Dietary macronutrients and the gut microbiome: a precision nutrition approach to improve cardiometabolic health

Abstract

Accumulating evidence indicates that the gut microbiome is an important regulator of body weight, glucose and lipid metabolism, and inflammatory processes, and may thereby play a key role in the aetiology of obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Interindividual responsiveness to specific dietary interventions may be partially determined by differences in baseline gut microbiota composition and functionality between individuals with distinct metabolic phenotypes. However, the relationship between an individual’s diet, gut microbiome and host metabolic phenotype is multidirectional and complex, yielding a challenge for practical implementation of targeted dietary guidelines. In this review, we discuss the latest research describing interactions between dietary composition, the gut microbiome and host metabolism. Furthermore, we describe how this knowledge can be integrated to develop precision-based nutritional strategies to improve bodyweight control and metabolic health in humans. Specifically, we will address that (1) insight in the role of the baseline gut microbial and metabolic phenotype in dietary intervention response may provide leads for precision-based nutritional strategies; that (2) the balance between carbohydrate and protein fermentation by the gut microbiota, as well as the site of fermentation in the colon, seems important determinants of host metabolism; and that (3) ‘big data’, including multiple omics and advanced modelling, are of undeniable importance in predicting (non-)response to dietary interventions. Clearly, detailed metabolic and microbial phenotyping in humans is necessary to better understand the link between diet, the gut microbiome and host metabolism, which is required to develop targeted dietary strategies and guidelines for different subgroups of the population.

Effects of Moringa oleifera Lam. Supplementation on Inflammatory and Cardiometabolic Markers in Subjects with Prediabetes

“…One hundred percent of participants were correctly classified as respondents based on basal TNF-α ≤ 7.330 pg/mL. However, although the threshold of 7.330 pg/mL for basal value TNF-α is the best predictor of HbA1c response, 28% of those subjects with values under this threshold will still be nonrespondents, probably because of other factors not measured in this study, which might include genetic polymorphisms and epigenetic regulation of genes involved in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism [54] or microbiome differences between subjects [55,56]. On the other hand, considering the predictive character of this test, this screening method would facilitate the identification of 19% of subjects with prediabetes that would not respond due to high basal TNF-α values, under the conditions used for supplementation in this study.…”

Modulation of the gut microbiota and lipidomic profiles by black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa L.) polyphenols via the glycerophospholipid metabolism signaling pathway

“…Furthermore, many studies have demonstrated the relationship between gut microbiota and the homeostasis of lipid metabolism in the host ( 3 , 46 ). Here, our studies provided new evidence that the composition of gut microbiota was closely related to the lipid profiles after BCPs treatment.…”

“…Obesity, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and other metabolic diseases are related to dysbiosis of gut microbiota profiles ( 2 ). Evidence suggest that obesity and associated metabolic disorders resulted in reduced intestinal microbial richness and diversity and increased the abundance of Firmicutes or the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes (F/B ratio) in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed rats ( 3 , 4 ). Diet is an important external factor affecting the gut microbiota, which is considered an important option for the management of the severity of obesity and related chronic diseases ( 5 ).…”

Depletion of Gut Microbiota Inhibits Hepatic Lipid Accumulation in High-Fat Diet-Fed Mice

“…A large body of evidence has revealed the critical role of gut microbiota in maintaining host lipid metabolism [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. For example, patients with NAFLD had lower microbial diversity than healthy controls [ 5 , 6 ].…”