[Association of thermal food processing methods and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth syndrome]

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is a widespread disease which antibiotic therapy is not effective enough and the relapse rate is high. Microbiota is dependent on dietary pattern of the patient and specific nutrients, therefore the diversity of dietary patterns may be one of the major factor promoting SIBO or its relapses after treatment. The aim: to compare the patterns of thermal food processing methods in patients with and without SIBO. Material and methods. We performed retrospective single center database search to identify unique depersonalized records of patients with SIBO and the data of lactulose breath test and nutritional assessment with the use of 24-hours dietary recall. Inclusion criteria were complete data on patient's demography, adequate data of nutritional assessment and the lactulose breath test, absence of previous history of SIBO treatment in a special form of the database. In accordance with the results of lactulose breath test, patients were assigned into groups with the presence of SIBO with excess production of hydrogen (H₂), methane (CH₄), both gases (CH₄-H₂) or without SIBO (control group). According to the data of 24 h dietary recall, we divided all dishes and products consumed by a patient to 6 categories (Cat) depending on thermal food processing method: those that were not processed (raw) (Cat-r), boiled (Cat-bl), fried (Cat-f), stewed (Cat-s), baked in the oven (Cat-bk) or grilled (Cat-g). To analyze the structure of thermal food processing, we divided the weight of all products or dishes that underwent specific method of processing to the total weight of the food eaten. We did not take into the account the weight of thermally stable components like water and salt. The pattern of thermal food processing within each patients group was obtained as a quotient of the total percentage (by weight) of the food processed with the certain method by the number of patients in the group. Results and discussion. The data of 1108 patients were available for the final analysis: 602 patients in the SIBO-H₂ group, 140 in the SIBO-CH₄ group, 248 in the SIBO-CH₄-H₂ group, and 118 patients in the control group. The distribution of thermal food processing categories was in patients with SIBO-H₂ as follows: Cat-r - 45.8±17.3%, Cat-bl - 31.9±15.7%, Cat-s - 3.5±7.7%, Cat-f - 6.3±10.4%, Cat-bk - 12.2±10.2%, Cat-g - 0.3±3.3%); in patients with SIBO-CH4: Cat-r - 47.9±17.4%, Cat-bl - 29.6±15.6%, Cat-s - 4.4±7.6%, Cat-f - 5.8±9.8%, Cat-bk - 12.3±10.4%, Cat-g - 0,2±2,7%; in patients with SIBO-CH4-H2: Cat-r - 45.6±16.3%, Catbl - 31.5±16.2%, Cat-s - 4.0±8.0%, Cat-f - 5.1±9.3%, Cat-bk - 13.4±10.8%, Cat-g - 0.4±2.3%. Similar results were obtained in the control group (Cat-r - 44.7±17.0%, Cat-bl - 32.6±16.5%, Cat-s - 2.7±6.0%, Cat-f - 5.5±8.0%, Cat-bk - 14.2±10.6%, Cat-g - 0.3±2.0%). There were no significant differences between the SIBO and control groups by mean percentage of raw, boiled, stewed, fried, baked and grilled food intake. Conclusion. We found no association between thermal food processing patterns and SIBO. It seems that thermal food processing patterns has no influence on SIBO and its variants.