Here's another reason to include more fibre-rich foods in your diet. According to a latest study a high-fibre diet reduces brain inflammation during ageing. Dietary fibre promotes the growth of good bacteria in the gut. When these bacteria digest fibre, they produce short-chain-fatty-acids (SCFAs), including butyrate, as by-products, explained the researchers.
"Butyrate is of interest because it has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties on microglia and improve memory in mice when administered pharmacologically," said Rodney Johnson of University of Illinois.
The findings showed that in old mice, that butyrate inhibits production of damaging chemicals by inflamed microglia. One of those chemicals is interleukin-1ß, which has been associated with Alzheimer's disease in humans.
The researchers were more interested in knowing whether the same effects(as exhibited by sodium butyrate) could be obtained simply by feeding the mice more fibre. "People are not likely to consume sodium butyrate directly, due to its noxious odour," Johnson said. "A practical way to get elevated butyrate is to consume a diet high in soluble fibre." The concept takes advantage of the fact that gut bacteria convert fibre into butyrate naturally.
"We know that diet has a major influence on the composition and function of microbes in the gut and that diets high in fibre benefit good microbes, while diets high in fat and protein can have a negative influence on microbial composition and function. Diet, through altering gut microbes, is one way in which it affects disease," said Jeff Woods, co-author on the study.
The researchers fed low- and high-fibre diets to groups of young and old mice, then measured the levels of butyrate and other SCFAs in the blood, as well as inflammatory chemicals in the intestine.
"The high-fibre diet elevated butyrate and other SCFAs in the blood both for young and old mice. But only the old mice showed intestinal inflammation on the low-fibre diet," Johnson said. "It's interesting that young adults didn't have that inflammatory response on the same diet. It clearly highlights the vulnerability of being old."
Interestingly when old mice consumed the high-fibre diet, their intestinal inflammation was reduced radically, showing no difference between the age groups. The researchers postulate that dietary fibre could play an instrumental role in managing the inflammatory environment in the gut.
The researchers then went on to study the signs of inflammation in the brain. For doing this, they examined about 50 unique genes in microglia and found the high-fiber diet reduced the inflammatory profile in aged animals.
Fibres are chiefly found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes. Apple, banana, orange, strawberry, pears, avocado and mangoes are some fruit with highest fibre content. Among vegetables all leafy greens, gourd vegetables, carrots, beets, broccoli are known to have high quantum of fibre.
(With Inputs ANI)