Fig 1.
Macronutrient composition of the modern Paleolithic diet.
(A) Bar plots of the percent caloric contribution of fat, protein and carbohydrate per subject, based upon weighted food intake records over 7 days. The pie chart shows the summary of the average macronutrient intake for the entire cohort. (B) Pie chart of the lipid type summary. PUFAs: polyunsaturated fatty acids; MUFAs: monounsaturated fatty acids; SFAs: saturated fatty acids.
Fig 2.
Genus-level phylogenetic structure of the gut microbiome of Italian adults adhering to the modern Paleolithic diet and major differences among study groups.
Pie charts show the average relative abundance of bacterial genera represented in the GM of the enrolled study groups (in the center, urban Italians adhering to the modern Paleolithic diet from the present study; on the sides, urban Italians adhering to the Mediterranean diet [23], Hadza from Tanzania [5], Matses from Peru [6], and Inuit from Canadian Arctic [24]). Only bacterial genera with relative abundance > 0.5% are shown. Boxplots show the relative abundance distribution of significantly different bacterial genera among study groups. *, unclassified OTU reported at higher taxonomic level.
Fig 3.
The gut microbiome of Italian subjects following the modern Paleolithic diet shows intermediate biodiversity between Western urban and traditional populations.
Box and scatter plots showing the alpha diversity values, measured with Simpson and Shannon indices, for each study population (i.e. urban Italians adhering to the modern Paleolithic diet from the present study, urban Italians adhering to the Mediterranean diet [23], Hadza from Tanzania [5], Matses from Peru [6], and Inuit from Canadian Arctic [24]. Different letters above the median line indicate significantly different groups (P-value < 0.05, Wilcoxon test). MPD = Modern Paleolithic Diet; MD = Mediterranean Diet.
Fig 4.
Beta diversity of the fecal microbiome of Italian subjects following the modern Paleolithic diet compared with other Western urban populations and traditional communities.
(A) The PCoA plot shows the Bray-Curtis distances between the genus-level microbiota profiles of urban Italians adhering to the modern Paleolithic diet from the present study, urban Italians adhering to the Mediterranean diet [23], Hadza from Tanzania [5], Matses from Peru [6], and Inuit from Canadian Arctic [24]. A significant segregation among study populations was found (P-value < 1 × 10−5; permutation test with pseudo-F ratios). (B) Boxplots show the interpersonal variation, in terms of Bray-Curtis distances between the genus-level microbiota profiles, for each study group. Different letters in the boxplots indicate significant differences (P-value < 0.05, Wilcoxon test). MPD = Modern Paleolithic Diet; MD = Mediterranean Diet.