Micronutrients & recovery
Dietary tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway (specifically IDO1 activity) is shifted toward protective indole metabolites when gut barrier integrity is maintained, whereas high-fat diets and inflammation shift it toward kynurenine, promoting inflammation and metabolic disease.
Your body processes dietary tryptophan differently depending on your metabolic health. In a healthy state, gut bacteria convert it into protective indoles that support the gut barrier. In states of obesity or high-fat diet consumption, the body's own enzymes (IDO1) take over, producing inflammatory byproducts. Maintaining gut health through diet helps preserve the beneficial bacterial pathway.
We recently showed that high-fat diet supplementation was associated with increased IDO1 activity and inversely to a decrease in indole derivatives such as IAA, whereas IDO1 deletion leads to higher intestinal IAA production.
Why this rating
Supported by multiple observational and mouse studies cited in the review.
Source
Tryptophan Dietary Impacts Gut Barrier and Metabolic Diseases
Soraya Taleb · Frontiers in Immunology · 2019
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