TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of Consuming Fermented Fish (Surströmming) on the Fecal Microflora in Healthy Individuals
AU - Kallner, Anders
AU - Debelius, Justine
AU - Schuppe-Koistinen, Ina
AU - Pereira, Marcela
AU - Engstrand, Lars
N1 - Funding Information:
L.E. received funding from the Söderbergs Foundation.
Funding Information:
L.E. received funding from the Soderbergs Foundation
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2023, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, and Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition 2023.
PY - 2023/3/1
Y1 - 2023/3/1
N2 - Surströmming, a Swedish fermented fish, loved by some and avoided by others, occurs in many reports on improved or cured gastrointestinal problems even by a single meal. We tested the hypothesis that the microbes of the fermented food might have a potency to modify the gut microbiome. Two groups of voluntary participants (11 male, 8 female; aged 20-80 years) were exposed to a single meal containing the fish. A 7-day dietary intervention was carried out comprising the fish as the main source of protein in a single adult. The microbiome was characterized using 16S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing. Individual community-level changes in the microbiome were compared, as well as the presence of bacteria associated with the fermented fish. We focused on Shannon alpha and UniFrac beta diversity. We did not detect any global changes in the gut microbiome in response to Surströmming, nor were we able to recover and identify any members of Halanaerobium, which were associated with and abundant in the ingested fish, in the stool samples of the participants. Our results suggest that Surströmming consumption does not alter the microbiome of healthy individuals. However, beneficial effects on a diseased gut, impaired gut microbiome, or other effects in disease remain to be studied.
AB - Surströmming, a Swedish fermented fish, loved by some and avoided by others, occurs in many reports on improved or cured gastrointestinal problems even by a single meal. We tested the hypothesis that the microbes of the fermented food might have a potency to modify the gut microbiome. Two groups of voluntary participants (11 male, 8 female; aged 20-80 years) were exposed to a single meal containing the fish. A 7-day dietary intervention was carried out comprising the fish as the main source of protein in a single adult. The microbiome was characterized using 16S rRNA and metagenomic sequencing. Individual community-level changes in the microbiome were compared, as well as the presence of bacteria associated with the fermented fish. We focused on Shannon alpha and UniFrac beta diversity. We did not detect any global changes in the gut microbiome in response to Surströmming, nor were we able to recover and identify any members of Halanaerobium, which were associated with and abundant in the ingested fish, in the stool samples of the participants. Our results suggest that Surströmming consumption does not alter the microbiome of healthy individuals. However, beneficial effects on a diseased gut, impaired gut microbiome, or other effects in disease remain to be studied.
KW - Surströmming
KW - fermented fish
KW - gut microbiome
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U2 - 10.1089/jmf.2021.0195
DO - 10.1089/jmf.2021.0195
M3 - Article
C2 - 36920238
AN - SCOPUS:85150396910
SN - 1096-620X
VL - 26
SP - 185
EP - 192
JO - Journal of Medicinal Food
JF - Journal of Medicinal Food
IS - 3
ER -