Amelioration of Growth Performance, Lipid Accumulation, and Intestinal Health in Mice by a Cooked Mixture of Lean Meat and Resistant Starch

Scope: The intake of resistant starch (RS) may attenuate the risks of chronic illness, including colorectal cancer. However, whether the attenuated functionality of RS is maintained in cooked meat products needs to be clarified. Methods and results: The effects of a cooked mixture of lean pork meat and RS (MS) on the growth performance, lipid accumulation, and intestinal health of mice is investigated compared to those of RS-free cooked meat (M) and the addition of RS to cooked meat (M+S). The results show that both M+S and MS diets improve growth performance, alleviate lipid accumulation, and ameliorate colon health via promoting food intake and body weight gain, attenuating adipose tissue weight and triglyceride levels in liver and serum, regulating short-chain fatty acids and ammonia concentrations, ameliorating gut morphology and remodeling the gut microbiome, including Desulfovibrio, Escherichia-Shigella, Lactococcus, Ruminococcus 2, and the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio in mice, compared to the M diet. In particular, the MS diet exerts preferable effects on promoting growth performance and intestinal benefits and alleviating lipid accumulation in mice. Conclusion: Cooked mixtures of meat and RS are promising for developing novel functional meat products for nutritional health interventions.