The Power of Pairing: Wheat Bran, BARLEYMAX & Your Microbiome

Effect of Wheat Bran on Fecal Butyrate-Producing Bacteria and Wheat Bran Combined with Barley on Bacteroids Abundance in Japanese Healthy Adults.

By Seiichiro Aoe, Fumiko Nakamura, Suguru Fujiwara

This study tested how daily consumption of cereal bars containing either Wheat bran (WB), BARLEYMAX® (BM), or a combination of both affects gut microbiota and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production over four weeks in healthy adults (total n = 60).

After 4 weeks, groups consuming WB (with or without BM) had a significant increase in the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria and higher fecal levels of n-butyrate compared with groups who did not consume WB. While BM alone did not significantly raise butyrate producers on its own, combining BM with WB led to changes in the abundance of Bacteroides. These results indicate that WB is strongly effective at promoting butyrate-producing bacteria and butyrate production in the gut, and that combining BM with WB may further modulate gut microbial composition — though BM by itself had more modest effects in this particular study.

Download the paper here.