Associated code and data for Singh et al. (2024) manuscript: “Consumption of the non-nutritive sweetener stevia for 12 weeks does not alter the composition of the human gut microbiota”

Data and code necessary to reproduce the main text figures for: Singh et al. (2024)<b> </b><b>Consumption of the non-nutritive sweetener stevia for 12 weeks does not alter the composition of the human gut microbiota</b><b>,</b><b> </b>has been included. Specifically, two data files (SteviaPhyloseq.rds and Treatmentforests.rdata) and the code required to produce the figures (SteviaMainTextFiguresFinal.R) are attached.Abstract from publication is included below:<i>'The use of non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) as an alternative to caloric sugars has increased in recent years. Stevia is an NNS that has demonstrated beneficial effects on appetite and energy intake. However, the impact on the gut microbiota is not well understood. Therefore, we investigated how regular consumption of stevia, for up to 12 weeks, impacts the human gut microbiota. Healthy subjects with a normal body mass index participated in our study; the stevia group (</i><i>n </i><i>= 14) was asked to consume five drops of stevia twice daily, compared to control participants (</i><i>n </i><i>= 13). Faecal samples collected before and after treatment were analysed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Stevia did not cause significant changes in the alpha or beta diversity when compared to the control groups. When the relative abundances of taxa were investigated, no clear differences were detected. Conversely, a random forest analysis correctly associated the gut microbiome with the control and stevia groups with an average of 75% accuracy, suggesting that there are intrinsic patterns that could discriminate between control and stevia use. However, large-scale changes in the gut microbiota were not apparent in this study, and, therefore, our data suggest that stevia does not significantly impact the gut microbiota.'</i>

本数据集包含复现Singh等人（2024年）发表论文《连续12周食用非营养甜味剂甜菊糖不会改变人类肠道菌群组成》正文主图所需的全部数据与代码。具体包含两个数据文件：`SteviaPhyloseq.rds`与`Treatmentforests.rdata`，以及用于生成该论文主图的代码文件`SteviaMainTextFiguresFinal.R`。
论文原文摘要如下：
>「近年来，以非营养甜味剂（non-nutritive sweeteners, NNSs）替代添加糖的使用需求近年持续增长。甜菊糖作为一类非营养甜味剂，已被证实可对食欲与能量摄入产生有益影响，但其对人类肠道菌群的具体影响尚未得到充分阐明。为此，本研究探究了连续12周规律食用甜菊糖对人体肠道菌群的作用。本研究纳入体重指数正常的健康受试者：甜菊糖干预组（n=14）每日两次，每次食用5滴甜菊糖；对照组（n=13）采用常规对照干预。分别于干预前后收集粪便样本，通过16S rRNA基因测序开展菌群组成分析。结果显示，与对照组相比，甜菊糖组的α多样性与β多样性均未出现显著变化；在菌群分类单元的相对丰度层面，亦未检测到明确差异。进一步采用随机森林分析发现，该模型可基于肠道菌群特征以平均75%的准确率区分对照组与甜菊糖组，提示两组间存在可用于辨识的内在菌群模式。但本研究未观察到肠道菌群发生大规模结构性改变，因此本研究数据表明，甜菊糖不会对人类肠道菌群产生显著影响。」