Can high-protein drained yogurt alter microbiome in obese women?

Denmark: The recent study published in the Journal of Functional Foods says that, obese women consuming long-term high-protein drained yogurt (Skyr) on daily basis were associated with altered fecal short chain fatty acid.

Fermented foods have acquired popularity due to their capacity to offer live microorganisms with specialized enzymatic activity, as well as fermentation metabolites, which may play a role in health promotion or illness prevention. As a result, Fariba Ghiamati Yazdi and colleagues undertook this study to see what effect long-term daily ingestion of a Skyr has on intestinal microbial ecology and fermentation activity in a free-living population of overweight and obese women.

For this study, the Skyr breakfast group (n=11) and breakfast omitting groups (n=18) were mixed due to COVID-19 constraints. The study was completed by 29 women in total. Participants in the research varied in age from 20 to 29 years old, with BMIs ranging from 24.2 to 44.4 kg/m2. The Skyr and control groups had median BMIs of 30.2 and 29.7 kg/m2 at baseline, and 30.5 and 29.2 kg/m2 by day 112, respectively.

The key findings of this study were as follow:

1. Skyr cultures had around 2.0109 colony forming units (CFU)/g of cultivable bacteria, which included Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, glucose, lactate, lactose, galactose, acetate, and formate.

2. With baseline, S. salivarius and S. thermophilus were found in all subjects at cell counts ranging from 6.4 to 10.0 log cells/g.

3. The abundance of the Skyr cohort rose considerably on days 42 and 112.

4. Similarly, L bulgaricus cell counts were considerably higher among Skyr users on days 42 and 112.

5. The a-diversity of the fecal microbiota was comparable between cohorts at baseline and day 42.

6. The variety had diminished by day 112 as compared to control people, but the change was not significant.

"These findings outline the possibility of a customized fermented dairy product with specified starter cultures or process conditions in personalized nutrition or focused microbiome engineering," said the Authors in conclusion.

Reference:

Ghiamati Yazdi, F., Barner Dalgaard, L., Li, Q., Ruscheweyh, H.-J., Thøgersen, R., Christine Bertram, H., Hansen, M., & Schwab, C. (2022). Long-term daily high-protein, drained yoghurt consumption alters abundance of selected functional groups of the human gut microbiota and fecal short-chain fatty acid profiles in a cohort of overweight and obese women. In Journal of Functional Foods (Vol. 93, p. 105089). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2022.105089