According to a study issued in eBioMedicine, a cup of beans per day enhances the gut microbiome. Moreover, it also regulates the host markers that have an association with metabolic obesity and colorectal cancer.
Xiaotao Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, along with his colleagues, did a low-risk, non-invasive dietary intervention. He targeted the gut microbiota of obese patients with a history of colorectal neoplasia. Moreover, 55 patients were randomly told to continue their usual diet without beans or add a daily cup of study beans to their usual diet after a four-week equilibrium.
The researchers discovered that 87% of patients finished the 16-week trial. It showed an increase in variety and shifts in numerous bacteria, indicating prebiotic efficacy in intervention. For example, increased faecalibacterium, eubacterium, and bifidobacterium.
Researchers saw parallel shifts in dietary and microbiome-derived metabolites in the circulating metabolome, including increased pipecolic acid and decreased indole. Nevertheless, these shifts regressed when the diet was returned to normal. Within eight weeks, there were no significant changes in circulating lipoproteins. However, there were increases in proteomic indicators of intestinal and systemic inflammatory response, fibroblast-growth factor-19, and a decrease in interleukin-10 receptor-α.
The authors wrote,
Adding one cup of navy beans to the diet on all or most days of the week was a safe, scalable dietary strategy to modulate the gut microbiome of high-risk patients, who may be unwilling or unable to sustain more dramatic changes to their usual dietary pattern without substantial support,
