Poop Doesn't Lie: What Fecal 'Forensics' Tells Us About Diet

A lightbulb moment hit as Lawrence David was chatting one day with an ecologist who studies the microbiomes and diets of large herbivores in the African savanna. David was envious. He'd been studying the human microbiome, and this ecologist had tons of animal statistics that were way more specific than what David had obtained from people.

"We are using DNA sequencing to reconstruct what people eat," David said. "We try to see if there are patterns in what people eat and how we can measure them by DNA, or kind of genetic forensics." Then they connect that data to health outcomes like "Patients report the fruit they ate yesterday but not the M&Ms," said Neil Stollman, MD, chief of the division of gastroenterology at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California.

In some experiments, David uses an 'artificial gut' to culture bacteria from human stool and measure changes in real time. There are 200,000 to 300,000 species of edible plants estimated to be on the planet, he said. "I think historically, humans have eaten about 7000 of them. We're kind of like a walking repository of all this genetic material."Tracking DNA in digested food can provide valuable data to researchers — information that could have a major impact on nutritional guidance for people with obesity and digestive diseases and other gastrointestinal and nutrition-related issues.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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