Berlin, March 15, 2016 ? Changes in farming practices over the last 50 years have resulted in decreased agro-diversity which, in turn, has resulted in decreased dietary diversity. The significant impact of this change in dietary richness on human health is the topic of an insightful perspective in Molecular Metabolism by Mark Heiman, MicroBiome Therapeutics and Frank Greenway, Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
Heiman and Greenway describe how the reduction in dietary diversity has changed the richness of human gut microbiota, the community of microorganisms living in the gut. The researchers point out that healthy individuals have diverse gut microbiota and many of the common pathologies of the 21st century, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and inflammatory bowel disease, are associated with reduced microbiotic richness.
Gut microbiota function as an endocrine organ, metabolizing specific nutrients from the diet and producing specific substances that act as metabolic signals in the host. It follows then that highly specialized diets will change the landscape of the gut microbiome over time. In fact, it takes only a few days of changing diet to alter the micro biotic makeup of the human gut. And if the dietary change involves elimination of one or more macronutrients (think Atkins or Paleo or vegan), humans are essentially selecting for some micro biotic species over others.
The importance of microbiota diversity cannot be overstated. They produce an abundance of important molecules for the host and with increased variation comes increased adaptability and an increased range of physiological responses. "The greater the repertoire of signals, the more likely is the ability to maintain homeostasis when dietary intake is perturbed," explain Heiman and Greenway. "Furthermore, because each particular macronutrient has the potential to be metabolized by microbiota into unique metabolic signals, the greater the variety in signals, the greater the variety of responses possible."
The authors suggest that additional research into how specific macronutrients impact the microbiome and how to increase gut microbial diversity may be the future of personalized medicine in metabolic disease. A stool sample, rather than a blood sample, may be enough for the doctor to prescribe individualized dietary changes that will treat metabolic disorders.
###
Molecular Metabolism will publish a dedicated Special Issue on Microbiota: Their Impact on Obesity and Diabetes in September 2016.
Article details
"A Healthy Gastrointestinal Microbiome is Dependent on Dietary Diversity" by Mark L. Heiman and Frank L. Greenway (doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molmet.2016.02.005). The article appears in Molecular Metabolism, Volume 5 (May 2016), published by Elsevier.
A copy of the paper is available to credentialed journalists upon request, contact Elsevier's Newsroom at newsroom@elsevier.com or +31 20 4853564.
About Molecular Metabolism
Molecular Metabolism (ISSN: 2212-8778) is committed to serving as a platform reporting breakthroughs from all stages of the discovery and development of novel and improved personalized medicines for obesity, diabetes and associated diseases. Molecularmetabolism.com.
Molecular Metabolism will publish a dedicated Special Issue on Microbiota: their impact on Obesity and Diabetes in September 2016.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions -- among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey -- and publishes over 2,500 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and more than 33,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com
Media contact
Silke Morin
Managing Editor, Molecular Metabolism
s.morin@elsevier.com
Journal
Molecular Metabolism