What Is Butyrate? Everything You Need to Know About This Powerful Postbiotic
Intro:
Butyrate is one of the world’s most researched and talked-about compounds in gut health, and for good reason. Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) produced in the colon that supports a healthy metabolism, gut, and immune health. But there’s a catch: most butyrate never gets where it’s needed. That’s why we developed CoreBiome®, a patented form of tributyrin (also known as “butyrate triglycerides”), a clinically studied butyrate that actually reaches the colon.
Let’s break it down.
What is butyrate?
Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) produced in your colon when your gut microbes ferment certain types of fiber like broccoli or sweet potatoes. It’s a natural postbiotic that supports:
- Gut barrier integrity (aka “leaky gut”)
- Fuel for colon cells that line our gut barrier
- Balanced immune signaling
- Healthy inflammatory response
In simple terms, butyrate is your gut microbiome’s Chief Operations Officer in helping your body run smoothly.
What foods contain butyrate?
While butter does contain butyrate, no food contains butyrate in meaningful amounts. Instead, your body makes it in response to eating fiber and resistant starches like oats, vegetables, and green bananas. Butyrate levels vary based on your fiber intake, gut inflammation status, and gut microbiome composition.
Why is butyrate important?
Butyrate is a key communicator to major organs like brain, heart, muscle, liver and skin. Butyrate is the principal component of the gut-brain, gut-heart, gut-muscle, gut-liver, gut-skin, and other gut axes. Butyrate supports:
- Colonocyte energy (fuel for colon cells responsible for the gut barrier)
- Tight junction integrity (helps maintain a healthy gut barrier to defend against leaky gut)
- Immune modulation (helps signal immune cells)
- Metabolic signaling (signals metabolism/hunger hormones like ghrelin, GLP1, PYY and others.)
But there’s a challenge: it’s hard to predict and control the amount of butyrate produced from food sources.
Can you supplement with butyrate?
Yes. However, traditional butyrate supplements come with some limitations:
- Sodium butyrate and calcium butyrate release too early in the digestive tract, missing the colon and the primary benefits of butyrate.
- They smell of rotten eggs is so bad that it can stay in your house and on your fingers (from handling the capsules).
That’s why we created CoreBiome®, a unique and patented form of tributyrin (aka “butyrate triglycerides”).
What is CoreBiome®?
CoreBiome® is a patented and clinically studied tributyrin designed to deliver butyrate directly to the colon, where it works.
It’s a patented form of butyrate that nourishes the whole gut – from the small intestine to the colon. This is important because Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) starts in the small intestine. So, CoreBiome is released from the small to large intestine (colon) to create a more balanced gut microbiome. This mimicks nature.
Why it works:
- Bioavailability: Tributyrin is a butyrate triglyceride that protects butyrate during digestion.
- Targeted release: CoreBiome® releases where the body needs it most.
- Better tolerability: No offensive smell or taste.
- Clinically backed: Supported by multiple studies.
How is CoreBiome® different from traditional butyrate?
What types of products use CoreBiome®?
CoreBiome® is used in:
- Gut health supplements
- Skin health formulas (beauty-from-within)
- Metabolic and weight management products
- Immune health products
- It works in capsules, duocaps and softgels
Click here to browse finished goods featuring CoreBiome®.
TL;DR: Why CoreBiome®
If you want to work with butyrate, work with the patented one that gets where it needs to go. CoreBiome® delivers butyrate the way nature intended: to the colon.
