Matching Items (2)
Description
The concept of this thesis is the importance of dietary fiber and how it can be further integrated into the American diet. The adequate intake (AI) of fiber for men and women is thirty-eight and twenty-five grams respectively. I was inspired to focus my research on increasing fiber intake because the typical American consumes fifteen grams of dietary fiber which is well below the AI. The purpose of this project was to inform individuals on the importance of dietary fiber, but also to create and compile recipes which would make it easy for people to increase their intake of dietary fiber. There are two parts to this project: a literature review and a cookbook. The literature review discusses the health benefits of fiber as to how its properties of viscosity and fermentability allow for weight loss, decrease appetite and energy intake, decrease postprandial insulin and glucose levels, impact gut health, lower blood lipid levels in order to protect against atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, decrease inflammation, and reduce levels of inflammatory marker C-reactive protein. The cookbook provides the ideas for integrating high fiber foods into one's diet. There are three different categories in the cookbook: snacks, lunch and dinner, and breakfast. The snacks and breakfast provide around five grams of fiber per serving, if not more, whereas the lunch and dinner options provide around fifteen grams in a meal. Not only are these recipes high in fiber, but they are also nutrient dense, meaning they provide more than just the listed health benefits in the literature review. Having these recipes and increasing awareness of the benefits which they contain will help individuals to meet the AI of fiber while still enjoying delicious meals.
ContributorsShah, Karishma Nishith (Author) / Lespron, Christy (Thesis director) / Grgich, Traci (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
First year college students have been identified as a vulnerable population for weight gain and the onset of overweight and obesity. Research regarding the gut microbiome has identified differences in the microbial composition of overweight and obese individuals compared to normal weight individuals. Dietary components like dietary fibers, act as prebiotics, or fermentable substrate, that the gut microbiota use for metabolic functions including the production of short-chain fatty acids. The objective of this longitudinal, observational study was to assess changes in the gut microbiota over time in relation to changes in fiber consumption in healthy college students at a large a southwestern university (n=137). Anthropometric and fecal samples were collected at the beginning and end of the fall and spring semesters between August 2015 and May 2016. Both alpha, within sample, diversity and beta, between sample, diversity of participant gut microbes were assessed longitudinally using non-parametric pairwise (pre-post) comparisons and linear mixed effect (LME) models which also adjusted for covariates and accounted for time as a random effect. Alpha and beta diversity were also explored using LME first difference metrics and LME first distance metrics, respectively, to understand rates of change over time in microbial richness/phylogeny and community structure. Pre-post comparisons of Shannon Diversity and Faith’s PD were not significantly different within participant groups of fiber change (Shannon diversity, p=0.96 and Faith’s PD, p=0.66). Beta diversity pairwise comparisons also did not differ by fiber consumption groups (Unweighted UniFrac p=0.182 and Bray Curtis p=0.657). Similarly, none of the LME models suggested significant associations between dietary fiber consumption and metrics of alpha and beta diversity. Overall, data from this study indicates that small changes in fiber consumption among a free-living population did not have an impact on gut microbial richness, phylogeny or community structure. This may have been due to the low intake (~15 g/d) of fiber. Further study is needed to fully elucidate the role that fiber plays in the diversity and composition of the gut microbiota, especially when delivered from a variety of food sources rather than fiber supplements.
ContributorsLolley, Sarah (Author) / Whisner, Corrie (Thesis advisor) / Sears, Dorothy (Committee member) / Shepard, Christina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020