HOW THE RIGHT FOODS MIGHT LEAD TO A HEALTHIER GUT
Microbiome is shaped by what we eat
Scientists know that the trillions of bacteria and other microbes that live in our guts play an important role in health, influencing our risk of developing obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and a wide range of other conditions. But now a large new international study has found that the composition of these microorganisms, collectively known as our microbiomes, is largely shaped by what we eat.
By analyzing the diets, health and microbiomes Predict, which is the world’s largest research of more than 1,000 people, researchers project meant to look at individual responses found that a diet rich in nutrient-dense, to food. Started in 2018 by British public whole foods supported the growth of beneficial health researcher Tim Spector, the study microbes that promoted good health. has followed more than 1,100 mostly healthy But eating a diet full of highly processed adults in the U.S. and Britain, including hundreds foods with added sugars, salt and other additives of identical and nonidentical twins. had the opposite effect, promoting gut The researchers collected data on factors microbes that were linked to worse cardiovascular that influence metabolism and disease and metabolic health. risk. They analyzed the participants’ diets,
The researchers found that what people microbiomes and body fat. They took blood ate had a more powerful impact on the samples before and after meals to look at makeup of their microbiomes than their their blood sugar, hormones, cholesterol and genes. They also discovered that a variety of inflammation levels. They monitored their plant and animal foods were linked to a more sleep and physical activity. And for two favorable microbiome. weeks they had them wear continuous glucose
A critical factor was whether people ate monitors that tracked their blood sugar highly processed foods. People who tended responses to different meals. to eat minimally processed foods like vegetables, The researchers were surprised to find that nuts, eggs and seafood were more likely genetics played only a minor role in shaping to harbor beneficial gut bacteria. Consuming a person’s microbiome. Identical twins large amounts of juices, sweetened beverages, were found to share 34% of the same gut white bread, refined grains and processed microbes, while people who were unrelated meats was associated with microbes linked shared about 30% of the same microbes. to poor metabolic health. The composition of each person’s microbiome “It goes back to the age-old message of appeared to be driven more by what eating as many whole and unprocessed they ate, and the types of microbes in their foods as possible,” said Dr. Sarah E. guts played a strong role in their metabolic Berry, a nutrition scientist at King’s health.
College London and a co-author of the The researchers identified clusters of new study, which was published this so-called good gut bugs, which were more month in Nature Medicine. “What this common in people who ate a diverse diet research shows for the first time is the rich in high-fiber plants as well as minimally link between the quality of the food we’re processed animal foods such as fish and fullfat eating, the quality of our microbiomes and yogurt. They also found clusters of “bad” ultimately our health outcomes.” gut bugs that were common in people who
The findings could one day help doctors regularly consumed foods that were highly and nutritionists prevent or perhaps even processed. One common denominator treat some diet-related diseases, allowing among heavily processed foods is that they them to prescribe personalized diets to people tend to contain very little fiber. based on the unique makeup of their Among the “good” strains of gut microbes microbiomes and other factors. were Prevotella copri and Blastocystis,
Many studies suggest that there is no onesize-fits-all which were associated with lower levels of diet that works for everyone. The visceral fat, which increases the risk of heart new study found that different people could disease. These microbes also appeared to have wildly different metabolic responses to improve blood sugar control, an indicator the same foods mediated in part by the kinds of diabetes risk. Other beneficial microbes of microbes residing in their guts. were associated with reduced inflammation
“What we found in our study was that the and lower spikes in blood fat and cholesterol same diet in two different individuals does levels after meals. not lead to the same microbiome, and it does The new study was funded and supported not lead to the same metabolic response,” by Zoe Global, a health science company, said Dr. Andrew T. Chan, a co-author of the as well as by the Wellcome Trust, a British study and a professor of medicine at Harvard nonprofit, and several public health groups. Medical School and Massachusetts General “We think there are lots of small changes Hospital. “There is a lot of variation.” that people can make that can have a big
The new findings stem from an international impact on their health that might be mediated study of personalized nutrition called through the microbiome,” Berry said.
“It goes back to the age-old message of eating as many whole and unprocessed foods as possible.”
—Dr. Sarah E.
Berry