peer-reviewed-myopia t1_j5h9zbx wrote on January 23, 2023 at 12:13 AM

Reply to comment by Wallabills in How our microbiome is shaped by family, friends, and even neighbors. Study of the gut and mouth microbiomes of thousands of people from around the world raises the possibility that diseases linked to microbiome dysfunction, including cancer, diabetes, and obesity, could be partly transmissible. by MistWeaver80

Food is more associated with microbiome composition, and relative shifts in that composition (like you said).

As for food-to-gut transmission, food has been found to be mostly a non-factor in introducing new strains to our microbiome. Mostly, this is because the microorganisms that make up our microbiome cannot survive for long outside the body.

That said, food-to-gut transmission may play a bigger role than currently theorized. As of now though, it's person-to-person strain transmission that looks to be mostly responsible for microbiome diversity.