Maintaining the normal composition of the gut microbiota

2020-03-19
Paul Moayyedi

Dr Paul Moayyedi is a professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at McMaster University, Richard Hunt/AstraZeneca Chair in Gastroenterology, and the inaugural assistant dean of research.

How to maintain the normal composition of the gut microbiota?

Paul Moayyedi, BSc, MB ChB, PhD, MPH: As we do not know what “normal” is, it is hard to give advice on how to maintain that health.

I think the key message is to have a healthy varied diet. We are what we eat, so probably the most important thing for a normal person to maintain a healthy flora is to eat well, healthily, which is just sensible advice that we have always given. Lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, some meat is fine but a predominantly steak-and-potato diet is probably not good for your health or your microbiome, at least not in everyone. Stick to a healthy Mediterranean diet and you probably cannot go wrong.

See also

We would love to hear from you

Comments, mistakes, suggestions?

We use cookies to ensure you get the best browsing experience on our website. Refer to our Cookies Information and Privacy Policy for more details.