Oral Presentation Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society Annual Scientific Conference 2024

The Microbiome – Ready Yet for Main Stream Personalized Nutrition? (#42)

Christopher Gardner 1
  1. Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States

The microbiome has become a hot topic in the personal health area – personalized nutrition. Have you sent a nominal fee and a sample of your poop in for analysis to find out if you are a forager vs. a protein-seeker!). Claims are made. Products are being developed and sold (prebiotics and probiotics). Where is the science behind all of this? Some of that science is coming from our Stanford campus. In 2021 Professors Justin Sonnenburg and Christopher Gardner published the findings of their study on the effects of adding FErmented or FIber-rich FOods (Fe-Fi-Fo) on the gut microbiome and on levels of inflammation in healthy human volunteers. This is just one of a half dozen studies they have conducted and published or that are ongoing. The Zoe group in the UK has been publishing extensively on this topic, and Professor Gardner is on the Zoe Scientific Advisory Board. Despite the growing interest in this topic, some of the commercial developments are getting ahead of the science, leading to concerns that unsupported advice and potentially disappointing results will diminish the opportunity to fully develop this approach to personalized nutrition. With an engaging blend of humor and science, Professor Gardner will draw on a decade of diet and microbiome studies in humans to share insights and future directions.