Matters Microbial #75: Do Gut Microbes Watch their Carbs?   January 22, 2025

Today, Dr. Darrell Cockburn, Associate Professor of Food Science at Penn State, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss the work his research group has done exploring how starches and other polysaccharides are used by the gut microbiome. 

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Darrell Cockburn

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Links for this episode

• An overview of dietary fiber in the diet.
• A primer on the structure of starch and cellulose.
• An overview on starch granules.
• The concept of food gelatinazation.
• An overview of “resistant” starch.
• How Febreze works!
• The concept of the glycemic index of foods.
• An article about resistant starch and colon microbiota.  Another article on this topic.
• A primer on carbohydrate binding modules.
• An article describing the role of short chain fatty acids in digestion.
• An article suggesting that there is no perfect microbiome.
• An interesting article from Dr. Cockburns research group showing that microbes can work together to digest resistant starch.
• Dr. Cockburn’s academic website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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