The macronutrient content of the diet has a major influence on the composition of the microbiome in the mouth and throughout the gastrointestinal tract. The impacts of dietary patterns on the oral and gut microbiomes have been recently investigated in cohorts of elite endurance athletes who follow extremely specialised diets such as high carbohydrate (CHO) or periodised high-CHO diet, and the ketogenic low-CHO high-fat (LCHF) diet. The macronutrient composition of the diet may influence host physiology via metabolic outputs of bacteria (e.g. production of short chain fatty acids) and via alterations to the quantity of bacteria or composition of the microbial community (e.g. changes in abundances of nitrate-reductase bacteria). In a series of studies we examined the diet-microbiota interactions potentially affecting the physiology and/or metabolism of healthy, highly trained human subjects. The first comprehensive investigation of the effects of high-CHO and LCHF diets on the gut microbiome of elite endurance athletes revealed that LCHF diet significantly increased the relative abundances of key bacterial taxa (Bacteroides and Dorea spp.) that correlated with impaired exercise economy and fat oxidation. We subsequently showed that three weeks of LCHF diet in elite race walkers resulted in alterations in abundances of oral bacterial taxa (Haemophilus, Prevotella and Neisseria) that considered to be key nitrate-reducers in the enterosalivary nitrate-nitrite-nitric oxide (NO) pathway within the oral cavity. This lecture will highlight the most recent research findings suggesting that dietary patterns appear to exert a significant impact on the gut and oral microbiotas of endurance athletes. It is important that commonly used dietary approaches that are applied to enhance athletic performance are carefully monitored and managed to ensure that the microbiota is appropriately nurtured to maximise the available benefits from nutrition.
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