Sex, Food, and the Gut Microbiota: Disparate Response to Caloric Restriction Diet with Fiber Supplementation in Women and Men

• Published in: Molecular nutrition & food research Vol. 65; no. 8; pp. e2000996 - n/a
• Main Authors: Benítez‐Páez, Alfonso, Hess, Anne Lundby, Krautbauer, Sabrina, Liebisch, Gerhard, Christensen, Lars, Hjorth, Mads F., Larsen, Thomas Meinert, Sanz, Yolanda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.04.2021
• Subjects: Adipose tissue; Bile acids; Body weight; Clinical trials; Data integration; Diet; dietary fiber; Dietary restrictions; Dietary supplements; Fatty acids; Feces; gut microbiome; Insulin; Intestinal microflora; Inulin; Lipid metabolism; Lipids; Maltodextrin; Men; Metabolites; metabolomics; Metagenomics; Microbiota; multi‐omics; obesity; Overweight; Placebos; Propionic acid; resistant maltodextrin; Sex; weight loss; Women; inulin; gut microbiome; metabolomics; resistant maltodextrin; multi-omics; weight loss; dietary fiber; obesity
• ISSN: 1613-4125; 1613-4133
• DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.202000996

Scope Dietary‐based strategies are regularly explored in controlled clinical trials to provide cost‐effective therapies to tackle obesity and its comorbidities. The article presents a complementary analysis based on a multivariate multi‐omics approach of a caloric restriction intervention (CRD) with fiber supplementation to unveil synergic effects on body weight control, lipid metabolism, and gut microbiota. Methods and results The study explores fecal bile acids (BAs) and short‐chain fatty acids (SCFAs), plasma BAs, and fecal shotgun metagenomics on 80 overweight participants of a 12‐week caloric restriction clinical trial (−500 kcal day−1) randomly allocated into fiber (10 g day−1 inulin + 10 g day−1 resistant maltodextrin) or placebo (maltodextrin) supplementation groups. The multi‐omic data integration analysis uncovered the benefits of the fiber supplementation and/or the CRD (e.g., increase of Parabacteroides distasonis and fecal propionate), showing sex‐specific effects on either adiposity and fasting insulin; effects thought to be linked to changes of specific gut microbiota species, functional genes, and bacterially produced metabolites like SCFAs and secondary BAs. Conclusions This study identifies diet‐microbe‐host interactions helping to design personalised interventions. It also suggests that sex perspective should be considered routinely in future studies on dietary interventions efficacy. All in all, the study uncovers that the dietary intervention is more beneficial for women than men. The caloric restriction regime (≈500 kcal day−1) during 12 weeks exerts profound changes in adiposity and gut microbiota in overweight subjects. Fiber supplementation does not provide evident further effects but drastically alters the gut microbiota composition and its function. Women and men exhibit a disparate response in terms of microbiota and metabolic parameters associated with health. This study describes potential diet‐host‐microbe interactions driving the design of personalized interventions.