Microbiota response to a high protein diet

High-protein diets including animal-sourced foods may negatively perturb the microbiota composition and its metabolic activities. The aims of this study were to determine the microbiota compositional changes, the microbial-generated metabolite response to a high protein diet (HPD), and the potential mitigating effects of probiotic, prebiotic, and synbiotic supplementation. The microbiota profile demonstrated relative stability with the high-protein diet, with and without supplementation. The dietary L-carnitine provided from the animal-sourced foods was primarily bioavailable, providing little substrate for microbial conversion to trimethylamine and subsequent trimethylamine-N-oxide formation.