Can Fiber Diet Foods Reduce Antibiotic Resistance?

Antibiotic resistance in gut bacteria may be reduced through by consuming diets high in fiber, as per a study at the US Department of Agriculture published by Agricultural Research Service in the journal mBio.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the term that refers to resistance developed by bacteria, viruses, and fungi to antibiotics. AMR is a growing burden in today's era and is likely to worsen throughout the coming decades.

‘Healthy adults who consume at least 8�10 grams of soluble fiber per day are found to have fewer antibiotic-resistant microbes in their guts.’

Commonly used antibiotics such as tetracycline and aminoglycoside pose a significant source of risk for people worldwide due to resistance formation. AMR is largely based in the gut microbiome, where the microbes are known to carry genetically encoded strategies to survive contact with antibiotics.

"And the results lead directly to the idea that modifying the diet has the potential to be a new weapon in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. And we're not talking about eating some exotic diet either, but a diverse diet, adequate in fiber, that some Americans already eat," says researcher Danielle Lemay, molecular biologist and leader of the study.

High Fiber and Diverse Foods

It was found that regular eating of a diet with higher levels of fiber and lower levels of protein, especially from beef and pork, was significantly associated with lower levels of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARG) among their gut microbes.

In addition, the lowest levels of ARG in the gut microbiomes correlated with an increased level of a healthy gut with low inflammation.

"Surprisingly, the most important predictor of low levels of ARG, even more than fiber, was the diversity of the diet. This suggests that we may want to eat from diverse sources of foods that tend to be higher in soluble fiber for maximum benefit." "Our diets provide food for gut microbes. This all suggests that what we eat might be a solution to reduce antimicrobial resistance by modifying the gut microbiome," says Lemay.

Source: Medindia