We’ve clearly known since the times of Ancient Greece, when Hippocrates said, let food be our medicine, that diet is a vital component of good health. But University College Cork (UCC) is uncovering fascinating links between our gut and our overall health, leading to a better understanding of how our diet influences our gut microbiome and in turn, our health.

Not only does the gut microbiome impact on stress and sleep but it has a profound effect on cardiac health, shows another study, also from the university’s APC. 

What we eat and our physical health also has a profound effect on unborn babies. More than 80% of pregnant women in Ireland are iron deficient by their third trimester, according to a new study conducted by University College Cork’s researchers at the Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health (INFANT) and School of Food and Nutritional Sciences.

A newly developed diet inspired by non-industrialised dietary patterns can significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases, according to research published in the prestigious journal Cell by an international teams of scientists led by Professor Jens Walter, a leading scientist at APC Microbiome Ireland, a Research Ireland Centre at University College Cork. 

We recognise the crucial role of the gut and the food we eat in determining good health. UCC researchers, also from its leading gut health centre, APC, have recently published a milestone review in Nature Reviews Microbiology of the most popular diets, to understand and their impact specifically on the gut microbiome but also on our wider health.