An interesting two-week diet swap experiment has been carried out by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh showing the damage a Western diet can cause to our gut. This study recruited  20 volunteers from the USA and 20 from rural Africa and each group was asked to switch diets for two weeks. The African group were asked to eat more junk food (burgers and fries) whilst the American volunteers were asked to eat a low-fat, high-fibre diet. Even though the study was quite a short one the impact of the diet swap was quite significant with the American group showing less bowel inflammation while the African volunteer’s bowel health declined.

This was an interesting study demonstrating the power of our diet in affecting our health, and in this case our gut health and our  risk of developing bowel (colon) cancer with Dr Stephen O’Keefe, from the University of Pittsburgh, saying:

“In just two weeks, a change in diet from a Westernised composition to a traditional African high-fibre, low-fat diet reduced these biomarkers of cancer risk, indicating that it is likely never too late to modify the risk of colon cancer.”