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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Scientists have studied the Hadza community in Tanzania and found that their microbiomes change based on the season and foods eaten [nytimes.com]:

In Tanzania, not far from the Serengeti, live the Hadza, a community of about 1,300 people. For such a small group, they attract a lot of scientific attention.

Many of the Hadza live solely on the animals they kill, along with honey, berries and a few other wild foods. For the first 95 percent of our species's history, there was no other way to live.

So the Hadza have been closely scrutinized for clues about the hunter-gather way of life: how they find their food, how much energy they use — even how much sleep they get.

On Thursday, scientists described another way in which the Hadza are exceptional. Their gut microbiome — the bacteria that live in their intestines — swings through a predictable annual cycle.

Some bacterial species disappear entirely and then return, in a rhythm that likely reflects regular changes in the Hadza diet. Many gut bacteria that wax and wane drastically are rare in people living in industrialized societies.

Also at Science Magazine [sciencemag.org] and NPR [npr.org].

Seasonal cycling in the gut microbiome of the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania [sciencemag.org] (open, DOI: 10.1126/science.aan4834) (DX [doi.org])

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