Can cooking certain foods influence the gut microbiota? A team of researchers has set out to discover whether heat, which changes the properties of different foods, also affects the gut microbiota.

Studies have shown that diet, such as Paleo, high fat vs low-fat diet or Western diet, greatly impacts the gut microbiota composition even more than genetics. Surprisingly, little is known how cooking certain foods might alter the gut microbiota. Since heat changes the chemical and physical properties of foods, researchers wondered if this too affects the gut microbiota.