- 2024-08
- The Journal of nutrition 154(8)
- Annemarie R Mysonhimer
- Marina D Brown
- David A Alvarado
- Eva Cornman
- Myra Esmail
- Tehila Abdiel
- Karen Gutierrez
- Jorge Vasquez
- Corinne N Cannavale
- Michael J Miller
- Naiman A Khan
- Hannah D Holscher
Study Design
- Type
- Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)
- Sample size
- n = 62
- Population
- 66 healthy adults (34 female; 33.6 ± 9.8 y; 24.6 ± 3.0 kg/m2)
- Methods
- crossover trial, randomly assigned to 2-wk yogurt conditions: 1) Honey (HON): yogurt plus honey and 2) Negative Control (NC): heat-treated yogurt plus sugar; with a third nonrandomized condition (Positive Control: yogurt plus sugar) elected by 37 participants; ≥4-wk washout; intestinal transit time measured with dye capsules; probiotic abundance with fecal DNA 16S sequencing; various questionnaires and tasks for digestive health, mood, and cognition; data analyzed using linear mixed-effects models
- Duration
- 2 wk per condition
- Funding
- Unclear
Background
Honey improves probiotic survival in vitro. However, if this effect translates to humans has not been investigated.Objectives
We aimed to determine effects of honey plus yogurt containing the probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis DN-173 010/CNCM I-2494 (B. animalis) on intestinal transit time, probiotic enrichment, digestive health, mood, and cognition in adults.Methods
Sixty-six healthy adults (34 female; 33.6 ± 9.8 y; 24.6 ± 3.0 kg/m2) in a crossover trial were randomly assigned to 2-wk yogurt conditions in a counterbalanced order with ≥4-wk washout: 1) Honey (HON): yogurt plus honey and 2) Negative Control (NC): heat-treated yogurt plus sugar. Of the participants, n = 62 completed the trial, and n = 37 (17 female; 32.0 ± 8.3 y; 25.0 ± 2.9 kg/m2) elected to enroll in a third condition (a nonrandomized study extension) after ≥4-wk washout with a reference Positive Control (PC): yogurt plus sugar. At baseline and end of each of the 3 conditions, intestinal transit time was measured with dye capsules; probiotic abundance with fecal DNA 16S sequencing; digestive health with symptom/function records, Bristol stool consistency, Gastrointestinal Tolerability, and Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index; mood with Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-42, Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System questionnaires, and an emotional image task; and cognition with a spatial reconstruction task. Data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models (LMMs) with significance at P ≤ 0.05. Baseline and end data were included in the LMM, with fixed effects being treatment, time, treatment by time interaction, and baseline covariate, and the random effect being the participant.Results
B. animalis was enriched in HON (d = 3.54; P = 0.0002) compared to controls with linear discriminant analysis effect size. Intestinal transit time, gastrointestinal health, mood, and cognition did not differ between conditions (LMM: Ps > 0.05).Conclusions
Yogurt + honey enriched B. animalis but did not reduce intestinal transit time or have other functional gastrointestinal, mood, or cognitive effects in adults. This trial was registered at www.Clinicaltrials
gov as NCT04187950 and NCT04901390.