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“All of these non-western populations and ancestors … they ate a lot more fibre than we did,” he said.

Walter has conducted previous studies where he has looked at the diets of isolated tribes in Venezuela and Papua New Guinea.

“These studies are very, very consistent in that they show … non-western people have a much more diverse microbiome,” he said, referring to the microorganisms that live in the gastrointestinal tract. He added that every person’s microbiome is different, almost like a “fingerprint.”

Walter is recruiting subjects who are overweight or mildly obese to find out exactly how fibre affects someone’s likelihood of developing disease.

“I’m very fascinated by chronic lifestyle-associated diseases,” he said. “We have disrupted the microbiome through the modern lifestyle.”

Researchers may learn how to get an “early handle” on the negative outcomes associated with extra fat, he said.

Short-term results from the research could lead to recommendations for the general public or even individualized nutritional advice, he said.

“Nutritionists like to use fibre as some kind of generic term,” he said, adding that there are thousands of types so this is misleading. “Is there a fibre type that is good at doing a certain thing, and is there another one for something else?”

He added that the broader academic field has become more popular over the past decade, leading to research on everything from dietary fibre to fecal transplants, where stool from a healthy donor is put into the gastrointestinal tract of another person to treat serious recurring infections.

“We are doing a very small part of this,” he said. “(The field) is considered one of the big forefronts of medical research.”

cclancy@postmedia.com

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