Video | What are SCFAs | How SCFAs Suppress Hunger | Is Fiber Needed? | Foods That Make SCFAs

Short-chain fatty acids, abbreviated SCFAs, promote satiety and reduce your appetite. 

You don’t get them directly from your diet, but your body makes them from certain foods, and truly, the more, the better because hunger satisfaction is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits these small molecules have on your metabolism. 

In this blog post, I explain short-chain fatty acids, how they suppress hunger, and how to get more of them working for you. I’ll even touch on gorillas, explaining how these tiny molecules help gorillas get so big. 

SCFAs SUPPRESS HUNGER – Here’s How To Get Your Body To Make Them [Video]

In this video, you’ll learn…

• What short-chain fatty acids are.
• How SCFAs suppress hunger.
• How you can include more SCFAs in your diet.

What Are Short-Chain Fatty Acids? 

Short-chain fatty acids, as the name suggests, are fatty acids with short chains of carbon, either two carbons, three carbons, or four carbons. They are produced in your gut by the fermentation of fiber. 

The three short-chain fatty acids that make up 95% of these molecules are acetate, propionate, and butyrate: C2, C3, and C4. 

They act as an energy harvest system for undigestible carbohydrates, and some animal species actually use this as a major source of energy. For example, lowland gorillas get about 57 percent of their energy from short-chain fatty acids (1).

We think about these enormous animals, and they’re vegetarians. How does that work? How do they get that much energy from plant foods? Their gut bacteria have a high capacity for turning undigested carbohydrates into these energy-rich molecules.

Humans also have that ability, but we cannot derive as much energy from plant foods. Only 1.2 – 10% of a human’s energy comes from SCFAs.

Still, as I touched on at the start of the video, SCFAs support metabolic health and weight control in many ways. 

• SCFAs Metabolism Benefits:
• Suppress Appetite
• Enhance Insulin Sensitivity 
• Promote Fat Oxidation
• Increase Energy Expenditure 
• Reduce Inflammation
• Support Gut Health
• Regulate Fat Metabolism

For this blog post, I want to focus on how they help us eat less. 

How SCFAs Suppress Hunger

Over the years, animal and human studies have demonstrated many ways that short-chain fatty acids support a healthy metabolism and aid in weight control. One effect they help with is increasing the feeling of fullness after a meal (2).

Factor #1: Boost Satiating Gut Hormones

Short-chain fatty acids suppress hunger by influencing the production of gut hormones. Specifically, they stimulate the release of two hormones that promote satiety and reduce appetite, peptide YY (PPY) and glucagon-like peptide-1, which commonly goes by its abbreviation GLP-1. 

Now, if that name rings a bell, it is because of the sudden popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic. Ozempic is a GLP-1 agonist, meaning it mimics the action of this naturally occurring hormone, enhancing its effects. 

There is more to the hunger-suppressing ability of short-chain fatty acids that has yet to be unraveled. One factor that likely plays a role is their interaction with the gut-brain axis.

Factor #2: Gut-Brain Communication

The gut-brain axis is the network of nerves that links the digestive system and the brain, allowing signals to pass back and forth. The vagus nerve is a key communication pathway in that axis, transmitting signals about hunger and satiety. 

When short-chain fatty acids are produced in the gut, it stimulates the vagus nerve, which then signals the brain to regulate appetite and digestion.

Factor #3: Indirect Hunger Satisfaction Factors

Short-chain fatty acids also indirectly contribute to hunger satisfaction. For instance, they play a significant role in regulating leptin. Leptin is a hormone we like because it is responsible for signaling fullness. SCFAs stimulate leptin production by acting on fat cells (adipocytes), helping to enhance satiety and reduce overall food intake (3).

Additionally, SCFAs improve insulin sensitivity, reducing insulin resistance—a condition that can impair leptin signaling and lead to overeating. 

So the more we can encourage the production of SCFAs, the more appetite suppression we achieve. How do we do that? The short answer is we eat more fiber. 

Fiber? (We Don’t Need Carbs!)

I can sense my keto and carnivore viewers reminding me that we don’t need carbohydrates, let alone fibrous foods (veggies and fruits). It is true that your body can run without carbs, and I have a blog post on that topic if you want to know why that is true. 

Also, I am certain that those of you who follow a keto or carnivore diet will adamantly state that these diets suppress hunger. That is also true, and part of the mechanisms that cause that appetite regulation will sound familiar. 

I mentioned that butyrate is one of the short-chain fatty acids that is produced in the gut when fiber is fermented by gut bacteria. 

Keto and carnivore diets cause the body to produce ketones. One of the main ketone bodies is beta-hydroxybutyrate. 

Butyrate and beta-hydroxybutyrate are structurally similar molecules. Both compounds influence hunger by interacting with the gut-brain axis and hormonal regulation. We already learned how butyrate does it. Beta-hydroxybutyrate suppresses the hunger hormone, ghrelin, and enhances GLP-1 release, helping curb appetite.

With that aside, let’s get back to short-chain fatty acids and go over a list of foods you can work into a low-carb diet to encourage your body to make more of them. 

Foods That Make SCFAs

Non-Starchy Vegetables

Non-starchy vegetables are the easiest plant foods to work into a low-carb diet, and all of them provide fiber that feeds the gut bacteria. Of the many vegetables, the ones that are high in inulin or fructooligosaccharides are the most beneficial for producing short-chain fatty acids. Those include onions, garlic, artichokes, asparagus, and leek. 

Supplements

As a side note, if you don’t feel that you can add these vegetables to your diet, inulin can be taken as a supplement. It has no taste and easily dissolves in a glass of water that you can drink with a meal or just before eating. And, while I am on the topic of supplements, a daily probiotic can help support a healthy gut microbiome. 

Fruits

Some fruit can be worked into a low-carb diet. How much you can consume is determined by your body’s carbohydrate tolerance.

Lower-carb fruits that encourage the gut bacteria to produce short-chain fatty acids are berries, apples, oranges, and apricots. Berries are rich in polyphenols and dietary fiber, both of which support beneficial gut bacteria. Apples, oranges, and apricots are high in a type of soluble fiber called pectin, which acts as a prebiotic.

Nuts & Seeds

As with fruit, some nuts and seeds can be worked into a low-carb diet, but how many you can have depends on your metabolism.

Good choices for encouraging short-chain fatty acid production include flaxseeds, chia seeds, and walnuts. All of these can be added to recipes or used as salad toppings. Another option is to stir them into yogurt, which is a fermented food.

Fermented Foods

Fermented foods, like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi, help create the right environment for short-chain fatty acid production in the gut by introducing beneficial probiotics.

Higher Carb Foods

For completeness, there are other foods that encourage short-chain fatty acid production. But they are higher in carbohydrates. Many of these foods are classified as resistant starches because they resist digestion in the small intestine and reach the colon, where gut bacteria ferment them.

Examples include unripe bananas, potatoes and rice that have been cooked and then cooled, and certain legumes and whole grains, such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas, oats, barley, and quinoa.

Takeaway

The takeaway is that it’s hard to go wrong with whole foods. Whether those foods are animal or plant-based, they are full of nutrients that feed your gut microbiome, making it healthy. 

One of the main goals of processing foods is to increase their shelf life. To do that, food manufacturers need to remove the parts that easily spoil. Unfortunately, those parts often contain the nutrients your gut needs to stay healthy and work for you, producing short-chain fatty acids that benefit your metabolism and suppress hunger. 

References:

(1) Byrne, C. S., et al. “The role of short chain fatty acids in appetite regulation and energy homeostasis.” International journal of obesity 39.9 (2015): 1331-1338.

(2) Mansuy-Aubert, Virginie, and Yann Ravussin. “Short chain fatty acids: The messengers from down below.” Frontiers in neuroscience 17 (2023): 1197759.

(3) Xiong, Yumei, et al. “Short-chain fatty acids stimulate leptin production in adipocytes through the G protein-coupled receptor GPR41.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101.4 (2004): 1045-1050.

About the Author

Becky Gillaspy, DC, is the author of The Intermittent Fasting Guide and Cookbook and Zero Sugar / One Month. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with research honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1991.