The human gut microbiome contributes to a broad range of biochemical and metabolic functions that directly or indirectly affect human system. Numerous factors such as age, geographical location, genetic makeup, and individual health status significantly influence the diversity, stability, and relative abundance of the gut microbiome. Of the mentioned factors, geographical location and dietary practices appears to explain a significant portion of microbiome variation. On the other hand tribal people living in geographically isolated areas and dependent on their traditional food sources are considered as having relatively unadulterated gut as their guts are least colonized by Western diet. The Western diet — low in fiber and high in refined sugars — is basically wiping out species of bacteria from our intestines. That's the conclusion Smits (2017) and his team reached after analyzing the Hadza microbiome at one stage of their year long study. The trend was clear: The further away people's diets are from a Western diet, the greater the variety of microbes they tend to have in their guts. And that includes bacteria that are missing from American guts."So whether it's people in Africa, Papua New Guinea or South America, communities that live a traditional lifestyle have common gut microbes — ones that we all lack in the industrialized world. In this work we present a pilot study data of the gut microbiome of an ethnic tribe of West Bengal, India, originating from Dravidian descent - the Savars. These are nomadic tribes and are still dependent on hunting and gathering for their livelihood. We identified a healthy family and have analysed their stool samples for gut microbial profiles.

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Undernutrition and ageing may have a significant effect on body composition. A cross sectional study was conducted to explore the age-related variations among different anthropometric and body composition characteristics amongst the adult Kheria Sabar males of Purulia district of West Bengal. From fifteen villages, 304 apparently healthy adult males aged 18–60 years were selected at random. Subjects were categorized into four age groups and standard anthropometric measurements were used like height (HT), weight (WT), mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) and skinfolds of biceps (BSF), triceps (TSF) and sub-scapular (SSSF) region. Derived variables of body mass index (BMI), per cent body fat (PBF), fat mass (FM), fat-free mass (FFM), fat mass index (FMI) and fat-free mass index (FFMI) were also calculated. Majority of the variables were found to be inversely correlated with age. Positive (HT, WT, MUAC, BMI, FFM and FFMI) and negative (FM and FMI) significant differences were observed across different age groups. It was also observed that the frequency of undernutrition (62.6%) was the highest among the elderly people with 47.6% overall prevalence. This study clearly indicates that among the undernourished individuals, older people were more vulnerable to malnutrition and thus immediate nutritional intervention is required.

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Somatotype is the parameter used to determine the body composition, which is influenced by several factors and nutrition is the crucial one. This study aimed to determine somatotype and nutritional status as well as investigate the somatotype variations in relation to the age and nutritional status among the adult males of Sabar community living in Purulia district of West Bengal, India. The present cross-sectional study included 334 Sabar males aged between 18 to 60 years. Anthropometric measurements including height, weight, 2 breadths, 2 circumferences and 4 skinfolds were taken following standard protocol. Somatotype was determined following the Heath-Carter method and Body Mass Index (BMI) was used to access the level of nutrition. Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis H test, Pearson correlation, Spearman correlation and Chi-square test were performed to find out variation, correlation and association of the somatype components with age and nutritional categories. Prior ethical clearance had been obtained. As a result, the trend of undernutrition was gradually increasing with age and found highest among aged people (50–60 years) with an overall prevalence of 49.7%. Eleven different somatotype subgroups were identified. The mean somatotype of the participants was 2.3–3.6-3.9 which indicates mesomorph-ectomorph body type. Kruskal-Wallis H test revealed significant differences among somatotype components in different nutritional categories. Undernutrition was found highest among the mesomorphic ectomorph (62.7%) type. Chi-square test stated significant association between somatotype categories and nutritional statuses (Chi-square = 283.160, p < 0.01). This is the first reporting on the somatotype study among the Sabar community, where the dominant body type was found mesomorph-ectomorph. A highly significant correlation was found between somatotype and BMI. At the same time, this study expressed the need for immediate nutritional intervention.