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Objective
The carnivore diet is a ketogenic diet based exclusively on the consumption of food of animal origin. While the impact of various diets on the gut microbiome is extensively documented, the effects of a carnivore diet remain unclear. To address this gap, we conducted a pilot study on the gut microbiome of an individual following a carnivore diet and compared it with that of a subgroup of healthy individuals.
Methods
A stool sample was collected from a healthy 32-year-old male adhering to a carnivore diet and was sequenced using 16S DNA Amplicon Sequencing. The results were then compared to those from three control groups possessing similar anthropometric characteristics and differing in their frequency of meat consumption.
Results
The gut microbiome of the carnivore was dominated by the phylum Firmicutes and the genera Faecalibacterium, Blautia, unspecific Lachnospiraceae, Bacteroides, and Roseburia—bacteria known for fiber degradation. Furthermore, neither alpha- nor beta-diversity, nor the functional capacity of the gut microbiome, showed differences when compared to the control groups. Additionally, the gut microbiome of the carnivore showed the least similarities with the microbiome of the cohort consuming meat on a daily basis.
Conclusions
In our study, we showcase the compositional and functional characteristics of the gut microbiome in an individual on a carnivorous diet, finding no differences in comparison to a control cohort. Further research is needed to investigate the short- and long-term impacts of a carnivorous diet on gut health through cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.
Significance statement
To the best of our knowledge this is the first study to report on the composition of the gut microbiome of a person adhering long-term to the carnivore diet.