Gut bacteria are rapidly evolving to digest ultra-processed foods, finds study

Credit: Getty Inages/ChrisChrisW

By Claudia Tanner

The bacteria living in our guts are evolving at extraordinary speed to keep pace with modern diets – and they're doing it differently depending on where in the world we live.

In a study published in Nature, UCLA evolutionary biologists have discovered that gut bacteria in industrialised populations have rapidly developed the ability to digest synthetic starches found in ultra-processed foods—substances that have only existed for a few decades. Scientists believe natural selection must have been acting strongly to make these genes dominant so quickly.