Research

Mixed

Dietary composition (specifically carbohydrate vs. animal fat/protein intake) shapes gut microbiota enterotypes (Prevotella vs. Bacteroides dominance), which in turn influences host health outcomes including inflammation, metabolic disease risk, and immune function via microbial metabolite production.

Focus on the quality and type of carbohydrates and fats in your diet, as these directly shape your gut bacteria. A diet high in fiber/carbs may favor Prevotella, while high animal fat/protein may favor Bacteroides. These shifts affect your inflammation and metabolic health. Personalized nutrition based on your microbiome may be more effective than universal dietary guidelines.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The enterotype ‘concept’ has since been used in other studies when evaluating the gut microbiota... one of which is dominated by Prevotella and the other by Bacteroides which have been linked to long term carbohydrate-, or animal fat and protein-rich diets, respectively [33].
Susan Mills et al. · Nutrients · 2019

Why this rating

Based on a comprehensive review of multiple observational and mechanistic studies, though causality in humans is complex.

Source

Precision Nutrition and the Microbiome, Part I: Current State of the Science

Susan Mills et al. · Nutrients · 2019

DOI 10.3390/nu11040923

narrative_reviewCited 386×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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