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The modern Western-style diet, which is high in processed foods, red meat, dairy products, and sugar, has a lasting impact on your gut microbiome. This diet, which is low in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, reduces the variety of microbes in the digestive system and the metabolites they produce. As a result, the risk of immune system-related conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease is on the rise more than ever. A new study has now found how this diet can shape the gut microbiome.

A study from the University of Chicago looked at the powerful role diet plays in shaping gut microbiome health. The research published in shows how a typical Western diet prevents the gut microbiome from recovering after antibiotic treatment and leaves it susceptible to infection.

To understand this, the researchers fed mice a Western-style diet and found that they were not able to rebuild a ‘healthy,’ diverse gut microbiome following antibiotic treatment. These mice were also more susceptible to infection by pathogens like Salmonella. However, the mice that were fed a diet mimicking a Mediterranean diet, high in plant-based fiber from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, were able to quickly restore a healthy and resilient gut microbiome after antibiotics.

“We were really surprised by how dramatically different the recovery process is in the mice on the Western-style diet versus the healthier one,” Megan Kennedy, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program at UChicago and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Though antibiotics are lifesavers, they wreak havoc in the microbiome of your gut by eliminating both harmful and beneficial bacteria.

“The mammalian gut microbiome is like a forest, and when you damage it, it must have a succession of events that occur in a specific order to restore itself to its former health,” Chang said. “When you are on a Western diet, this does not happen because it doesn't provide the nutrients for the right microbes at the right time to recover. Instead, you end up with a few species that monopolize these resources, and don’t set the stage for other organisms that are required for recovery,” Eugene B. Chang, MD, the author, said.

They started with mice that were fed with food mimicking a typical Western-style diet (WD) or a diet of regular mouse chow (RC) with diverse sources of plant fiber and low fat. Both groups were then treated with antibiotics. Later, some mice continued the same diet, while some were switched to the other diet. They found that only the mice on the healthy RC diet, either before or after antibiotics, were able to restore a balanced gut microbiome.