If you’ve got a funny feeling in your gut that your diet’s all wrong, it’s probably your body’s way of telling you it’s time to eat more plant-based.
A new study has found that when it comes to gut health, vegans tend to have a far sprightlier digestive tract than those who consume meat and dairy. Unsurprisingly, they also rated significantly higher for their intake of healthy plant foods than vegetarians, who in turn rated higher than omnivores.
While omnivores can celebrate having the most diverse range of bacteria in their gut microbiome – the ecosystem of microbes that live in our intestines – they also tended to have the highest number of harmful bacteria, the dangerous little critters linked to colorectal cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. That’s because a stomach full of meat – which is known to age the body – and not enough vegetables leads to protein fermenting in the gut, causing inflammation.
As you might expect, the opposite was true for vegans: although they had less diverse gut bacteria, their fruit and vegetable-rich diet meant they had a greater number of beneficial bacteria – anti-inflammatory agents designed to ferment fibre and starch, which produces the short-chain fatty acids thought to support the brain and immune system. Plant-based food and a healthier gut biome were linked last year to helping slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s.
The biggest difference between vegan and vegetarian gut biomes was the presence in the latter of bacteria linked to digesting dairy products.
The research, carried out by the University of Trento in Italy and the nutrition app ZOE, analysed the gut bacteria of almost 21,561 people from various countries, 19,817 of whom classed themselves as omnivores, 1,088 as vegetarians and 656 as vegans.
They also found that if omnivores were to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables they ate, they could bump up the amount of good bacteria inside them. The study found that omnivores ate “significantly fewer healthy plant-based foods” than veggies or vegans – presumably because healthy nutritious grub was losing out to animal products when it came to plate space.
As the researchers concluded: “Following diets that include or exclude major food groups such as meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables leaves its mark on the gut microbiome … Our work reinforces how humans can shape their own gut microbiomes, and by extension their health, directly through simple dietary choices.”
Given all the benefits to body and mind, people and planet of going plant-based, isn’t it time you started listening to your gut?