But diets that also included meat — such as the Mediterranean diet — didn't necessarily spell disaster for gut health. People in the study who closely followed the Mediterranean diet (and ate very little meat) had higher levels of short-chain fatty acids than those who followed it less closely. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health]
"Western omnivore diets are not necessarily detrimental when a certain consumption level of vegetable foods is included," the authors wrote in the conclusion of their study, published today (Sept. 28) in the journal Gut.
Indeed, the evidence shows that if people do not eat too much meat, and they increase the amounts of fruits, vegetables and legumes in their diet, they are more likely to have a healthy community of gut bacteria, said Danilo Ercolini, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy and the lead author of the study.
In the study, the researchers recruited healthy vegans, vegetarians and omnivores from different cities in Italy and collected information about their daily diet, along with fecal and urine samples, Ercolini told Live Science. The researchers used the diet information to group people based on how closely they followed the Mediterranean diet.