The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of consuming processed and unprocessed red meat on gut microbiota in young healthy adults in a cross-over, randomized controlled feeding trial. The hypothesis is that compared to consuming a meat-free lacto-ovo vegetarian (LOV) diet, (1) consuming the LOV diet with unprocessed red meat or processed red meat (omnivorous diet) will shift the gut microbiota with greater abundance of the bacteria Lactobacillus and other SCFA producers such as Clostridium XIVa, and no increase of pathogenic bacteria. The concentration of SCFA in stools will also increase in subjects consuming the unprocessed red meat diet. Compared to consuming a meat-free lacto-ovo vegetarian (LOV) diet, (2) consuming the LOV diet with processed beef and pork (omnivorous diet) will result in a comparable shift in gut microbiota as unprocessed red meat, except for greater abundance of taxa Erysipelotrichaceae and lower abundance of Lachnospiraceae.
The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of consuming unprocessed and processed red meat on gut microbiota in young healthy adults in a cross-over, randomized controlled feeding trial.