Could Prebiotics for Dogs and Cats Lead to Weight Loss?

Prebiotics lead to digestive health, but could prebiotics for dogs and cats also lead to weight loss? Research indicates that maintaining a healthy weight relies in part on overall digestive health. People who are trying to lose weight are paying more and more attention to digestive health, and there’s evidence that bacteria have a greater effect on our overall health than previously thought.

To learn more about the link between prebiotics, gut health and overall health for dogs and cats, we talked to Rebecca Rose. As a biochemist and president of InClover Research, Rebecca works to develop supplements that improve overall dog and cat health.

MB: Scientists are spending a lot of time investigating the link between gut health and healthy weight. What have been your experience with the potential link between prebiotics and a healthy body condition score?

RR: I have worked with prebiotics for decades. I first worked with food chain animals, such as pigs and chickens, and prebiotics. we were investigating the balance of gut flora for healthy weight and immune system.

We knew how prebiotics were associated with good weight control and maintaining a healthy weight. We started researching chickens, then pigs, and then eventually we started researching dogs and cats. We also did clinical studies about added prebiotics to infant formula. Mother’s milk contains prebiotics, and at the time, no one was adding prebiotics to infant formula. And if you’re a label reader, you’ll see that every current infant formula on the market contains prebiotics.

Prebiotics help the body maintain good bacteria at an optimal level. Current research focused on animals and humans show that there is a real link between an imbalance of bacteria in the system and overweight or underweight animals and humans.

There’s one study published in the September 2017 issue of Gastroenterology that detailed research conducted on overweight and obese children. And they gave some of the children in the study a prebiotic and gave other children a placebo for 16 weeks. At the end of the study, the children who were eating the prebiotic had lower body fat percentages than the children who were not getting the prebiotic.

The children who got the placebo gained a significant amount of weight. And what the scientists found when investigating the gut flora was their diet and genetics was significantly controlling their obesity. Both groups of children were eating a lot of high fat, high meat content foods and a lot of sugar. But when children, while eating the same diet, were given prebiotics, the prebiotics were able to balance the gut flora.

The prebiotics also selected for the good bacteria, so these children were able to maintain a normal weight as they grew. The scientists also looked at a gene marker that’s tied to inflammation and inflammation-associated diseases. That gene marker decreased by 15 percent from the baseline from taking the prebiotic. Children who weren’t taking the prebiotic found that the marker increased by 25 percent.

Obesity and being overweight is associated with all sorts of poor health outcomes. It’s been linked to diabetes, heart disease and joint problems. This body of research shows that by changing the balance of bacteria by using a prebiotic can not only help with weight control, but it will help with overall health. While this study focused on humans, you can apply the same premise to dogs and cats.