Dietary choices play a crucial role in overall health, impacting everything from inflammation levels to the risk of chronic diseases. Understanding the components of your diet, such as fats, sodium, and specific proteins like amylase trypsin inhibitors (ATIs), is essential for making informed decisions. This article explores the concept of a low-ATI diet, its potential benefits, and how it fits into a broader context of healthy eating.
Understanding Dietary Fats
Dietary fats are essential for health, providing nutrients necessary for various bodily functions. However, moderation and the type of fat consumed are key. Unsaturated fats, found in oils like olive, canola, corn, peanut, safflower, soybean, and sunflower, offer health benefits. Conversely, saturated fats, present in butter, shortening, lard, and other animal fats, can contribute to inflammation.
Saturated fat can cause inflammation in your body and this inflammation can increase your risk of cancer, especially colorectal cancer.
For most people, fats should provide no more than 35% of the calories eaten in a day, with saturated fats accounting for no more than 10% of those calories.
When reading labels, look for low-fat foods. These foods should have 3 grams of fat or less per 100-gram serving. Foods like margarine, mayonnaise, and some salad dressings get most of their calories from fat. Light versions of these foods have less than half of the fat of the regular version of the food.
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The Impact of Sodium
Another critical aspect of diet is sodium intake. The average American consumes far more sodium than the body requires, primarily from table salt and added sodium in processed foods. Excessive sodium intake can disrupt fluid balance and elevate blood pressure.
A main source of sodium is table salt. The average American eats five or more teaspoons of salt each day. This is about 20 times as much as the body needs. In fact, your body needs only 1/4 teaspoon of salt every day. Sodium is found naturally in foods, but a lot of it is added during processing and preparation. Many foods that do not taste salty may still be high in sodium. Large amounts of sodium can be hidden in canned, processed and convenience foods. Sodium controls fluid balance in our bodies and maintains blood volume and blood pressure.
Eliminate salty foods from your diet and reduce the amount of salt used in cooking. Choose low sodium foods. Many salt-free or reduced salt products are available. Salt substitutes are sometimes made from potassium, so read the label. Be creative and season your foods with spices, herbs, lemon, garlic, ginger, vinegar and pepper. Remove the salt shaker from the table. Read ingredient labels to identify foods high in sodium. Items with 400 mg or more of sodium are high in sodium. High sodium food additives include salt, brine, or other items that say sodium, such as monosodium glutamate. Eat more home-cooked meals. Foods cooked from scratch are naturally lower in sodium than most instant and boxed mixes. Don't use softened water for cooking and drinking since it contains added salt. Avoid medications which contain sodium such as Alka Seltzer and Bromo Seltzer.
Understanding Amylase Trypsin Inhibitors (ATIs)
Amylase trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) are proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley. They are known to trigger a mild inflammatory response in the intestine after ingestion. The role TLR4 plays in AD is not fully deciphered; a recent report found the minor allele of the rs4986790 polymorphism (G) of TLR4 to be associated with a reduced risk of developing AD and higher cortical thickness in human patients.
ATIs represent 2-4% of wheat protein and have been found to not only inhibit trypsin and amylase but also toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) on monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. Thus, ATIs promote intestinal inflammation in a rodent model of inflammatory bowel disease.
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ATIs and Inflammation
ATIs can exacerbate inflammatory bowel disease and features of fatty liver disease and the metabolic syndrome.
ATIs and Alzheimer's Disease
For Alzheimer’s disease (AD), both inflammation and altered insulin resistance are major contributing factors, impacting onset as well as progression of this devastating brain disorder in patients.
To investigate the potential role of nutritional ATIs on AD progression, researchers fed male AD model mice (5xFAD) with dietary regimes containing different amounts of ATIs in a gluten-free or a gluten-containing matrix: (1) Gluten- and ATI-free diet, (2) Low ATI (0.2% of chow) without gluten (3) Low ATI (0.04% of chow) with gluten (25% of protein) and (4) High ATI (0.6% of chow) with gluten (25% of protein). The four groups of animals were subsequently analyzed for intestinal morphometry, inflammatory markers, gut microbial composition, behavioral deficits, and plaque deposition.
The Study on Mice
A study on mice revealed that ATIs, with or without a gluten matrix, had an impact on the metabolism and gut microbiota of 5xFAD mice, aggravating pathological hallmarks of AD.
Study Design and Results
5xFAD mice represent a genetic AD model carrying two mutations in human presenilin 1 and three in human APP. Thereby, the model is relatively aggressive and plaques as well as behavioral deficits can already be detected early.
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Animals were kept on a gluten- and ATI-free, well-defined diet (Table S1) for 4 weeks starting at the age of 4 weeks. Afterwards, they received the same nutrient-defined diet (1) without additions, or enriched with (2) 1% of the protein (casein) substituted by ATI, (3) 25% of the protein as gluten with a low ATI content (0.2%), or (4) 25% of the protein as gluten with a high ATI content (3%) for another 8 weeks.
Metabolic and Activity Analysis
Overall, day- and night-time activity patterns and general activity were not affected by the different diets in the 5xFAD mice. When comparing oxygen consumption, it became obvious that low dietary ATI on a gluten-containing background only slightly affected metabolic activity compared to mice on the gluten- and ATI-free diet. On the contrary, gluten with the higher amount of ATI (3%) led to an increased need for oxygen when compared to mice fed with gluten and low ATI amount.
Intestinal Properties
ATIs led to a shift towards a lowered Bacteroidetes to Firmicutes ratio, with a clear dose-dependent effect and significant cumulative effect when combined with gluten. Additionally, ATI reduced Bifidobacteria in line with a prior study in mice with inflammatory bowel disease.
Behavioral Tasks
The cue-dependent recall of fear, as measured by freezing time, was reduced from 35% to 15% in mean in animals fed on a gluten-containing diet with high ATI content as compared to those on gluten with low ATI. Similarly, nest building ability was also reduced when comparing mice on a high ATI and gluten-containing with those on low ATI and gluten-containing diet.
Brain Inflammation and Plaque Deposition
On the gluten-free background, the low supplementation with ATIs revealed no influence on plaque deposition, neither in the cortex nor in the hippocampus. However, when fed with the high ATI-containing diet together with gluten, plaque deposition was increased as compared to the other dietary groups.
Implementing a Low-ATI Diet
Following a low-ATI diet involves reducing or eliminating wheat, rye, and barley from your diet. This can be achieved by:
- Choosing gluten-free alternatives: Opt for rice, quinoa, corn, and other gluten-free grains.
- Reading labels carefully: Be vigilant about checking ingredient lists to avoid hidden sources of ATIs.
- Focusing on whole, unprocessed foods: Emphasize fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats.
Additional Dietary Approaches
Low-FODMAP Diet
The low FODMAP diet involves taking multiple foods out of your diet, followed by a period of reintroduction of these foods, in order to determine your personal food sensitivities.
FODMAP stands for Fermentable, Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols, and consists of groups of certain types of carbohydrates that are thought to trigger GI symptoms.
There are three phases of the low FODMAP diet: 1) Elimination, 2) Reintroduction, and 3) Personalization. During the elimination phase, which lasts 2-4 weeks, all FODMAPs are taken out of the diet. If symptoms are significantly improved with the elimination phase, patients will start the reintroduction phase, where groups of FODMAPs are added back in one at a time, monitoring for a recurrence of symptoms.
Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) Diet
An Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet plan can be similar to the paleo diet but is usually more strict. It primarily involves eliminating certain foods that may cause inflammation and reintroducing them gradually once symptoms improve. The AIP diet aims to reduce inflammation, pain, and other symptoms caused by autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease, and rheumatoid arthritis.
The AIP diet consists of two main phases. The first phase is an elimination phase that involves the removal of foods and medications believed to cause gut inflammation, imbalances between levels of good and bad bacteria in the gut, or an immune response. During this phase, foods like grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, nightshade vegetables, eggs, and dairy are completely avoided. Tobacco, alcohol, coffee, oils, food additives, refined and processed sugars, and certain medications, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) should also be avoided.
Once a measurable improvement in symptoms and overall well-being occurs, the reintroduction phase can begin. During this phase, the avoided foods are gradually reintroduced into the diet, one at a time, based on the person’s tolerance. The goal of this phase is to identify which foods contribute to a person’s symptoms and reintroduce all foods that don’t cause any symptoms while continuing to avoid those that do.
A Healthy Eating Plate
The Healthy Eating Plate is a guide for creating healthy, balanced meals. It encourages the consumption of vegetables, whole grains, healthy proteins, and healthy plant oils. It also recommends limiting butter, milk/dairy, and juice, and drinking water, tea, or coffee with little or no sugar.
The Healthy Eating Plate encourages consumers to use healthy oils, and it does not set a maximum on the percentage of calories people should get each day from healthy sources of fat. The relative section sizes suggest approximate relative proportions of each of the food groups to include on a healthy plate.