Top 5 Butyrate-Producing Probiotics: Powerful Daily Gut Support

Worried about your gut? Read about butyrate-producing probiotics and how to get more of this gut health superpower in your life!

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Butyrate-producing probiotics are a recent discovery that has already shown great potential in improving gut health significantly. Jump on and read about this gut health superpower and how to get more of this good stuff in your life!

The connection between gut health and holistic well being is extremely underestimated. So much so that where I come from something as natural as popping is spoken about in ‘hush hush’ tones. As if it is criminal to poop!

This all goes to show just how much gut processes are ignored. Without a doubt, your gut processes are a vital sign of health, and gut issues are a major prerequisite to a host of other health issues.

Find Out More: Gut Health: 7 Reasons Why It’s Important

Butyrate-producing probiotics are a super important part of how your gut functions. They are indeed necessary and vital to grow and maintain a strong healthy gut. Jump on and read more about this gut health superpower and how to get more of it in your life!

Colonic Fermentation and Its Link to Human Health

Colonic fermentation is the process where anaerobic bacteria within your gut (probiotics) break down complex carbohydrates/fiber to short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate.

Since your body cannot process these complex carbohydrates on its own, it skillfully engages the good bacteria found in your colon to help! As a result, you feed the good bacteria in your gut and they feed you right back by producing these essential SCFA’s.

This relationship is symbiotic – ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’ kind of arrangement! What a win-win situation.

Colonic fermentation produces 3 different SCFAs namely:

Butyrate
Acetate
Propionate

Butyrate is the star of the show mainly because it plays a very important role in nourishing your gut.

Interestingly, butyrate does this by taking on a colonic salvage of calories that produces up to 5-10% of your body’s daily energy demand. As butyrate performs this function, it also provides up to 70% of the energy required for the epithelial cells that line the colon (colonocytes).

These colonocytes have the job of protecting your gut lining, preventing inflammation of your gastro-intestinal tract and protecting against the following diseases:

Ulcerative colitis
Leaky gut syndrome
Crohn’s disease
Colorectal cancer (American Cancer Society estimates that 5% will get colorectal cancer in their lifetime)
Metabolic syndromes (obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and systemic inflammation)

List of Butyrate-Producing Probiotics

Believe it or not, your gut houses up to 160 species of bacteria. The major butyrate-producing probiotics come from the Phyla Firmicutes family which include:

Roseburia spp.
Eubacterium rectale spp.
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii

Read more: What is Butyrate Used For?

What are the Dangers of Having Low Butyrate Levels?

Your gut microbiome is made of both good bacteria and bad (pathogenic) bacteria. Herein, butyrate is part of a very complex communication system. Essentially, the presence of butyrate tells your body that your good bacteria is on top of things. This alerts your immune system that all is well.

On the other hand, pathogenic bacteria do not produce butyrate. So if your butyrate levels are low, your body assumes the microbiome is being overtaken by bad bacteria. Similarly, the immune system then receives the message that all is certainly not well.

As a result, your body proceeds to attack by taking on inflammatory response. Now, inflammation whether low grade or chronic is not your friend!

Why? This is because inflammation is what introduces disease. For example, an inflamed gut can lead to Crohn’s Disease, just the same way inflamed lungs can lead to bronchitis or an inflamed liver can lead to fatty liver disease.

The surest way to know if your butyrate levels are low is to take a comprehensive digestive stool analysis ( CDSA). If you are unable to take a stool test, below are a few signs you may be low in butyrate:

Leaky gut syndrome
Bloating/gas
Chronic diarrhea
IBS/IBD
Crohn’s disease
Behavioral irregularities
Upset microbiome balance
Increased inflammation markers
Reduced insulin sensitivity

Unfortunately, these signs are often seen when it’s too late and the disease has already been established. So the sooner you can boost your butyrate levels, the higher your chances of halting the progression of the disease.

Contributors to Low Butyrate Levels

The greatest contributor to low butyrate levels is a diet low in fiber. For example, the average American consumes only about 50% of the recommended daily intake of fiber.

Subsequently, low levels of fiber means that there is very little food for the good bacteria to feed on. If the good bacteria have little food, they are unable to produce sufficient butyrate. As a result, your microbial diversity is compromised.

In science-speak we call this dysbiosis, a microbiome imbalance where there is more bad bacteria.

To put it simply:

High-fiber/prebiotics → good bacteria/probiotics → plenty butyrate/postbiotics = a happy gut.

By feeding our bodies a high fiber diet, we grow our already present gut flora. Following this, we can then produce more butyrate.

The recommended daily fiber intake is 25 grams for women and 38 grams for men.

What Can You Do to Increase your Butyrate-Producing Probiotics?

1) Up your fiber intake

Your first line of defense in getting your body to produce more of the good stuff is to eat a diet rich in prebiotics! I like to call it a whole-foods, plant-heavy diet.

This means consuming lots of foods as close to their natural state as possible. Such as:

Fresh fruits & vegetables
Whole grains
Legumes
Nuts & Seeds

There is an old saying that says “variety is the very spice of life”. The more color and variety in your meals, the more variety in your gut microbiome.

So go on and have fun eating your rainbow colors!

Sample Prebiotic Rich Meal Plan

BREAKFAST	LUNCH	DINNER
Rolled oats with fresh berries, ground flax seed & bananas	Power- packed salad with 4 raw veggies, quinoa/diced sweet potatoes with balsamic vinaigrette and topped with sesame seeds.	Wok stir-fried beef with carrots, green beans and broccoli, served over brown rice.
or	or	or
Smoothie with 2 fruits, 2 vegetables, oats/chia seed.	Whole meal Pita wrap with hummus and roast vegetables	Baked Butter Salmon with roast potatoes & mixed green salad

Snacks: Get your 5-a day fruit in as many colors as possible

2) Rev up your probiotic intake

Remember our simple equation above? More probiotics, means more butyrate produced.

You can add more probiotic foods to your diet through fermented foods like:

Kefir
Greek yogurt
Kimchi
Sauerkraut
Tempeh
Natto
Miso
Pickles

If all these fermented foods are too much to stomach (no pun intended), you can also take probiotic supplements.

3) Go easy on the antibiotics

Antibiotics are revolutionary. Without a doubt, they are an incredible advancement in healthcare that has saved millions of lives. That said, too much of a good thing like antibiotics can turn out to be damaging.

Since most antibiotics are digested in the gut, they interfere with the gut microbiome. In an effort to kill all the bad bacteria, they also kill some of the good guys.

Use them sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.

4) Tone down your animal and processed food intake

A plant-heavy diet is very beneficial for gut health. On the contrary, diets high in animal foods have been associated with higher levels of bad bacteria.

Aim for animal foods to make up only ¼ of your daily food intake.

In the same way, processed foods are high in refined sugars which feed the bad bacteria. As a result, these foods become damaging to your gut as they encourage a build up of bad bacteria.

Save the cookies, cakes and doughnuts for a special occasion and your gut will thank you for it.

5) Take a butyrate-producing probiotics supplement

Life can get crazy and I sure know it is sometimes hard to eat the diet you desire. If this is you, a butyrate supplement could be of great benefit.

It can deliver powerful SCFAs directly to your colon so they can work their magic!