Effect of Nuts on Gut Microbiota, Gut Function and Symptoms in Adults

For the systematic review, researchers investigated five electronic databases, along with manual searching of abstracts from conferences, clinical trial databases, and contacting key stakeholders. Through this search, eight studies considering nine randomized controlled trials were included in the review. The results from each trial were analyzed as the weighted mean difference or standardized mean difference using a random-effects model.
 
Researchers observed that nut consumption significantly increased Clostridium, Dialister, Lachnospira, while Parabacteroides significantly decreased. They also observed that nuts had no effect on the bacterial phyla, diversity, or stool output. They did note however that nut consumption affected gut microbiota composition at the genus level.
 
Overall, the strength of evidence from the meta-analyses is still weak and further research is needed to gain robust conclusions on the impact of nuts on gut microbiota and gut health.
 
Creedon, C. Alice, Hung, S. Estella, Berry, E. Sarah, Whelan, Kevin (2020), Nuts and their Effect on Gut Microbiota, Gut Function and Symptoms in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials. Nutrients 12(8), 2347. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12082347