Feeding the gut microbiome!
The largest microbiome study (the American Gut Project) to date tested over 11 000 stool samples alongside dietary and lifestyle questionnaires and observed that the largest predictor of a diverse microbiome (associated with favourable health outcomes) was diet diversity, in particular a diversity of plant foods (McDonald et al., 2018).
Those who consumed more than 30 different plant foods per week also had reduced antibiotic resistance. This may partly be due to the association between reduced plant consumption and increased meat intake from antibiotic treated animals (McDonald et al., 2018).
This study additionally observed that those who reported mental illness, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and OCD, had an altered microbiome with specific species elevated and others absent/reduced (McDonald et al., 2018).
So how does a variety of plant foods improve the microbiome?
· Different fibres feed different species of gut microbes!
· When we consume fibre our gut microbes produce compounds including short chain fatty acids which improve the integrity of our gut lining, can reduce inflammation, improve our immune response and much more.
· A variety of plant foods contain different polyphenols which can both feed beneficial microbes and inhibit pathogenic species.
References:
Behsaz, B., Brennan, C., Chen, Y., DeRight Goldasich, L., Dorrestein, P. C., Dunn, R. R., Fahimipour, A. K., Gaffney, J., Gilbert, J. A., Gogul, G., Green, J. L., Hugenholtz, P., … Gunderson, B. (2018). American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research. MSystems, 3(3). https://doi.org/10.1128/msystems.00031-18