According to the study, children’s diet has a permanent impact

Eating too much fat and sugar as a child can alter your microbiome for life, even if you later learn to eat healthier, a new study in mice suggests.

The study by UC Riverside researchers is one of the first to show a significant decrease in the total number and diversity of intestinal bacteria in mature mice fed an unhealthy diet as young.

“We studied mice, but the effect we observed is equivalent to children having a Western diet, high in fat and sugar and their gut microbiome still being affected up to six years after puberty,” she explained. Theodore Garland, evolutionary physiologist at UCR.

A paper describing the study has recently been published in the journal Journal of Experimental Biology.

The microbiome refers to all bacteria, as well as fungi, parasites, and viruses that live in and within a human or animal. Most of these microorganisms are found in the gut and most are useful as they stimulate the immune system, break down food and help synthesize key vitamins.

In a healthy body, there is a balance of pathogenic and beneficial organisms. However, if the balance is altered, either through the use of antibiotics, diseases or an unhealthy diet, the body can become susceptible to the disease.

In this study, Garland’s team looked for impacts on the microbiome after dividing the mice into four groups: half fed the standard ‘healthy’ diet, half fed the less healthy ‘western’ diet, half had access to a running wheel for exercise, and half without.

After three weeks devoted to these diets, all mice returned to a standard diet and did not exercise, which is usually how mice are kept in a laboratory. After 14 weeks, the team examined the diversity and abundance of bacteria in the animals.

They found that the amount of bacteria such as Muribaculum intestinale was significantly reduced in the Western diet group. This type of bacteria is involved in carbohydrate metabolism.

The analysis also showed that intestinal bacteria are sensitive to the amount of exercise the mice did. Muribaculum bacteria increased in mice fed a standard diet that had access to a running wheel and decreased in mice on a high-fat diet, whether or not they exercised.

Researchers believe that this species of bacteria and the family of bacteria to which it belongs can influence the amount of energy available to its host. Other functions that may have this type of bacteria are still being investigated.

Another notable effect was the rise of a very similar bacterial species that was enriched after five weeks of treadmill training in a study by other researchers, which suggests that exercise can only increase their presence.

In general, UCR researchers found that the Western early-life diet had more lasting effects on the microbiome than early-life exercises.

The Garland team would like to repeat this experiment and take samples at additional times to better understand when changes appear in mouse microbiomes and whether they extend even into later stages of life.

However, regardless of when the effects appear, the researchers say it is significant that they were observed for a long time after changing the diet and after changing it again.

Takeaway food, Garland said, is essentially, “You’re not just what you eat, but what you ate as a kid.”

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