PBDI Related Research
A vegan diet has been promoted as having a much lower environmental impact, but there is some controversy about the health effects of following a vegan diet. Some believe that this plant-based diet can help prevent many of the chronic diseases that affect us, such as heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease and would also help in managing body weight. Others claim that the vegan diet does not provide all the required nutrients, such as adequate amounts of protein, vitamin B12 and the minerals iron and calcium, and thus it would not promote optimal health. The study investigated the health impact of a vegan diet compared to an omnivorous diet. We studied these diets in twins, where one twin followed a vegan diet and the other twin followed an omnivorous diet, controlling for genetic differences that might impact the effect of the diet.
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The maternal gut microbiota changes throughout the progression of pregnancy, which has been documented in industrial-lifestyle populations, yet we lack an understanding of how a mother’s microbiota, including the shifts that occur during pregnancy, impacts maternal and infant health. Given the interdependence of diet and the microbiota, a logical next step is to use microbiota-targeted dietary interventions in pregnant women to evaluate their effects on the microbiota during pregnancy, the infant’s developing microbiota, and aspects of their health. Longitudinal studies investigating microbiota dynamics in women during pregnancy and lactation and in their child’s first year of life during a microbiome-targeted dietary intervention will help answer such diverse questions as (i) how the maternal microbiome contributes to infant microbiome assembly, (ii) whether aspects of maternal diet can alter infant microbiome assembly, (iii) whether these alterations can improve mother and/or infant health (including immune system and metabolism), (iv) what types of bacterial strains are passed from mother to infant, and whether there are differences tied to post-delivery behaviors, and (v) how toddlers are impacted in terms of weight/growth charts and predisposition to obesity.
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This study aims to investigate the impact of replacing meat consumption with plant-based meat alternative consumption on cardiovascular health, the gut microbiome, and metabolic status. The primary outcome was fasting serum trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO).
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The goal of Stanford’s SWAP-MEAT: Athlete study is to explore the effect of three different diets on athletic performance. Participants enrolled in the study as runners or resistance trainers, but not both, and were asked to consume an animal meat diet, plant-based meat alternative diet, and a whole food plant-based diet for 4 weeks each. The primary outcome for runners was distance covered during a 12-minute timed run and 3-rep max exercises for resistance trainers. Secondary outcomes included VO2 max for runners and maximum push-ups and pull-ups for resistance trainers.
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