How Much Animal Fat Changes What Comes Out
Influence of diets high and low in animal fat on bowel habit, gastrointestinal transit time, fecal microflora, bile acid, and fat excretion.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
High fat intake increases excreted bile and fat but leaves gut transit time and microbiome completely unchanged.
Common belief links high-fat diets to digestive slowdowns and microbiome shifts, but this study found zero change in those areas over 4 weeks, contradicting the idea that fat alone drives colonic dysfunction.
Practical Takeaways
If concerned about colon health, focus on overall dietary components that support healthy transit time and stool bulk, rather than isolating animal fat as the sole digestive disruptor.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
High fat intake increases excreted bile and fat but leaves gut transit time and microbiome completely unchanged.
Common belief links high-fat diets to digestive slowdowns and microbiome shifts, but this study found zero change in those areas over 4 weeks, contradicting the idea that fat alone drives colonic dysfunction.
Practical Takeaways
If concerned about colon health, focus on overall dietary components that support healthy transit time and stool bulk, rather than isolating animal fat as the sole digestive disruptor.
Publication
Journal
The Journal of clinical investigation
Year
1978
Authors
J. Cummings, H. Wiggins, D. J. Jenkins, H. Houston, T. Jivraj, B. Drasar, M. J. Hill
Related Content
Claims (5)
Eating a lot of animal fat (about 152 grams a day) for a month doesn't change the types of bacteria in your gut or the activity of certain gut enzymes in healthy young people. This suggests that changes in gut bacteria aren't the main reason why a high-fat diet affects the chemistry of your colon.
Eating a lot of animal fat makes your body excrete much more bile acid into your stool. This matters because too much bile acid in the colon is thought to increase the risk of developing bowel cancer.
Eating a lot of animal fat makes your body poop out more fat than usual. When healthy young adults ate about 152 grams of animal fat daily for a month, they excreted nearly three times as much fat in their stool compared to when they ate only 62 grams, showing that the gut can only absorb so much fat before the rest passes through.
Eating about 152 grams of animal fat a day for a month doesn't change how your digestive system works or how much you poop. This shows that just eating more fat isn't what causes changes in your gut movement, so other parts of your diet are probably responsible.
Your body can only absorb as much fat as your bile can handle. If you eat more fat than your bile can process, the extra fat just passes right through you and comes out in your stool.