Researchers who paired daily food records with 1,009 stool samples from 158 hospital patients found that eating sweets during antibiotics predicted sharper gut microbiome damage.
By the numbers: The team analysed 1,009 stool samples from 158 patients undergoing stem cell transplants, a median of five samples per patient, profiled by 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
Zoom in: Intake of sweets during antibiotic exposure predicted lowered stool microbiome diversity and increased Enterococcus abundance, the authors report in Nature.
- The pattern held in mice, where dietary sugar supplementation exacerbated and prolonged antibiotic-induced Enterococcus blooms, validating the prediction drawn from the patient data.
The big picture: The proposed mechanism is straightforward. Simple dietary sugars feed the pathobionts that survive a course of antibiotics, letting them expand while helpful species are knocked back.
Why it matters: The authors name short-term sugar avoidance as a strategy that could be readily evaluated in stem cell transplant patients and across other patient groups treated with various antibiotics.
