Impacts of plant-based foods in ancestral hominin diets on the metabolism and function of gut microbiota in vitro.

ABSTRACT:

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Ancestral human populations had diets containing more indigestible plant material than present-day diets in industrialized countries. One hypothesis for the rise in prevalence of obesity is that physiological mechanisms for controlling appetite evolved to match a diet with plant fiber content higher than that of present-day diets. We investigated how diet affects gut microbiota and colon cells by comparing human microbial communities with those from a primate that has an extreme plant-based diet, namely, the gelada baboon, which is a grazer. The effects of potato (high starch) versus grass (high lignin and cellulose) diets on human-derived versus gelada-derived fecal communities were compared in vitro. We especially focused on the production of short-chain fatty acids, w

SUBMITTER: Frost GS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4030449 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature