If you were to switch from vegetarianism to meat-eating, or vice-versa, chances are the composition of your gut bacteria would also undergo a big change, a new study suggests.
The research, published Dec. 11 in the journal Nature, showed that the number and kinds of bacteria -- and even the way the bacteria behaved -- changed within a day of switching from a normal diet to eating either animal- or plant-based foods exclusively.
"Not only were there changes in the abundance of different bacteria, but there were changes in the kinds of genes that they were expressing and their activity," said study author Lawrence David, an assistant professor at the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy at Duke University.
Trillions of bacteria live in each person's gut. They're thought to play a role in digestion, immunity and possibly even body weight.
The study suggests that this bacterial community and its genes -- called the microbiome -- are extraordinarily flexible and capable of responding swiftly to whatever is coming its way. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_143343.html
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