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A vegan or vegetarian diet substantially alters the human colonic faecal microbiota

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Consisting of 1014 microbial cells, the intestinal microbiota represents the largest and the most complex microbial community inhabiting the human body. However, the influence of regular diets on the microbiota is widely unknown.

Subjects/Methods:

We examined faecal samples of vegetarians (n=144), vegans (n=105) and an equal number of control subjects consuming ordinary omnivorous diet who were matched for age and gender. We used classical bacteriological isolation, identification and enumeration of the main anaerobic and aerobic bacterial genera and computed absolute and relative numbers that were compared between groups.

Results:

Total counts of Bacteroides spp., Bifidobacterium spp., Escherichia coli and Enterobacteriaceae spp. were significantly lower (P=0.001, P=0.002, P=0.006 and P=0.008, respectively) in vegan samples than in controls, whereas others (E. coli biovars, Klebsiella spp., Enterobacter spp., other Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus spp., Lactobacillus spp., Citrobacter spp. and Clostridium spp.) were not. Subjects on a vegetarian diet ranked between vegans and controls. The total microbial count did not differ between the groups. In addition, subjects on a vegan or vegetarian diet showed significantly (P=0.0001) lower stool pH than did controls, and stool pH and counts of E. coli and Enterobacteriaceae were significantly correlated across all subgroups.

Conclusions:

Maintaining a strict vegan or vegetarian diet results in a significant shift in the microbiota while total cell numbers remain unaltered.

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Acknowledgements

We express our gratitude to study volunteers of the 38th International Vegetarian Union (IVU) World Congress in Dresden, Germany, who helped us to conduct this study, and to Mahi Klosterhalfen (Albert Schweitzer Stiftung für unsere Umwelt, Berlin, Germany) and Thomas Schoenberger (Vegetarier Bund, Hannover, Germany) for their logistic support. This study was supported by a research grant from the interfaculty Centre of Nutritional Medicine of the Universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany.

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Correspondence to P Enck.

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Competing interests

PE is a consultant of the company that conducted the stool culture analysis (SymbioPharm, Herborn, Germany), and KZ, AS and KR are employees of the company. The remaining authors do not report any potential conflict of interest.

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Zimmer, J., Lange, B., Frick, JS. et al. A vegan or vegetarian diet substantially alters the human colonic faecal microbiota. Eur J Clin Nutr 66, 53–60 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.141

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