Gut microbiota: a link between diet and cardiometabolic health

Identifier:  TDX:3190

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX3190

Authors:  Galiè, Serena

Abstract:
The role of specific foods or dietary components in shaping gut microbiota and their impact on human health represent a growing area of interest in the hallmark of precision nutrition. However, the effects of a global dietary pattern like Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) against consumption of a recognized potential prebiotic food like nuts into a habitual dietary pattern on the complex ecology of gut microbiome has not been fully elucidated. Our first aim was then to evaluate the effects of MedDiet on gut microbiota composition and function compared to the consumption of nuts in the context of a non-MedIDiet in adults with both overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome. Secondly, we aimed to analyze the potential intermediatory role of gut microbiota in diet-induced benefits on cardiometabolic parameters and on the overall host metabolism, by evaluating the fecal and plasma metabolomics profile of our population. The present work is conducted in the framework of METADIET study, a controlled randomized clinical trial with a crossover design. The results illustrated in this thesis showed that consuming MedDiet is resulting in an enrichment of Lachnospiraceae NK4A136 and a member of Ruminococcaceae family. At the same time, these changes were positively associated with improvements in cardiometabolic parameters and reflected as well in the fecal and plasma metabolomes of the host.