http://news.sciencemag.org/
Science, the team reports a similar clustering into enterotypes—although only two of the three showed up clearly—and discovered that dietary habits are linked to the type of bugs that thrive in the gut. People who eat a lot of meat and saturated fat tended to have more Bacteroides in their flora; Ruminococcus prevailed in people who consumed lots of alcohol and polyunsaturated fats, whereas Prevotella favored a diet rich in carbohydrates. It's not clear whether one type of microbial flora is healthier for the host than the other. But if that turns out to be the case, the study offers hope of new ways to improve health by changing diet, Bushman says.
However, other findings reported in the same paper show that you can't change enterotype overnight. The team sequestered 10 volunteers in a hospital and fed half of them a fixed diet very high in fat and low in fiber; the other half of the subjects had the opposite menu. The researchers found that the bacterial populations began to shift within both groups, with some species becoming more common and others less common, but people had the same enterotype when the study ended after 10 days. If switching gut enterotype is possible, the team concludes, it may take a long-term dietary intervention.
Gut Bacteria Reflect Dietary Differences
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/08/03/gut-bacteria-reflect-dietary-differences
The 'microflora hypothesis' of allergic diseases.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16393316
Role of human microflora in health and disease
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t365180210212606/
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