How to Increase Butyrate From the Inside Out
Learn how to increase butyrate—a gut-health superstar made by your microbes. Explore why microbial production beats dietary sources, the best fibers to eat (like resistant starch), and how exercise and probiotics support your body’s natural butyrate factory for benefits in your gut and beyond.
Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid made by your gut microbes to fuel your colon cells and keep your gut barrier resilient.
The best way to increase butyrate isn’t by eating it directly—it’s by feeding your gut the right kinds of fermentable fibers.
Daily movement, like a brisk jog, can raise levels of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, a standout butyrate-producing bacterium.
Butyrate may support memory and brain function—at least, that’s what studies in mice are suggesting.
Probiotics can help create a healthy microbial community by giving native butyrate producers the tools they need to thrive.
If you’ve been searching for how to increase butyrate, you’re onto something big. Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) made by your gut microbes—and it’s the preferred fuel for the cells lining your colon. But its talents go far beyond just giving your gut lining an assist. When your microbiome produces enough butyrate, you also get immune support, steadier digestion, and possibly even potential benefits for inflammation and brain health.
Here’s the catch: unlike vitamins and minerals, butyrate isn’t something you can get from a superfood smoothie or grab at the pharmacy. It’s made inside you, by your own gut microbes, when you eat the right kinds of fiber.
So, if you want to know how to increase butyrate, it’s less about adding a new supplement to your diet and more about supporting the “factory floor” of your gut ecosystem. That means giving your microbes the tools they need to do their job—and letting your own body do the rest. Ready to see what it takes to boost butyrate naturally, from within?
Why Butyrate Matters for Your Gut and Beyond
Picture your gut lining as a high-security checkpoint: extremely selective and on constant duty. Butyrate is the top fuel source for those cells—known as colonocytes. When butyrate is plentiful, your gut lining is more likely to stay strong, stable, and (dare we say) a little more drama-free.
Here’s what butyrate does in your body:
Feeds Your Gut Cells: Butyrate is the main source of energy for colonocytes, powering their daily work.
Strengthens the Gut Barrier: It helps tighten the protein “zippers” (tight junctions) between cells and supports mucus production to keep defenses up.
Helps Regulate Inflammation: Butyrate signals your immune cells to dial down excessive inflammatory responses, helping maintain peace and stability in your gut.
Supports Microbial Balance: It helps keep your colon more anaerobic (low-oxygen), making life harder for less desirable microbes.
Bottom line
When you support butyrate production, you’re strengthening your gut lining, supporting immune harmony, and shaping a gut environment where beneficial microbes can thrive. That’s a triple win.
Why Eating Butyrate Doesn’t Work (And What Does)
You’d think the easy fix would be to eat foods with butyrate. Butter, ghee, hard cheeses—they all contain trace amounts. But most of that butyrate gets absorbed way before it ever reaches your colon.5
So what’s the real solution? It’s all about feeding the gut microbes that do the heavy lifting.
The Best Fibers for Butyrate-Producing Microbes
Think of different fibers as building materials for your gut’s butyrate factory. Only certain types really do the job:
Resistant Starch: Found in cooked and cooled potatoes, green bananas, legumes, and oats. This fiber skips digestion and lands in the colon for fermentation.
Fructans (like Inulin): You’ll find these in garlic, onions, and chicory. They help grow Bifidobacteria, which are key team players in butyrate production.
Pectin: Apples, apricots, and pears are loaded with pectin, a fiber that’s very popular among microbes.
Galactooligosaccharides (GOS): Found in beans and lentils, GOS supports the broader team of SCFA-producing microbes.
Including a variety of fermentable fibers in your daily meals gives your gut microbes more opportunities to produce butyrate.
What About Polyphenols?
Fiber is the main event, but plant polyphenols—the colorful compounds in foods like pomegranates, berries, and dark chocolate—are in the supporting cast. (You’ll also find polyphenols in drinks like green tea and coffee.) Your gut microbes can transform these into postbiotic compounds, potentially supporting gut health and beyond.
While fiber is the main fuel for butyrate production, some research suggests that polyphenols may help shape a gut environment that favors butyrate-producing microbes. Certain polyphenols can even be broken down by your microbiome into compounds that interact with these bacteria, adding another layer to your gut’s butyrate-making potential.
“Many people focus on just eating more fiber to feed their gut bacteria, which is a great start,” says Dirk Gevers, Ph.D. “But at Seed, we’re also interested in what these microbes can do with other compounds.”
Basically, it’s not just about fermentation. It’s about all the ways your gut turns food into function.
Do Probiotics Increase Butyrate?
Butyrate is mainly made by specialist microbes in your gut, like Faecalibacterium prausnitzii.11 These bacteria ferment those handy dietary fibers we mentioned into butyrate as part of a lively microbial ecosystem. But what about probiotics?
Most probiotic strains aren’t butyrate factories themselves, but they can influence how much butyrate your gut produces. Some strains generate helpful metabolites that serve as building blocks for your native butyrate-producing bacteria. Others help create an environment that supports SCFA production by influencing pH, balancing your microbial community, and interacting with your gut lining.
Enter Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic. With 24 precisely selected strains and a novel polyphenol-based prebiotic (MAPP™), DS-01® was studied in an in vitro colonic model and shown to increase total SCFA levels—including butyrate. This points to its potential to support the microbial activity that leads to butyrate production under the right conditions. Several Bifidobacterium strains in DS-01® are known acetate producers, which is key since some butyrate-producing bacteria can use acetate to make more butyrate via a “cross-feeding” pathway.
Think of probiotics not as the headliners in your butyrate story, but as the stage managers—supporting your gut ecosystem so the real butyrate producers can do their best work.
Exercise: The Surprising Way to Support Butyrate Producers
Turns out, your gut microbes love it when you move. Even moderate physical activity, especially cardio, can increase butyrate-producing bacteria, particularly Faecalibacterium prausnitzii.
Exercise also helps with gut transit time (how quickly food moves through you), which can influence fermentation and microbial metabolism in meaningful ways.
You don’t need to train for a marathon. Just make adequate movement a regular part of your routine, and your tiny passengers will thank you.
A Gut-Brain Connection—With Butyrate in the Middle
Butyrate isn’t just a VIP in your colon. Animal research shows it may help spark new neurons (neurogenesis) in brain regions related to memory and learning. Butyrate can also strengthen the blood-brain barrier, giving your brain extra protection.
Human science here is early, but it’s another reminder: what happens in your gut microbiome doesn’t stay in your gut.
The Key Insight
You don’t need to scour the grocery aisles for butyrate. You need to focus on feeding and supporting the gut microbes that do the hard work of making it. Prioritize resistant starches, fermentable fibers, daily movement, and a healthy microbial environment.
Probiotics might not manufacture butyrate directly, but they can make your native producers more effective—think of them as the project managers in your microbial workforce. When your microbiome thrives, it pays you back with butyrate and a gut that’s up for anything.
Good gut choices aren’t made by guesswork—they’re cultured with care.
What Foods Are Highest in Butyrate-Producing Fibers?
Cooked and cooled potatoes and rice, oats, green bananas, beans, lentils, garlic, and onions are your best picks for feeding butyrate-producing microbes. These foods deliver resistant starch, galactooligosaccharides (GOS), and fructans—the perfect fuel for butyrate production.
Can I Just Take a Butyrate Supplement?
Technically, yes—but it’s not very efficient. Most butyrate gets absorbed long before it reaches your colon, where it matters most. Instead, your best bet is to feed your gut bacteria with fermentable fibers like resistant starch and inulin. That way, you’re providing the raw materials for your microbes to make butyrate right where you need it.
How Long Does It Take to Increase Butyrate?
Shifts can start within days of changing your diet, but lasting increases require consistency. Your gut microbes can begin producing more butyrate soon after you add more fiber, but sustained changes need weeks to months of consistent habits. Keeping up a fiber-rich diet and daily movement is the key to maintaining higher butyrate levels for the long haul.
What Are the Signs of Low Butyrate?
There’s no single symptom, but clues can include irregular digestion, gut discomfort, or inflammation. You might notice bloating, sluggish digestion, or just a general sense that your gut isn’t at its best. Often, a low intake of plant-based fibers is behind sluggish butyrate production—so if your diet is light on fiber, your gut microbes may be struggling to keep up.