A new study in mice suggests that eating too much fat and sugar as a baby can change a person’s midges for life, even if you learn about eating healthier.
The study by UC Riverside researchers is one of the first to show a significant reduction in the total number and diversity of gut bacteria in mature mice feeding an unhealthy diet as adolescents.
“We studied mice, but the effect we saw is equivalent to children having a Western diet, high in fat and sugar and their gut microbiome is still affected up to six years later. after childhood, “UCR evolutionary physicist Theodore Garland explained.
A paper outlining the study was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
The microbiome refers to all bacteria as well as fungi, parasites, and viruses that live on and inside a human or animal. Most of these microorganisms are found in the intestines, and most of them are helpful, stimulating the immune system, breaking down food, and helping to digest ‘key vitamin composition.
In a healthy body, there is a balance of pathogenic and beneficial organisms. However, if the balance is disturbed, either through the use of antibiotics, illness, or an unhealthy diet, the body may be prone to infection.
In this study, Garland’s team looked for effects on the microbiome after dividing their mice into four groups: half were fed the normal, ‘healthy’ diet, half were fed the ‘Western’ diet which was not so healthy, half with access to a running wheel for exercise, half without.
After three weeks spent on these diets, all mice were returned to a normal diet and no exercise, usually as mice are kept in a laboratory. At the 14-week mark, the team studied the diversity and abundance of bacteria in the animals.
They found that the level of bacteria such as Muribaculum intestinale was significantly reduced in the Western diet group. This type of bacteria is involved in carbohydrate metabolism.
Studies have also shown that the gut bacteria are sensitive to the level of exercise received by the mice. Muribaculum bacteria increased in mice fed a normal diet that had access to a running wheel and decreased in mice on a high-fat diet whether or not they exercised.
Researchers believe that this species of bacteria, and the family of bacteria to which it belongs, may affect the amount of energy available to its host. Research is continuing into other possible actions of this type of bacteria.
One other interesting effect was the increase in the sex of very similar bacteria enriched after five weeks of treadmill training in a study by other researchers, suggesting that exercise alone may increase its presence.
Overall, UCR researchers found that early Western diet had a more lasting effect on the microbiome than early-life exercise did.
The Garland team would like to repeat this experiment and take samples at additional times, to gain a better understanding of when the changes in the mouse microorganisms first appear, and whether they extend to later stages of life.
No matter when the effects first appear, however, the researchers say it is important that they were seen as long after they changed their diet, and then changed back. The takeaway, Garland said, is basically, “Not just what you eat,” but what you ate as a child! ”
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This story was published from a wire group group with no text changes. Only the headline has changed.
