Butyrate, found in whole milk, is linked to supporting gut health.
Image Credit: nensuria/iStock/GettyImages If you’re looking for food sources of butyrate, your Google search may be coming up short. While you may have heard that butyrate is good for your gut health, not many foods supply your body with butyrate — your intestines actually create it all by themselves.
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Incorporating some more high-fiber foods can help increase your body's butyrate production levels, among other benefits. So, next time you're at the grocery store, take a peek at the fiber content of your foods.
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What Is Butyrate?
Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that’s produced in the small intestines, according to a January 2018 review published in Advances in Nutrition. It goes by a few different names: butyrate acid or butanoic acid.
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The good gut bacteria in your intestines produce butyrate when they ferment dietary fiber, a form of carbohydrate your body can't digest.
Foods to Get More Butyrate Butyrate is a fatty acid your own body produces and there are foods that can spur its production. Foods high in fiber typically promote the production of butyrate, as your intestines ferment and digest the food.
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Each day, you should aim to get between 21 and 38 grams of fiber (the recommended range differs between sex), according to the Mayo Clinic. While many processed foods are fortified with fiber, you'll want to prioritize healthy whole-food fiber sources.
Related Reading 40 Foods High in Fiber for Good Gut Health Whole Grains As whole grains contain all parts of the original grain (the bran, germ and endosperm), they are higher in nutrients than refined grains, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Whole grains are excellent sources of fiber, which can help produce butyrate.
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They're also beneficial for heart health and may help improve cholesterol levels and may lower the risk of heart disease, according to the AHA. Additionally, whole grains are great sources of iron and magnesium.
Some examples of whole grains, per the Mayo Clinic, include:
Oatmeal Rye Barley Brown rice Popcorn Bulgar
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Fruits and Vegetables
While most fruits and vegetables will add some fiber to your diet, some pack in more than others. Some fruits high in fiber, according to the Mayo Clinic, include:
Raspberries: 8 grams of fiber per cup Pears: 5.5 grams of fiber per medium pear Apples: 4.5 grams of fiber per medium apple
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Vegetables that are high in fiber include the following, per the Mayo Clinic:
Green peas: 9 grams per cup Broccoli: 5 grams per cup Turnip greens: 5 grams per cup
Leafy greens are another low-calorie option that can add some volume and fiber to any meal.
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Full-Fat Dairy
High-fat dairy is a good source of butyrate — that includes the following foods, per a September 2018 study in Food Control and a June 2016 review in Neuroscience Letters:
Cheese Yogurt Butter
Although full-fat dairy is considered butyrate-producing food, it is important to limit eating or drinking it because it’s high in saturated fat and cholesterol. The AHA recommends getting no more than 5 to 6 percent of your total daily calories from saturated fat.
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Butyrate Benefits
It Supports Gut Health Butyrate is known for having beneficial effects on your overall gut health, according to the January 2018 review in Advances in Nutrition. The fatty acid helps maintain intestinal homeostasis and helps your body create energy.
Advertisement It’s possible that the presence of more butyrate in the gut can be helpful for people with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, per that same review. Butyrate also helps strengthen the barrier in your intestines and can promote immune health.
It’s Linked to Less Inflammation Low levels of the fatty acid are linked to an increased risk of both colorectal cancer and inflammatory gut diseases, per an August 2018 report in Nutrients, suggesting that butyrate might help fend off inflammation.
It May Improve Sleep In a study done with mice, administering butyrate increased their non-rapid-eye movement sleep, according to results published in Scientific Reports in May 2019. More research is needed to understand if these same sleep-enhancing benefits of butyrate apply to humans.
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references
Advances in Nutrition: "Butyrate: A Double-Edged Sword for Health?" AHA: "Whole Grains and Fiber" Mayo Clinic: "High-Fiber Foods" Food Control: "Assessment of Milk Fat Content in Fat Blends by 13C NMR Spectroscopy Analysis of Butyrate Nutrients: "Beneficial Effect of Intestinal Fermentation of Natural Polysaccharides" AHA: "Saturated Fat" Mayo Clinic: "Whole grains: Hearty options for a healthy diet"references
Advances in Nutrition: "Butyrate: A Double-Edged Sword for Health?" AHA: "Whole Grains and Fiber" Mayo Clinic: "High-Fiber Foods" Food Control: "Assessment of Milk Fat Content in Fat Blends by 13C NMR Spectroscopy Analysis of Butyrate Nutrients: "Beneficial Effect of Intestinal Fermentation of Natural Polysaccharides" AHA: "Saturated Fat" Mayo Clinic: "Whole grains: Hearty options for a healthy diet"Butyrate, found in whole milk, is linked to supporting gut health. Image Credit: nensuria/iStock/GettyImages
Image Credit: nensuria/iStock/GettyImages
40 Foods High in Fiber for Good Gut Health
Advances in Nutrition: "Butyrate: A Double-Edged Sword for Health?"
AHA: "Whole Grains and Fiber"
Mayo Clinic: "High-Fiber Foods"
Food Control: "Assessment of Milk Fat Content in Fat Blends by 13C NMR Spectroscopy Analysis of Butyrate
Nutrients: "Beneficial Effect of Intestinal Fermentation of Natural Polysaccharides"
AHA: "Saturated Fat"
Mayo Clinic: "Whole grains: Hearty options for a healthy diet"
