What Gut Type Are You?

Would it surprise you to find out that you are a part of a group you probably didn't even know existed? Astounding new research, published in the journal Nature, shows that humans have three distinct gut types. Specifically, we each have one of three distinct varieties of bacterial ecosystems living inside our gastrointestinal tract. According to lead researcher Peer Bork of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, "We found that the combination of microbes in the human intestine isn't random, our gut flora can settle into three different types of community — three different ecosystems, if you like." The gut types are named after the predominant bacteria in each type: Bacteroides, Prevotella and Ruminococcus. According to New Scientist, "People with a bacteriode ecosystem have a bias towards bacteria that get most of their energy from carbohydrates and proteins. Prevotellas specialise in digesting sugar-covered proteins in mucin, the mixture of viscous proteins in the gut – an ability shared by people with a ruminococcus ecosystem." To our further surprise one's ecosystem type isn't dependent on your location, age, diet, or genetic makeup. Scientists aren't exactly sure how it is that we come to have only three gut profiles. And the exact implications of this is as yet unclear. What we do know is that people with Bacteriodes-predominant gut make high amounts of vitamins C, B2, B5 and H, and prevotellan-predominant guts make more vitamin B1 and folic acid. This research certainly suggests that the relationship we have with our gut is much more complex then previously thought. [via Science Daily]

 

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