While you can’t change your genes, you can modify your microbiome!

🔬Research has found that dietary alterations can lead to temporary changes in the gut microbiome composition within as little as 1-2 days.

But our gut microbes tend to have a particular range of abundance that they don’t like to be pushed above or below too far. This is likely an evolutionary reflex from our gut microbes to protect us through feast and famine.

This means that they tend to want to revert back to this range after around three days if you stop any dietary changes you’ve made - which can be frustrating!

What we don’t know yet is exactly how long you need to change your diet for permanent changes to your gut microbes ‘usual’ range. Likewise, some bugs are more resistant to change than others, and some that are very responsive to diet, and this can also be highly individual to you.

We do know that it’s your long-term diet that counts, rather than worrying about any short-term slip-ups, and even small changes to your diet can be great for your gut microbes and your overall health.

This is a major area of ongoing research at ZOE. You can read more about this in our ZOE article here.