Background Data
- For a very thorough overview of Traditional Indian Functional Foods and their benefits, please read this paper by Krishnapura Srinivasan.
- Eat Your Curry – The role of gut bacteria in modulating gastrointestinal physiology is increasingly being appreciated. In a recent issue of Cell, Dey, et al. (2015) report how a single dietary ingredient—turmeric—interacts with gut bacteria to alter gastrointestinal motility.
- Mixed Spices at Culinary Doses Have Prebiotic Effects in Healthy Adults: A Pilot Study – Mixed spices consumption significantly modified gut microbiota, suggesting a prebiotic effect of spice consumption at culinary doses.
- Twelve Weeks of Daily Lentil Consumption Improves Fasting Cholesterol and Postprandial Glucose and Inflammatory Responses—A Randomized Clinical Trial – daily lentil consumption may be helpful in lowering cholesterol and postprandial glycemic and inflammatory responses without causing GI stress.
- Lentil ( Lens culinaris Medikus) Diet Affects the Gut Microbiome and Obesity Markers in Rat, Niroshan Siva, et., al. J Agric Food Chem. 2018
Abstract
Lentil, a moderate-energy high-protein pulse crop, provides significant amounts of essential nutrients for healthy living. The objective of this study was to determine if a lentil-based diet affects food and energy intake, body weight, percent body fat, liver weight, and body plasma triglycerides (TGs) as well as the composition of fecal microbiota in rats. A total of 36 Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with either a standard diet, a 3.5% high amylose corn starch diet, or a 70.8% red lentil diet for 6 weeks. By week 6, rats fed the lentil diet had significantly lower mean body weight (443 ± 47 g/rat) than those fed the control (511 ± 51 g/rat) or corn (502 ± 38 g/rat) diets.
Further, mean percent body fat and TG concentration were lower, and lean body mass was higher in rats fed the lentil diet than those fed the corn diet. Fecal abundance of Actinobacteria and Bacteriodetes were greater in rats fed the lentil or corn starch diets than those fed the control diet. Fecal abundance of Firmicutes, a bacterial phylum comprising multiple pathogenic species, decreased in rats fed the lentil and high-amylose corn starch diets vs the control diet. The lentil-based diet decreased bodyweight, percent body fat, and plasma triglycerides in rats and suppressed intestinal colonization by pathogens.
