High-fibre diet benefits can be inherited
Adopting a high-fibre diet may not only benefit the microbial profile of the person consuming the diet but also their future children, according to a study in Nature.
The findings suggest damage over several generations to a gut microbe population may not be reversible with simple diet fixes as previously thought.
Microbiota-accessible carbohydrates (MACS) found in dietary fibre play a crucial role in shaping the body’s microbial ecosystem, and are notably reduced in the Western diet (high in fat and simple carbohydrates, low in fibre) compared with more traditional diets.
In the study, researchers from Stanford, Harvard and Princeton University fed ten mice a diet rich in plant-derived fibre from a high microbiota-accessible carbohydrate (MAC) diet for six weeks. These mice were then divided into two groups.
One group was fed a low-MAC diet for seven weeks, after which they were returned to the high-MAC diet for a further six weeks.
The control group were fed the high-MAC diet throughout the experiment.
