A new study reveals that it may be hard to reverse the effects of a high-fat, low-fiber diet for men and women in the industrialized world, Mercury News reports.
The new research was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The research suggests that diets that are deficient in fiber cause the depletion of gut microbes, the effects of which extend beyond the lives of those whose made such dietary choices.
The research shows that when generations are exposed to diets low in fiber, a microbiotic population die-off may cause the extinction of the trillions of species that live in healthy human guts. When the population of the gut bacterium falls below a certain level, it becomes extinct.
The study suggested that the reintroduction of more dietary fiber and the intake of probiotic powders might not bring all the endangered microbiotic taxa back and restore gut health to successive generations.
Researchers from Stanford, Harvard and Princeton universities led the research study that was conducted on laboratory mice whose guts were colonized with a wide range of human microbes. The mice were fed diet that was low in carbohydrates. The researchers then fed four successive generations of mice with a diet that was low in microbiota-accessible carbohydrates.
The researchers found that even when they put the parents back on a high-fiber diet, the dearth of microbial diversity in the guts of younger generations became even worse. Also, when they put the younger generations back on a high fiber diet, it failed to restore the microbiotic diversity.
Also, the findings suggested, that it took more than a course of probiotics or a daily tub of yogurt to encounter diseases that when arose from a depleted gut microbiome.
The findings demonstrate "a diet-induced ratcheting effect" in which species of microbiota "are not effectively transferred to the next generation," the researchers wrote.
"Microbiota can change on a timescale that is much faster than the host," wrote the team, led by Erica D. Sonnenburg and Justin L. Sonnenburg of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
