Diet can rapidly alter the human gut microbiome

Dr Chris Allen from Queens university Belfast presented us with this paper during his talk at THE GUT day last week.

Diet rapidly and reproducibly alters the human gut microbiome
Lawrence A. David
Nature. Jan 2014

Essentially it debunks the somewhat common perception that our gut micro biome is populated and determined within the first four to five years of our lives. It proves that the balance of our gut bacteria can be altered quite considerably over a very short period of time due to the food that we eat.

What does that mean? It means that our diet is one of the strongest factors in determining good gut health and therefore healthy immune systems and that this can be altered drastically with the right approach, over a short period of time.