A low-calorie diet delays metabolic aging and immune aging, and scientists have discovered that the anti-aging effects are a result of the gut microbiome. The study, published in Microbiome, looked at the interactions between low-calorie diets, the microbiome, metabolism, and the immune system in a two-step process.
The study first analyzed the effects of a very low-calorie diet (800 kcal/day) on the gut microbiome of an obese woman over an 8-week period. Then, researchers transplanted the gut microbiome of the woman before and after the low-calorie diet into the guts of germ-free mice. In the mice who received the after-diet-intervention microbiome, there was an improvement in glucose metabolism, a decrease in fat deposition, and delayed immune cell aging.
Based on these findings, researchers concluded that the positive impacts on metabolism and immune aging are directly facilitated by the gut microbiome. The study clearly had limitations since it included only one individual, but the researchers plan to repeat the experiment in a larger population. They are hopeful that microbiome-driven treatments for metabolic and immune diseases will be available in the near future.
