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Review
. 2020 Jun 2;12(6):1654.
doi: 10.3390/nu12061654.

The Impact of Diet on Microbiota Evolution and Human Health. Is Diet an Adequate Tool for Microbiota Modulation?

Laura Moles  1 , David Otaegui  1
Affiliations
Review

The Impact of Diet on Microbiota Evolution and Human Health. Is Diet an Adequate Tool for Microbiota Modulation?

Laura Moles et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The human microbiome is emerging as an interesting field in research into the prevention of health problems and recovery from illness in humans. The complex ecosystem formed by the microbiota is continuously interacting with its host and the environment. Diet could be assumed to be one of the most prominent factors influencing the microbiota composition. Nevertheless, and in spite of numerous strategies proposed to modulate the human microbiota through dietary means, guidelines to achieve this goal have yet to be established. This review assesses the correlation between social and dietary changes over the course of human evolution and the adaptation of the human microbiota to those changes. In addition, it discusses the main dietary strategies for modulating the microbiota and the difficulties of putting them properly into practice.

Keywords: Western diet; chronic disease; gut microbiota; prebiotic; probiotic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Host microbiota interactions and their relationship with disease.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Drivers of dietary trends and their relation to microbiota composition and changes in human health.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Increase in calorie intake in different regions over the last 50 years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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