Pasta enriched with healthy fibres, called beta-glucans, can boost the good bacteria in the gut and also reduce bad cholesterol, a new study has found.
People fed beta-glucan-enriched pasta for two months showed increased populations of beneficial bacteria in their intestinal tracts, and reduced populations of non-beneficial bacteria.
They also showed reduced LDL (bad) cholesterol, researchers said.
The study was part of a broad effort to identify potential prebiotics - foods that could encourage the growth of health-promoting bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.
Beta-glucans are healthy fibres that humans cannot digest, but that can be digested by some species of our gut bacteria. They are special types of sugars that are found in the cell walls of certain microbes, as well as in oats and barley.
Beta-glucans are used clinically against diabetes, cancer, and high cholesterol, as well as to boost the immune systems of people whose immunity has been compromised by radiation, chemotherapy, stress, and other conditions.
The researchers hypothesised that by feeding study subjects beta-glucan-enriched pasta, they could modify the species composition of the gut bacteria, possibly leading to improved human health, said co-author Maria De Angelis, professor in the Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari Aldo Moro in Italy.
In the study, the researchers took fecal and blood samples before and after the study subjects spent two months on diet that included beta-glucan-enriched pasta.
At the study's end, assays of the fecal samples showed a notable increase in beneficial Lactobacilli, and a reduction in Enterobacteriaceae, and other non-beneficial bacteria in subjects' gastrointestinal tracts.
The researchers also discovered an unanticipated rise in the concentration of certain short chain fatty acids, 2-methyl-propanoic, acetic, butyric, and propionic acids, bacterial metabolites, for which there is evidence of anti-inflammatory activity.
From the blood samples, the researchers determined that the average LDL cholesterol among the study subjects had fallen from 107.4 to 93.8 milligramme per decilitre.
The beta-glucan-enriched pasta was made from a mixture of 75 per cent durum wheat flour and 25 per cent whole grain barley flour.
The daily dose of pasta, 100 grammes, contained 3 grammes of barley beta-glucans, the recommended daily dose in the US and in Europe.
"These results highlight the influence of fibres and of the Mediterranean diet on gut microbiota, and indirectly on human health," said De Angelis.
The study was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
