What You Eat Affects Viruses Living in the Gut, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Study

Changes in diet affect the populations of viruses that live in your gut, researchers say. Their findings, published online Aug. 30 in the journal Genome Research, sheds new light on virus populations in the gut, how they differ from person to person and how they respond to what we eat. "Our bodies are like coral reefs, inhabited by many diverse creatures interacting with each other and with us," senior author Frederic Bushman, of University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, explained in a journal news release. The study included six healthy volunteers who were assigned to eat either a high-fat/low-fiber diet, a low-fat/high-fiber diet or an ad-lib diet.