The effects of fermented rye products on gut microbiota and their association with metabolic factors in Chinese adults - an explorative study.

Rye is among the cereals with the highest content of dietary fibre. A high rye food intake has been associated with improved metabolic risk factors in some but not all observational and intervention studies. Whole-grain rye has also been suggested to affect the gut microbiota in individuals with metabolic syndrome. However, it is yet unclear to what extent effects on the gut microbiota mediate the beneficial metabolic responses of whole-grain rye intake. We hypothesized that a high intake of whole grain rye products containing fermented rye bran (FRB) vs. refined wheat based products (RW) could alter the gut microbiota and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) composition towards a phenotype associated with beneficial metabolic effects in a population not used to such foods. For this purpose, we conducted a post hoc analysis of a 12-week randomized controlled trial in Chinese adults with Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection, with 53 participants consuming RW and 31 participants consuming FRB included in the analysis. Anthropometric measurements and fasting blood and fecal sample analyses as well as 13C-urea breath test were performed at baseline and after a 12-week intervention. At week 12, we observed a higher serum insulin concentration (P-value = 0.038) in the FRB group (n = 31) versus the RW group (n = 53), and this difference was corroborated with alterations in the genus-level relative abundances of the gut microbiota, represented by an increase in Romboutsia and a reduction in Bilophila in the FRB group (n = 22) versus the RW group (n = 46). Compared to the RW group (n = 53), fecal acetic acid concentration was significantly higher in the FRB group (n = 31) at week 12. We also found that fecal acetic and butyric acids positively, while isobutyric, isovaleric and 2-methylbutyric acids inversely, correlated with the gut Romboutsia level among all participants (n = 68) at week 12. We found positive correlations of fecal isobutyric, isovaleric and 2-methylbutyric acids with gut Bilophila (n = 68). In conclusion, our results suggest that the intake of high-fibre rye products could modify gut Romboutsia and Bilophila in a Chinese population with HP infection. These effects are paralleled with favorable modifications of the SCFA concentration and are associated with altered glycemic traits.

Effects of whole-grain wheat, rye, and lignan supplementation on cardiometabolic risk factors in men with metabolic syndrome: a randomized crossover trial.

BACKGROUND: A whole-grain (WG)-rich diet has shown to have potential for both prevention and treatment of the metabolic syndrome (MetS), which is a cluster of risk factors that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Different WGs may have different health effects. WG rye, in particular, may improve glucose homeostasis and blood lipids, possibly mediated through fermentable dietary fiber and lignans. Recent studies have also suggested a crucial role of the gut microbiota in response to WG. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to investigate WG rye, alone and with lignan supplements [secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG)], and WG wheat diets on glucose tolerance [oral-glucose-tolerance test (OGTT)], other cardiometabolic outcomes, enterolignans, and microbiota composition. Moreover, we exploratively evaluated the role of gut microbiota enterotypes in response to intervention diets. METHODS: Forty men with MetS risk profile were randomly assigned to WG diets in an 8-wk crossover study. The rye diet was supplemented with 280 mg SDG at weeks 4-8. Effects of treatment were evaluated by mixed-effects modeling, and effects on microbiota composition and the role of gut microbiota as a predictor of response to treatment were analyzed by random forest plots. RESULTS: The WG rye diet (± SDG supplements) did not affect the OGTT compared with WG wheat. Total and LDL cholesterol were lowered (-0.06 and -0.09 mmol/L, respectively; P < 0.05) after WG rye compared with WG wheat after 4 wk but not after 8 wk. WG rye resulted in higher abundance of Bifidobacterium [fold-change (FC) = 2.58, P < 0.001] compared with baseline and lower abundance of Clostridium genus compared with WG wheat (FC = 0.54, P = 0.02). The explorative analyses suggest that baseline enterotype is associated with total and LDL-cholesterol response to diet. CONCLUSIONS: WG rye, alone or with SDG supplementation, compared with WG wheat did not affect glucose metabolism but caused transient LDL-cholesterol reduction. The effect of WG diets appeared to differ according to enterotype. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02987595.