Dietary interventions, intestinal microenvironment, and obesity: a systematic review

Context: Obesity has been linked to the intestinal microenvironment. Diet plays an important role in obesity and has been associated with microbiota.

Objective: This systematic review sought to evaluate the scientific evidence on the effect of dietary modification, including supplementation with prebiotics and probiotics, on microbiota diversity in obesity.

Data sources: A systematic search was performed in the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. Studies were considered eligible if they were clinical trials evaluating dietary intervention and microbiota, body weight, or clinical parameters in obesity.

Data extraction: Data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers.

Results: From 168 articles identified, 20 were included (n = 931 participants). Increased phyla abundance after food interventions was the main finding in relation to microbiota. Regarding the impact of interventions, increased insulin sensitivity, reduced levels of inflammatory markers, and reduced body mass index were shown in several studies.

Conclusions: Interventions that modulate microbiota, especially prebiotics, show encouraging results in treating obesity, improving insulin levels, inflammatory markers, and body mass index. Because the studies included in this review were heterogeneous, it is difficult to achieve conclusive and definitive results.