Gut Microbiota–Informed Precision Nutrition in the Generally Healthy Individual: Are We There Yet?

Abstract

Since next generation sequencing facilitated high-throughput and cost-efficient genomics analyses, the human gut metagenome has become an emerging frontier to explore toward precision nutrition. Significant progress has been made in identifying gut microbial features associated with a wide spectrum of human disease. However, other than a few microbiome-disease relationships, there is a dearth of confirmed causal inferences, particularly in generally healthy populations. The relatively high unexplained variability in microbiome compositions in this group warrants caution in applying this complex biomarker toward precision nutrition, as our understanding of what constitutes a healthy microbiome is still rudimentary. While gut microbiota harbor integrated environmental and host-specific information with the potential to facilitate personalized nutritional and lifestyle advice, these data cannot yet be confidently interpreted toward precise recommendations. Thus, nutritional advice for generally healthy individuals based on personal microbiome composition analysis may not yet be appropriate unless accompanied by established blood and physiological biomarkers.

Diet-microbiota associations in gastrointestinal research: a systematic review

“… 170 The effects of nutrient-binding medications are harder to assess because of the potential confounding effect of concurrently prescribed diet and lifestyle changes, and the possibility that medications may independently influence gut microbiota. 171 …”

“…Improved use of multiomics modeling of metabolic pathways specific to individual microbiome signatures could facilitate precision nutrition to modulate metabolites associated with human health. 171 Optimizing diet assessment and analysis in study design : In future studies that involve shotgun metagenomics, it is recommended that an expert in dietary assessment is involved in planning the dietary assessment and analysis to ensure the research questions can be answered using the methods employed and that use of the dietary data is optimized in the context of study variables. Additionally, future studies should ensure that dietary assessment methods report details of the food composition database used to analyze intake.…”

“…Improved use of multiomics modeling of metabolic pathways specific to individual microbiome signatures could facilitate precision nutrition to modulate metabolites associated with human health. 171 …”

Gut Microbiome Prediction: From Current Human Evidence to Future Possibilities

“…The local diet, environment and lifestyle play a vital role in framing the gut microbiota ecosystem (Leeming et al, 2019; Tasnim et al, 2017; Conlon & Bird, 2014). Such factors limit the applicability of gut microbiome for precision nutrition (Nogal et al, 2021). These findings mandate the need for region-specific baseline healthy gut microbiome reference.…”

Lipidomics in nutrition research

“…Specifically, HFD is suspected to play a role in the promotion of gut dysbiosis, while other dietary lipids such as phytosterols and carotenoids may reverse these effects. Recent reviews [6,47,48] highlight the role of diet on the interplay between diet, gut microbiota, and health, with studies investigating phytosterols, fat soluble vitamins, bioactive lipids, such as oxylipins, endocannabinoids, and different other lipid mediators. From a clinical perspective, more detailed understanding of the complex relationship between host and microbial lipids may provide an avenue to study human metabolism.…”