Background:
The industrialization of the food industry has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years. The average western consumer now consumes more ultra-processed food than ever before, shifting away from more seasonal and traditional diets. This change is being fueled by the advancement in marketing techniques, which shows over 50 percent of all food and beverage advertisements are processed foods (Zhang et al. 2022), and making ultra-processed food more readily available and appealing. However, this convenience comes at a cost: rising rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes are at an all time high in Western populations (Rakhra et al. 2020).
The relationship between diet, health, and our microbiome is becoming increasingly clear as more studies are conducted. Diets that are high in unhealthy fats and sugars lead the gut microbial population to decrease (Townsend et al. 2018), which can reduce the overall health of the host. An unhealthy microbiome could lead to inflammation, obesity, diabetes, and even cancer (Zhang et al. 2015). However, most of the research and understanding of the gut microbiomes focuses on western industrialized populations. This leaves significant gaps of knowledge for those populations who are in non industrialized regions, and possibly leaves a wealth of microbes undiscovered.
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