Diet patterns linked with gut pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory features
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Researchers found that specific foods and nutrients correlated with species known to have mucosal protection and anti-inflammatory effects, according to data published in Gut.
“We identified dietary patterns that consistently correlate with groups of bacteria with shared functional roles in both health and disease,” Laura A. Bolte, BSc, from the department of gastroenterology and hepatology, University of Groningen and University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands, and colleagues wrote. “Moreover, specific foods and nutrients were associated with species known to infer mucosal protection and anti-inflammatory effects. We propose microbial mechanisms through which the diet affects inflammatory responses in the gut as a rationale for future intervention studies.”
Bolte and colleagues analyzed the relationship between 173 dietary factors and the microbiome of 1,425 patients from different cohorts including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome and the general population. They profiled gut microbial composition and function with shotgun metagenomic sequencing assessed dietary intake via food frequency questionnaires.
“We performed unsupervised clustering to identify dietary patterns and microbial clusters,” Bolte and colleagues wrote. “Associations between diet and microbial features were explored per cohort, followed by a meta-analysis and heterogeneity estimation.”
The researchers identified 38 links between dietary patterns and microbial clusters. In their meta-analysis of healthy individuals and patients with IBS, Crohn’s disease and UC, investigators found 61 individual foods and nutrients correlated with 61 species and 249 metabolic pathways.
“Processed foods and animal-derived foods were consistently associated with higher abundances of Firmicutes, Ruminococcus species of the Blautia genus and endotoxin synthesis pathways,” Bolte and colleagues wrote. “The opposite was found for plant foods and fish, which were positively associated with short-chain fatty acid-producing commensals and pathways of nutrient metabolism.”
Perspective
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Stacy Cavagnaro, RD
Associations between diet and gastrointestinal health have been observed for centuries. More recently, certain eating patterns have been shown to be positively or negatively associated with the development of colorectal cancer and IBD. While many mechanisms of action have been hypothesized, it is the effect of particular foods and their effect on the gut microbiome that has received the most attention. Despite past studies investigating relationships with foods and abundance of specific species of intestinal bacteria, there is little evidence on clinical implication as it relates to various disease states. The findings of this study – ie, processed foods and red meat fueling inflammatory microbes, and plant-based diets and fish fueling anti-inflammatory microbes – are consistent with our dietary recommendations for both IBD patients and for colorectal cancer prevention. The general recommendation for gut health is to follow a Mediterranean diet, which is low in processed foods, red meats and animal fats, and high in plant-based fats, fruit, vegetables, whole grains and fish. More GI nutrition research is needed to understand the effects of particular foods and nutrients on specific gut microbes, and those microbes’ clinical impact on disease.
Stacy Cavagnaro
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