Insulin resistance as key factor for linking modulation of gut microbiome to health claims and dietary recommendations to tackle obesity

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Stoffer Loman

NutriClaim, The Netherlands

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Abstract

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Background: Current dietary and public health recommendations addressing obesity do not as yet include recommendations pertaining to the gut microbiome. As a corollary, no microbiome-related health claims made on foods have as yet been proposed. Scope: The MyNewGut project aims, amongst others, to provide guidance for the establishment of dietary and public health recommendations related to the role microbiome in the onset and development of obesity. Moreover, the project's forthcomings should allow the compilation of a guidance document for microbiome-related health claims. Key findings: Of all the physiological effects resulting from changes in the microbiome, insulin resistance is the most direct diet-modifiable parameter related to obesity. Improving insulin resistance is considered to be the key health benefit conferred by the targeted modulation of the gut microbiome, through the development and application of foods containing microbiometargeted fibers and micro-organisms. Conclusions: In order to facilitate guidance for the development of public health and dietary recommendations, as well as for health claim substantiation related to the gut microbiome, foods containing microbiome-targeting dietary fibers and microorganisms will be developed and studies with these foods should provide for the total body of clinical evidence specifically addressing the central theme of ‘insulin resistance’ in obesity, still leaving ample room for the inclusion of other parameters of interest. The latter is pivotal since an impact of other parameters on obesity should be addressed as well, particularly in view of the multifaceted modes of action of the microbiome.

Biography

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Stoffer Loman is a Nutritionist from Wageningen University (1992), obtained his PhD in Medical Sciences/Immunology at the Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam (1998). Following a career in the food supplement industry as Science Communicator and Health Educator, he has founded NutriClaim in 2007, which has specialized in the scientific substantiation of health claims made on food and in the marketing authorization of Novel Foods in the EU. As partner of the EU FP7 project “My New Gut”, the project devoted to unraveling the role of the microbiome in Obesity, he, as Work Package Leader of WP11, is responsible for providing guidance for microbiome related health claims and dietary recommendations.

Email: stoffer.loman@nutriclaim.com