Microblog: Fiber on Carnivore? Fiber Butyrate-Rich Foods
🥦We think that we need fibrous plant foods to fuel our large intestine with short-chain fatty acids (SCFA).
🧬These SCFAs are broken down by the colon to offer gut-supporting SCFAs such as butyrate (butyric acid), propionate (propionic acid) and acetate (acetic acid).
☝🏼Butyrate is essential because it is the preferred fuel source by colonocytes (endothelial cells of the large intestine). In the large intestine, fibrous plant foods require the breakdown of its chemical structure to then make short chain fatty acids.⠀
⠀
🧀 Dairy contains butyrate in its bioavailable form.
🧈In fact, butter is the best source of butyric acid or butyrate. So much so that the origins of the word butyric acid is from the Latin word, butyrum–the same origins for the word butter.
❓How did we come to think that butyric acid is best from plants?⠀
🎯The no. 1 dietary source of butyrate is butter. Not plant foods but butter.⠀
🌟And don’t worry if you don’t consume dairy. Bacteria ALSO makes butyrate from leftover cells and mucus and the end of our colon (sigmoid) relies more on THIS type of butyrate than in foods. ⠀
🥁The greatest food source for acetate (SCFA) is vinegar. Not a plant-food but vinegar. If you are concerned about the lack of acetic acid in a meat-based diet, add a couple drops of vinegar to water.
🍎ACV may be your friend or your mother 😅
⠀
🔥Butyrate is arguably the more critical SCFA for gut health. Our colon cells get gut nutrients from butyrate and butyrate also produces our colon’s energy.⠀
❓Some argue that a lot of butter has to be consumed for the same amounts of butyrate in vegetables. But plants need to be broken down to SCFAs.
❓What if your gut needs support? What if your large intestine isn’t able to effectively break down these plant foods into butyrate?⠀
🧈Butter is nutrient-dense. Not only does it supply us with butyrate and nutrients for the colon. It also has almost every essential nutrient required by the body.
Andrew
February 21, 2024 at 2:30 amHello, could you direct me to carnivore benefits as the pertain to the microbiome. I include a small amount of fermented vegetables or well cooked vegetables in my diet as a means to feed the microbiome. I make things like Kefir for example and want to support that with adequate fuel for my gut microbiome. My grandmother (also mostly carnivore) told me that butyrate was the preferred source of food for bacteria in the gut but it seems she misread as it is rather a product of bacteria from fermentable fiber. So I still need to find information on what feeds the microbiome in a carnivore diet.