Studies have shown, moving to the the United States can make you vulnerable to rapid and unhealthy weight gain and have lasting effects on your digestive health. Immigrants are particularly susceptible to obesity after a short time living within the United States, but why? A new study was released that monitored the digestive health of immigrants coming to Minnesota from Southeast Asia to better understand the relation between the microbiome and overall health.

“We found that when people come to the U.S.A., they almost immediately begin losing some of their native microbes,” says Dan Knights, a quantitative biologist at the University of Minnesota and the study’s senior author. 

Many of the microbes that immigrants lose are native to where they originate from and help break down and extract nutrients from local foods. The study reveals that moving to the states actually causes a person to acquire more of the “American” microbiome, a microbiome that tends to to be less diverse and features fewer strains of bacteria. The native strains are often lost are not replaced with new bacteria.

The study goes on to consider whether or not the change in microbiome correlates with the risk of obesity. “And while we don’t know whether this loss of diversity is causing obesity, we know that it’s at least associated with more obesity.” 

The American diet seems to require less bacteria to help break down important nutrients. “By tracking everyone’s food logs, the researchers found that an Americanized diet — featuring less fiber and more processed sugars — played a role in disrupting immigrants’ microbiomes. Some of the bacteria in our guts feed, and survive, on particular fibers found in grains and greens — and die off when they don’t get enough.”

The diet within the United States may require less gut bacteria. Many studies have been released supporting that the more diverse a gut bacteria, the healthier a human can be. If we are only feeding our gut bacteria sugar and processed foods, the nutrient-fed bacteria will eventually die. 

The change in gut bacteria for those who immigrate to the states brings up an important question on how what you eat can affect overall health. As human populations continue to migrate, it is important to know the affects a move may have on your health. Researchers suggest incorporating your traditional diet as much as possible to maintain a healthy gut! 

To learn more: “Immigrating To The U.S.? Get Ready For A New Gut Microbiome (And Maybe More Pounds)” – NPR

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