NutraIngredients reported the initial results of a major PREDICT 1 study last summer. Now, these full results, as well as the main PREDICT 2 study, are published in the journal ‘Natural Medicine’.
The study team – which includes researchers from ZOE, King’s College London, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the University of Trento, Italy – says the findings are possible used that to provide personalized diet advice for better health, based on gut microbiome testing.
They analyzed detailed data on the composition of gut microorganisms, their dietary habits, and cardiometabolic blood biomarkers. They collected microbiome order data, detailed information on long-term diet, and the results of hundreds of cardiometabolic blood markers from just over 1,100 participants in the UK PREDICT 2 completed their main studies in 2020 with 1,000 other participants the US, and launched PREDICT 3. a few months ago.
The results show that the microbes found in the digestion are directly related to certain foods and that the microbome is more closely associated with biomarkers of metabolic disease than other factors, such as genetics.
‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Lice
They found a clear separation of microbes into two distinct groups associated with healthy plant-based foods (such as spinach, seeds, tomato, broccoli) or based on less healthy plants (juice, sweetened beverages, reconstituted grains). ) and animal-based foods. .
Plant-based healthy food supplements usually contained butyrate agents, e.g. Roseburia hominis, Agathobaculum butyriciproducens, Faecalibacterium prausnitziiAnd Anaerostipes hadrus, As well as non-cultivated species, which are expected to have this metabolic potential (Bacterium Roseburia CAG: 182And Determining bacterium CAG: 95).
Blades associated with food based on less healthy plants and animals included several species of Clostridium (Clostridium innocuum, Clostridium symbiosum, Clostridium spiroforme, Clostridium leptum, Clostridium saccharolyticum).
Separation of species by healthy animal-based diet (eggs, white and oily fish) or less healthy foods (meat pies, bacon, milk confectionery) was also specific and exceeded support signatures for healthy plant foods and not so healthy.

The diversity and quality of a healthy diet was particularly predicted by the microbiome, highlighting the importance of looking beyond nutrition and single foods in microbiome diet research.
Dr Sarah Berry, Reader in Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London and co-author of the paper, said, “As a nutritionist, the discovery of new microbes linked to specific foods, as well as metabolic health, is encouraging. Given the highly personalized representation of midges each person, our research shows that we may be able to modify our gut midges to increase our health by choosing the best foods for us. -specific knowledge. ”
Nicola Segata, PhD, professor and principal investigator of the Computational Metagenomics Lab at the University of Trento, Italy and director of the midges analysis in the study, said:“We were surprised to see such large, clear groups of what we informally call ‘good’ and ‘bad’ microbes emerging from our study.
“It’s also good to see that microbes know so little about many of these microbes that they haven’t even been named yet. This is now a major area of focus for us, as we believe they may open up new perspectives in the future on how we could use gut midges as a changing target to improve people’s metabolism and health. . ”
The report notes that future mosquito repellent studies should adopt more detailed dietary assessment methods, rather than always focusing on specific nutrition.
“The detail and consistency in our results may be much greater compared to previous diet-microbiome activity due to quality in diet recording, metagenomic profile and large sample size. However, with data limitations FFQ diet, future diet-microbiome studies. It would be of greater benefit from higher-resolution diet assessment methods, such as weighted menu data. “
Connection with obesity
The researchers also found that the gut microbiome is a better predictor of postprandial triglycerides and insulin density than glucose levels.
They report showing strong microbiome-based biomarkers on obesity, as well as indications for cardiovascular disease and glucose intolerance, which are key risk factors for COVID.
He says: “Our machine learning approach found that visceral fat was more strongly associated with microbial gut composition than BMI33, a finding that has been repeatedly tested in US participants. Some support was also associated with obesity. were signs of poor dietary patterns after control for BMI (e.g., Clostridium CAG: 58, Flavonifractor plautii), but signs of lower visceral fat mass (e.g., F. prausnitzii) were more strongly associated with lower diets. healthy and inclusive patterns, showing that diet and obesity microbiome signatures overlap but are not equal. “
Personal nutrition
Start-up health science company ZOE has already turned these advanced findings into a home-made mosquito repellent test, currently available in the US and available in the UK before the end of the year.
Study co-ordinator Professor Tim Spector, Epidemiologist from King’s College London and scientific founder of ZOE explains: “I am delighted that we have been able to turn this cutting-edge science to the test at home in the time it has taken to peer-review and publish the research.
“Through ZOE, we can now give everyone the opportunity to find out which of these microbes live in their gut. Using machine learning, we can share our calculations with you on how your body responds to any food. ”
Source: Nature’s cure
“Microbiology links with host metabolism and normal diet 1,098 phenotyped individuals”
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-01183-8
Segata. N., et al