Funded in part by Almond Board of California
Effects of almond and pistachio consumption on gut microbiota composition in a randomised cross-over human feeding study
Ukhanova M, Wang X, Baer DJ, Novotny JA, Fredborg M, Mai V
The British journal of nutrition · 115 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Mechanisms only
- Intake measured by
- Food provided by researchers
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Industry funded
- Industry group
- Almond Board of California
Based on 1 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2014-03-18 · Br J Nutr · vol. 111 · issue 12 · pp. 2146–2152
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Cited
- 153 citations · more than 97% of similar papers · 6.3× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 28 works
- Access
- Free to read
- Research areas
- Nuts composition and effects · Nutritional Studies and Diet · Diet and metabolism studies
- Keywords
- Food science, Gut flora, Composition (language), Biology, Biochemistry
- MeSH
- gastrointestinal tract, intestines, intestinal mucosa, feces, humans, gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, bifidobacterium, fungi, pistacia, prunus, nuts, mycological typing techniques, cross-over studies, principal component analysis, maryland, functional food, lactobacillales, prebiotics, molecular typing
6 authors
From US, DK
- Maria UkhanovaUniversity of Florida
- Xiaoyu WangUniversity of Florida
- David J. BaerAgricultural Research Service; Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center
- Janet A. NovotnyAgricultural Research Service; Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center
- Marlene FredborgAarhus University; University of Florida
- Volker Mai · correspondingUniversity of Florida
Abstract
The modification of microbiota composition to a 'beneficial' one is a promising approach for improving intestinal as well as overall health. Natural fibres and phytochemicals that reach the proximal colon, such as those present in various nuts, provide substrates for the maintenance of healthy and diverse microbiota. The effects of increased consumption of specific nuts, which are rich in fibre as well as various phytonutrients, on human gut microbiota composition have not been investigated to date. The objective of the present study was to determine the effects of almond and pistachio consumption on human gut microbiota composition. We characterised microbiota in faecal samples collected from volunteers in two separate randomised, controlled, cross-over feeding studies (n 18 for the almond feeding study and n 16 for the pistachio feeding study) with 0, 1·5 or 3 servings/d of the respective nuts for 18 d. Gut microbiota composition was analysed using a 16S rRNA-based approach for bacteria and an internal transcribed spacer region sequencing approach for fungi. The 16S rRNA sequence analysis of 528 028 sequence reads, retained after removing low-quality and short-length reads, revealed various operational taxonomic units that appeared to be affected by nut consumption. The effect of pistachio consumption on gut microbiota composition was much stronger than that of almond consumption and included an increase in the number of potentially beneficial butyrate-producing bacteria. Although the numbers of bifidobacteria were not affected by the consumption of either nut, pistachio consumption appeared to decrease the number of lactic acid bacteria (P< 0·05). Increasing the consumption of almonds or pistachios appears to be an effective means of modifying gut microbiota composition.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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