Study finds that children’s diet has a lifelong impact

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

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 adult mice that fed an unhealthy diet as adolescents.

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

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

The microbiome refers to all the bacteria as well as fungi, parasites and viruses that live on and within a human or animal. Most of these microorganisms are found in the intestines, and most of them are useful for stimulating the immune system, breaking down food and helping to synthesize the most important vitamins.

In a healthy body, there is a balance between pathogens and beneficial organisms. However, if the balance is disturbed, whether through the use of antibiotics, diseases or unhealthy diets, the body can be susceptible to diseases.

In this study, the Garland team looked for impact on the microbiome 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, which is usually the way mice are kept in a laboratory. After the 14-week point, the team investigated 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. These types of bacteria are involved in carbohydrate metabolism.

Analysis also showed that the intestinal bacteria are sensitive to the amount of exercise the mice receive. Muribaculum bacteria increased in mice that had a standard diet that had access to a running wheel and decreased in mice on a fatty fat, whether they exercise or not.

Researchers believe that this species of bacteria, and the family of bacteria to which it belongs, can affect the amount of energy available to the host. Research continues on other functions that these types of bacteria may have.

Another effect of remark was the increase in a similar bacterial species enriched after five weeks of treadmill training in a study by other researchers, suggesting that exercise alone may increase its presence.

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

The Garland team wants to repeat this experiment and take samples at additional time to better understand when the changes in mouse microbiome first appear and whether it extends later in life.

Regardless of when the effects first appear, however, the researchers say it is important that it was observed so long after the diet was changed and then changed again.

The takeaway, Garland said, is essentially, “You are not only what you eat, but also what you ate as a child!”

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