CHILDHOOD DIET: LIFELONG IMPACT

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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 demonstrate a significant decrease in the total number and diversity of gut bacteria in mature mice that were fed a demonstrably healthy diet as juveniles.

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

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

The microbiome refers to all the bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses that live on and inside a human or animal. Most of these microorganisms are found in the intestines, and many of them are beneficial, stimulating the immune system, breaking down food, and helping synthesize various vitamins.

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

In this study, the use of mice, Garland's team looked for impacts on the microcirculation after dividing their mice into four groups: half fed the standard, 'healthy' diet, half fed the less healthy 'Western' diet, half with access to a running wheel for exercise, and half without.

After three weeks spent on these diets, all mice were returned to a standard diet and no exercise, as is normally how mice are kept in a laboratory. At the 14-week mark, the team examined the diversity f bbacteria normally presentin the animals.

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

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

Research on the species of bacteria and the toteria tit hato, which may influence its abundance, has been thorough. For example, a study observed a similar bacteria species increase in abundance after five weeks of treadmill training, as reported by other researchers, suggesting that exercise alone may increase its presence.

Overall, the UCR researchers found that an early-life Western diet had more long-lasting effects on the microbiome than early-life exercise.

Garland's team would like to repeat this experiment and take samples at additional points to better understand when the changes in mouse microbiomes first appear and whether they extend into even later phases of life.

Regardless of when the effects first appear, however, the researchers say it's significant that they were observed so long after changing the diet and tititnote thatck.

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