In a new study, researchers found that people who eat high fiber diets are more likely to experience bloating if their high fiber diet is protein-rich as compared to carbohydrate-rich.
They found that when the participants ate a heart-healthy, high-fiber diet that was relatively rich in plant protein, they were more likely to report bloating symptoms than when eating a carbohydrate-rich version of the same high fiber diet.
The study suggests that people who want to eat a high fiber diet would be less likely to experience bloating if the diet were relatively carb-rich versus protein-rich.
The research was led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Bloating affects about 20% of the U.S. adult population, and is so common as a side effect of high fiber diets that it deters many people from adopting such diets.
High-fiber diets are believed to cause bloating by boosting certain populations of healthful fiber-digesting gut bacteria species, which produce gas as a byproduct.
In the study, the team examined a dietary clinical trial that was conducted in 2003 and 2005. It included 164 participants who had above-normal blood pressure.
They were assigned to three different diets. The diets were all considered high-fiber, low-sodium “DASH” diets, and had the same number of calories, but varied in their macronutrient emphases:
a carbohydrate-rich version was, by calories, 58% carbohydrate, 15% protein, and 27% fat; a plant-protein-rich version was 48% carbs, 25% protein, 27% fat; and a fat-rich version was 48% carbohydrate, 15% protein, and 37% fat.
The team examined how participants’ reports of bloating varied as participants ate the three OmniHeart diets.
A key finding was that the prevalence of bloating went from 18% before the diets to 24, 33, and 30%, respectively, on the carb-, protein-, and fat-rich diets—indicating that these high fiber diets did indeed appear to increase bloating.
The results suggest that substituting high-quality carb calories, such as whole grain, for protein calories might reduce bloating for those on high fiber diets, making such diets more tolerable.
The researchers are working on a follow-on study of the effects of similar dietary patterns on the gut microbiome.
One author of the study is Noel Mueller, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology.
The study is published in the journal Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology.
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