. We report effects of the GOS intervention on self-reported high trait anxiety, attentional bias, and bacterial abundance, suggesting that dietary supplementation with a GOS prebiotic may improve indices of pre-clinical anxiety.”

Conflict of interest statement: AN is an employee of FrieslandCampina, Amersfoort, The Netherlands. BvdB reports co-ownership of MyMicroZoo, Leiden, The Netherlands with no financial benefit from contributions to this manuscript. NJ, CM, OB, KH, PS, PWJB and KCK declared no financial or potential conflicts of interest.

Comment:  Probiotics are microorganisms that maintain a healthy microbiome.   They are typically found in fermented foods like yogurt.  Prebiotics are substances in food—or, in this case, supplements—that feed probiotic microbes.  This prebiotic supplement is GOS, a complicated chain of sugar molecules that is found in milk.

Why would an employee of FrieslandCampina want to do this study?  “Milk is the foundation of everything we do at FrieslandCampina.”

Why would a co-owner of MyMicroZoo be interested?  “The MyMicroZoo analysis shows the composition of your microbiota, and gives insight into how to improve your vitality.”

I’m all for eating yogurt (but watch out for the added sugars).  But GOS supplements?  Pardon my industry-induced skepticism.

Why, you must be asking, am I even asking a question like this?

Because of this study, obviously, which I somehow missed when it came out in August (thanks to toxicologist Marc Stifelman for sending it to me).

The study: Cabbage and fermented vegetables: From death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID‐19.  Bousquet U, et al.  Allergy.  2020 Aug 6;10.1111/all.14549. Online ahead of print.

The hypothesis:

CAUTION:  Correlation does not necessarily mean causation.  The diets—and other lifestyle characteristics—of people in Romania and Latvia differ from those in the UK and Italy in other ways besides diet; other differences might well account for these variations.

Personally, I love cabbage in any form.

But for prevention of bad outcomes from Covid-19, I’m counting on vaccination, not kimchi or sauerkraut.

NutraIngredients.com, one of those industry newsletters I follow closely, publishes numerous articles on probiotics, gut health, and the microbiome.  I have a few examples here, but let’s start with this one:

• Postbiotics show promise, even if method of action is unclear:  The use of postbiotics could be an attractive alternative to prebiotics in immunocompromised children and adults, according to a recent review. But the lack of a definition of the term is still a complicating factor in determining effectiveness.

Postbiotics?  For this, a glossary may help:

• Probiotics:  Beneficial microbes in the intestinal tract
• Prebiotics:  Food substances that promote the growth of probiotics
• Synbiotics:  Probiotics and Prebiotics together
• Postbiotics:  Bioactive substances produced by probiotics (e.g., microbial cells, cell constituents, metabolites).
• Parabiotics:  Heat-killed microorganisms

More articles on these topics:

• Bill Gates: ‘Probiotics key to solving malnutrition’:  Probiotics could be key in addressing malnutrition, according to Bill Gates, who calls the nutritional imbalances affecting around 200 million children under five ‘the greatest health inequity in the world.’ Read more
• Gut health collaboration: Carbiotix and Food Marble to team up over microbiome health research:  Swedish gut health analysis player Carbiotix is set to collaborate with Dublin-based digestive health tracking firm Food Marble to conduct an eight week study to understand the correlation between digestive health data and gut microbiome data. Read more
• Microbiome profiling: Study uncovers ‘comprehensive’ list of organisms that make a healthy gut:  There are 157 organisms that form the ‘baseline biome’ of a healthy human gut, according to new research published in PLoS One. Read more
• Study: Gut health most influenced by teams of bacteria:  Gut microbial species work in teams to perform different functions, suggesting that cultivating certain groups of bacteria is more important than single species, according to an international team of researchers. Read more
• Strategic thinking: Brilliant science is only half of the battle for microbiome success:  When it comes to commercialising microbiome-related products, having really amazing science is only 50% of the journey towards market success, says industry expert Julian Mellentin… Read
• Nespresso-style gut health: Bioengineer creates personalised probiotic yoghurt machine:  A Swedish startup is on a mission to make yoghurt truly good for the gut with a kitchen counter machine that makes personalised probiotic and prebiotic filled yogurts, the founder tells NutraIngredients ahead of her debut as a Probiota Pioneer next month… Read
• Pioneering scientists create designer prebiotics to disrupt the microbiome health space:  A team of top scientists leading the way in designer prebiotics has been selected as one of the most pioneering startups in the microbiome health industry… Read
• Prebiotics stamp authority in deciding gut health and overall wellbeing:  Studies pointing to prebiotics as modulators of the microbiome-gut-brain axis could see the non-digestible food ingredient become a basis for preventing the rise in obesity and diabetic cases… Read
• Hitting a nerve: The link between vagal stimulation, the gut and depression:  Recognising biologically similar pathways in those with depression could result in a precision led approach that points people towards more effective methods to address the neurological condition… Read

And Natural Products Insider has a report on prebiotic supplements available for downloading.

I spotted some tweets about this study from Washington Post writer Tamar Haspel, who has a sharp eye for this sort of thing.  Her first tweet said:

Her second tweet explained the problem:

So of course I had to look up the study.  It’s not one I would ordinarily have noticed because its title does not use the word “probiotic,” which typically refers to the live bacteria (in yogurt, for example).  The evidence for benefits of probiotics is iffy, so this study raises lots of questions.

Let’s take a look at it:

The Study:  Supplementation with Akkermansia muciniphila in overweight and obese human volunteers: a proof-of-concept exploratory study. Depommier C, et al.  Nature Medicine (2019) Letter | Published: 01 July 2019.

Conclusion: I’ve left out the statistics to make this easier to read:  “Compared to placebo, pasteurized A. muciniphila improved insulin sensitivity…, and reduced insulinemia…and plasma total cholesterol…. Pasteurized A. muciniphila supplementation slightly decreased body weight…compared to the placebo group, and fat mass…and hip circumference…compared to baseline….In conclusion, this proof-of-concept study…shows that the intervention was safe and well tolerated and that supplementation with A. muciniphila improves several metabolic parameters.”

Competing interests:  Five of the authors “are inventors of patent applications…filed with [patent offices in at least 12 countries]…dealing with the use of A. muciniphila and its components in the context of obesity and related disorders.” Two of the authors are cofounders of A-Mansia Biotech S.A., a Belgian company that sells A. muciniphila supplements, presumably as weight-loss supplements.

Comment: As Haspel points out, the subjects in this study were given either (a) live bacteria, (b) Pasteurized (and, therefore, mostly dead) bacteria, or (c) a placebo.  The Pasteurized ones were associated with metabolic benefits and weight loss.  Pasteurization is what gets done to milk to kill most—not all—of the living bacteria it contains.  In this study, Pasteurized bacteria had the same effect on the microbiome as the unpasteurized.  The point of the study was to show that the Pasteurized supplement would induce weight loss; the observed loss, however, was not statistically significant.   Nature Medicine‘s editors should know better.  So should the New York Times’ editors.  Haspel points out that the New York Times account of the study accepted its conclusion uncritically, headlining it “A Probiotic for Obesity?”  At least the headline included a question mark.  The article did not mention the authors’ patents or conflicts of interest; it should have.

Bottom line: If you want to keep your microbiome healthy, eat a healthy diet.

The food industry is intensely interested in personalized nutrition because it can create and sell products appeared to be aimed directly at individual lifestyles and preferences.

This approach is aimed much more at marketing than it is about public health.

With that said, take a look at how the food industry is using this idea.

Special Edition: Personalized Nutrition

The future is personal, but the revolution is already taking place around us. Innovative science is combining with entrepreneurial endeavor to bring personalized nutrition to our fingertips.

Personalized nutrition is breaking down the silos and bringing together experts in genetics and genomic profiling, microbiology, nutrition and diet, mobile technology, big data, healthcare and more.

In this special edition we talk to the pioneers and experts in this sector, the scientists and the emerging brands, and the tech developers bringing the personalized nutrition future to the present day.

• Personalized nutrition approaches helping to drive evolution of supplement retailing: Personalized nutrition is being folded into the ongoing evolution of retailing in the dietary supplement space, market experts say… Read
• Research backs personalized nutrition process, even if data on customized products lacks, expert says: While personalized nutrition proponents like to push the benefits of the approach, there is little research that backs the notion that products customized for individual consumers lead to better health outcomes than do more generic formulas. But that misses the point, said one expert… Read
• Persona CEO: ‘Chase the shiny new technology that has a big price tag – that’s not always the best solution’: Is a lifestyle questionnaire ‘personal’ enough for personalized nutrition? Persona’s founder and CEO Jason Brown talks about growing a business in the personalized nutrition space.. Read
• Personalized nutrition ‘milestone’: InsideTracker data validates algorithmic platform to improve wellness: Data from 1,033 generally healthy individuals using InsideTracker shows that the automated, web-based personalized nutrition platform is capable of normalizing serum biomarker levels in healthy subjects… Read
• Food selfies and data: Nutrino wants to make personalized nutrition easier for users:A mathematician and an engineer bootstrapped a nutrition-tech company about seven years ago. Their goal was to create a platform that documents the diverse ways human bodies extract nutrition from food… Read
• ‘Hyper-personalised’ recommendations: Spoon Guru targets global domination with growing list of partnerships:UK food tech start-up Spoon Guru has a goal of becoming the dominant technology platform for users looking for product recommendations based on specific lifestyle goals or dietary needs, says co-founder and CEO Markus Stripf, as the company looks to increase its partners globally and launch in the USA… Read
• Nordic Group: Nutrigenomics needs to be ‘done with integrity’ – it’s too early for direct consumer models: Nutrigenomics is gaining plenty of attention but it remains extremely complex and unadapted to direct-to-consumer models, says the MD of Nordic Group – owner of DNA Life and more recently AthGene… Read
• Lux Research: ‘It’s paramount that microbiome data is used for personalized nutrition’: A new market research report explores how the personalized nutrition space can elevate itself beyond “just recommending diets” and become an integral part of preventive health care… Read
• Weight loss presents ‘lucrative’ opportunity in nutrigenomics, says analyst: Nutrigenomics remains a growing niche within the burgeoning personalised nutrition trend but there is significant potential to spark mass market appeal with a focus on weight loss, says a consumer expert… Read

Here is another one of Food-Navigator USA’s collections of articles on specific topics from the food industry’s perspective.  This one is about the endlessly fascinating microbiome, and the probiotics (beneficial bacteria) and prebiotics (substances that feed beneficial bacteria) that keep it healthy.

Special Edition: Digestive health

As pre- and probiotics continue to gain traction in the food and supplement arena, and interest in all things fermented – from sauerkraut to kombucha – gathers pace, we explore how food and beverage manufacturers can tap into growing interest in digestive health, how to market and position products on a digestive health platform without getting into legal hot water, plus new research into the relationship between gut bacteria and health.

• Evolve BioSystems: We’re facing a ‘generational loss’ of critical gut bacteria in infants: Research into the gut microbiome suggests that the ‘generational loss’ of a specific variety of beneficial bacteria – B. infantis – in the infant gut could increase the risk for a range of health problems later in life, from allergies to obesity. But to what extent can this risk be reduced through dietary interventions, and are these interventions only effective if we make them at a certain life stage?.. Read
• Functional foods gain traction as alternative to OTC digestive remedies: At the crossroad of Americans’ increasingly sedentary work- and lifestyles and their demand for decadent food is a growing need for digestive remedies and an opportunity for supplements and fortified foods to edge out over-the-counter treatments that come with unwanted side effects, according to research from Euromonitor… Read
• Nutrition Facts overhaul proves double-edged sword for inulin: The arrival of the new-look Nutrition Facts panel (which will require manufacturers to list added sugar), is generating renewed interest in inulin: a widely-used ingredient from chicory root that also serves as a sugar replacer. But this enthusiasm is tempered with uncertainty over whether it will be classified as a dietary fiber… Read
• Plant-based calcium and mineral complex offers digestive health potential: Red seaweed-derived calcium complex Aquamin is best-known for its bone health benefits, but could also emerge as a force to be reckoned with in the digestive health arena, predicts Cork-based brand owner Marigot… Read
• BC30 probiotic may help with plant protein digestion, according to new Ganeden-backed study: Plant protein, when digested with a patented probiotic strain, increased bioavailability of amino acids in the upper gastrointestinal tract, leading to a healthier colon environment, according to an in vitro study conducted at Maastricht University… Read
• Soup-To-Nuts Podcast: Separating fact from fiction when formulating with probiotics: Once restricted to a handful of products, such as yogurt, probiotics are enjoying unprecedented popularity and are popping up in unexpected places with many bold health claims, but not everything consumers or manufacturers hear about probiotics is true… Listen now
• Timing of probiotic consumption ‘unimportant’ for colonization: Study: Should probiotics be consumed on an empty stomach or with a meal? A new study from the University of Milan suggests it doesn’t matter… Read
• Do fermented foods contain probiotics? Not necessarily, says Ganeden: Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, and yogurts containing ‘live and active cultures’ are healthy and tasty, but they are not necessarily packed with probiotics, says Ganeden Inc, the Ohio-based firm behind one of the best-known probiotic strains, BC30 (Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086)… Read
• Evolve BioSystems completes series B financing to fund commercialization of products: California-based microbiome company Evolve BioSystems has completed a $20 million Series B financing to fund the commercialization of its initial products… Read
• Farmhouse Culture raises $6.5m in financing round led by Gen Mills 301 INC, unveils new sparkling probiotic line: A $6.5m funding round led by General Mills’ 301 INC arm will help Farmhouse Culture – which specializes in fresh organic sauerkraut, sauerkraut chips and fermented ‘gut shots’ – expand its distribution and support new launches, including a new sparkling probiotic beverage… Read
• Safe for babies: FDA has no objections to GRAS status of Ganeden’s BC30 probiotic strain for use in infant formula: The FDA has no objections to Ganeden BC30s GRAS status for use in infant formulas, the company announced this week… Read
• Brew Dr Kombucha poised for growth as fermented trend gains momentum: According to SPINS data*, retail sales of refrigerated kombucha and fermented beverages** surged 32% to $375.4m (natural, specialty, conventional multi-outlet) in the year to October 2, but with household penetration still very low, there is still significant opportunity for growth, says the founder and CEO of one fast-growing player… Read
• Probiota Americas built around cutting edge research: Experts from diverse research fields including infant health, skin health and global microbial demographics will expand the view of the microbiome at the upcoming 2017 IPA World Congress + Probiota Americas on June 7-9 in San Francisco… Read