An Inconvenient Truth? Limited Impact of Diet on Human Gut Microbiota Communities

Chair(s)

• 

  Sean Adams, PhD

  Professor & Vice Chair for Basic Research
  Department of Surgery
  UC Davis School of Medicine
  Davis, California, United States

  Disclosure(s): Alaunos Therapeutics, Inc.: Consultant (Ongoing)
  XenoMed LLC: Ownership Interest (Ongoing)

Speaker(s)

• 

  Hannah Holscher, PhD, RD, FASN (she/her/hers)

  Professor
  Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
  Urbana, Illinois, United States

  Disclosure(s): AG1: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Terminated, April 30, 2025)
  Avocado Nutrition Center: Grant/Research Support (Ongoing)
  California Walnut Commission: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Terminated, April 30, 2025)
  Dairy Management, Inc.: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Terminated, February 28, 2026)
  Danone: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Ongoing)
  Haleon: Consultant (Ongoing); Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Ongoing)
  Nestle Nutrition: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Terminated, August 31, 2024)
  Olipop: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Ongoing)
  PepsiCo, Inc.: Speaker/Speaker's Bureau (Terminated, June 30, 2024)
  WK Kellog: Consultant (Terminated, December 31, 2025)
• 

  Brian Piccolo, PhD

  Associate Professor
  Department of Pediatrics & Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center
  University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
• 

  Tzu-Wen Cross, PhD (she/her/hers)

  Associate Professor
  Department of Nutrition Science
  Purdue University
  West Lafayette, Indiana, United States

  Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.
• 

  Sean Gibbons, PhD (he/him/his)

  Associate Professor
  Institute for Systems Biology
  Seattle, Washington, United States

  Disclosure(s): Thorne Research, Inc.: Advisory Committee/Board Member (Ongoing)

The extant literature, when viewed critically, indicates that shifts in diet typically have little effect on the wholesale gut microbiota community structure. Such a perspective runs counter to the commonly-held belief that diet is central to shaping the taxonomy of the human gut microbiota. In our view, the relative influence of specific foods and diet patterns on microbiome biology, including a greater emphasis on metabolic functional guilds in lieu of primarily focusing on specific taxa, requires more robust vetting by the nutrition community. This topic will be addressed by session speakers with expertise in microbiome-health associations, microbial ecology, host metabolism and microbial xenometabolism, and RCTs involving manipulation of specific foods or dietary patterns.

Presentations:

• 4:30 PM - 4:35 PM ET

  Welcome and Introductions - An Inconvenient Truth? Limited Impact of Diet on Human Gut Microbiota Communities
  

  Chair: Sean H. Adams, PhD – UC Davis School of Medicine
• 4:35 PM - 4:52 PM ET

  Diet-Microbiome Interactions: An Ecological Perspective for Nutrition Science
  

  Speaker: Hannah D. Holscher, PhD, RD, FASN (she/her/hers) – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• 4:52 PM - 5:09 PM ET

  Does the Adherence to a Dietary Pattern Influence the Composition of the Gut Microbiome? Evidence from a Controlled Feeding Trial
  

  Speaker: Brian D. Piccolo, PhD – University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
• 5:09 PM - 5:26 PM ET

  How Much Does Diet Really Matter? The Gut Microbiome’s Response to Repeated Diet Quality Cycling
  

  Speaker: Tzu-Wen L. Cross, PhD (she/her/hers) – Purdue University
• 5:26 PM - 5:43 PM ET

  Love the One You’re With: Optimizing Dietary Intake for the Microbiota That You’ve Got
  

  Speaker: Sean M. Gibbons, PhD (he/him/his) – Institute for Systems Biology
• 5:43 PM - 6:00 PM ET

  Panel Discussion / Questions and Answers - An Inconvenient Truth? Limited Impact of Diet on Human Gut Microbiota Communities
  

  Chair: Sean H. Adams, PhD – UC Davis School of Medicine

  Speaker: Tzu-Wen L. Cross, PhD (she/her/hers) – Purdue University

  Speaker: Sean M. Gibbons, PhD (he/him/his) – Institute for Systems Biology

  Speaker: Hannah D. Holscher, PhD, RD, FASN (she/her/hers) – University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  Speaker: Brian D. Piccolo, PhD – University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences