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   Gut Bacteria Shift Quickly After Changes in Diet, Study Shows    
   Number and type of gut microbes shifted within a day of eating plant- or   
   animal-based foods exclusively    
      
   December 11, 2013    
      
   By Brenda Goodman    
   HealthDay Reporter    
      
   WEDNESDAY, Dec. 11, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- If you were to switch from   
   vegetarianism to meat-eating, or vice-versa, chances are the composition of   
   your gut bacteria would also undergo a big change, a new study suggests.    
   The research, published Dec. 11 in the journal Nature, showed that the number   
   and kinds of bacteria -- and even the way the bacteria behaved -- changed   
   within a day of switching from a normal diet to eating either animal- or   
   plant-based foods exclusively.   
       
   "Not only were there changes in the abundance of different bacteria, but there   
   were changes in the kinds of genes that they were expressing and their   
   activity," said study author Lawrence David, an assistant professor at the   
   Institute for Genome Sciences    
   and Policy at Duke University.    
   Trillions of bacteria live in each person's gut. They're thought to play a   
   role in digestion, immunity and possibly even body weight.    
   The study suggests that this bacterial community and its genes -- called the   
   microbiome -- are extraordinarily flexible and capable of responding swiftly   
   to whatever is coming its way.    
   "The gut microbiome is potentially quite sensitive to what we eat," David   
   said. "And it is sensitive on time scales shorter than had previously been   
   thought."    
   David said, however, that it's hard to tease out exactly what that might mean   
   for human health.    
   Another expert agreed.    
   "It's nice to have some solid evidence now that these types of significant   
   changes in diet can impact the gut microflora in a significant way," said   
   Jeffrey Cirillo, a professor of microbial and molecular pathogenesis at the   
   Texas A&M Health Science    
   Center College of Medicine in Bryan, Texas. "That's very nice to see, and it's   
   very rapid. It's surprising how quick the changes can occur."    
   Cirillo said it was also intriguing how fast the microbiome seemed to recover.   
   The study found that gut bacteria were back to business as usual about a day   
   after people stopped eating the experimental diet.    
   For the study, researchers recruited six men and four women between the ages   
   of 21 and 33. For the first four days of the study, they ate their usual   
   diets. For the next five days, they switched to eating either all plant-based   
   or all animal-based foods.    
   They then went back to their normal eating habits before switching to the   
   other diet pattern.    
   The animal-based diet resulted in the biggest changes to gut bacteria. It   
   spurred the growth of 22 species of bacteria, while only three bacterial   
   species became more prominent in the plant-based diet.    
   The researchers don't fully understand what the shifts mean, but, they said,   
   some made sense. For example, several types of bacteria that became more   
   prevalent with the animal-based diet are good at resisting bile acids. The   
   liver makes bile to help    
   break down fat.    
   Another type of bacteria, which became more common in the plant-based diet, is   
   thought to be sensitive to fiber intake.    
   The researchers speculated that the bacterial shifts might explain why fatty   
   diets have been linked to diseases like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. More   
   studies are needed, however, before they can say for sure.    
   More information    
      
   For more on overweight and obesity, visit the Human Microbiome Project.    
   Copyright © 2013 HealthDay. All rights reserved.    
   Tags: diet and nutrition, digestive disorders    
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