Scientists Discover a High-Protein Diet may play an important role in protecting the body from dangerous bacterial infections.
A new study from the University of California, Riverside suggests that what people eat may significantly weaken cholera, a dangerous bacterial disease that causes severe diarrhea and can be fatal without treatment. The researchers found that diets rich in protein were especially effective at limiting the infection.
The study showed that foods high in casein, the primary protein found in milk and cheese, as well as wheat gluten, sharply reduced how much cholera bacteria were able to establish themselves in the gut.
“I wasn’t surprised that diet could affect the health of someone infected with the bacteria. But the magnitude of the effect surprised me,” said Ansel Hsiao, UCR associate professor of microbiology and plant pathology and senior author of the study published in Cell Host and Microbe.
“We saw up to 100-fold differences in the amount of cholera colonization as a function of diet alone,” Hsiao said.
Because diet is already known to shape the normal mix of bacteria and other microbes living in the gut, the research team wanted to see whether harmful, disease-causing microbes would respond in the same way.
To test this idea, the scientists fed infected mice diets that were high in protein, high in simple carbohydrates, or high in fat, then measured how well cholera could grow in the gut. High-fat diets had little effect on the infection, and carbohydrate-heavy diets provided only minor benefits. In contrast, diets rich in dairy protein or wheat gluten nearly prevented the bacteria from taking hold.
