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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Davis, California » Western Human Nutrition Research Center » Obesity and Metabolism Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #359899
Title: The role of the gut microbiome in predicting response to diet and the development of precision nutrition models. Part II: Results

Author
item RILEY, HUGHES - University Of California, Davis
item Kable, Mary
item MARCO, MARIA - University Of California, Davis
item Keim, Nancy

Submitted to: Advances in Nutrition
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/12/2019
Publication Date: 6/21/2019
Citation: Riley, H.L., Kable, M.E., Marco, M.L., Keim, N.L. 2019. The role of the gut microbiome in predicting response to diet and the development of precision nutrition models. Part II: Results. Advances in Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmz049.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/advances/nmz049

Interpretive Summary: Individuals can have vastly different responses to dietary components. Food allergies are perhaps the most obvious example of individual variation, but less pronounced, even subtle differences in diet responses exist that can have positive or negative effects on health. A new emphasis in nutrition research is to identify factors that contribute to the variation in response to foods and diets so that dietary recommendations can be optimized at the individual level. Genes, environment, and the bacteria residing in the gut are likely contributors to this variation. This paper stands as the second in a two-part review of the role of gut microbiota in personalized nutrition research. Findings from published studies that have examined the effect of the gut bacteria on the response to diet components are summarized, providing the reader with a comprehensive overview of the current state of research for personalized nutrition along with directions for future research.

Technical Abstract: The gut microbiota is increasingly implicated in the health and metabolism of its human host. The host’s diet is a major component influencing the composition and function of the gut microbiota, and mounting evidence suggests that the composition and function of the gut microbiota influences the host’s metabolic response to diet. This effect of the gut microbiota on personalized dietary response is a growing focus of precision nutrition research and may inform the effort to tailor dietary advice to the individual. As the gut microbiota has been shown to be malleable to some extent, it may also allow for therapeutic alterations of the gut microbiota in order to alter response to certain dietary components. This paper is the second in a two-part review of the current research in the field of precision nutrition incorporating the gut microbiota into studies investigating inter-individual variability in response to diet. Part I reviews the methods used by researchers to design and carry out such studies as well as analyze the results subsequently obtained. Part II reviews the findings of these studies and discusses the gaps in our current knowledge and directions for future research. The studies reviewed provide the current understanding in this field of research and a foundation from which we may build, utilizing and expanding upon the methods and results they present to inform future studies.