Field notes
Factors
How people live shapes the conditions their gut microbes live in. Here’s what studies have seen, how often, and what nobody knows yet. Links, not causes, and never advice.
What’s new
As of Oct 20262026 Antibiotics Fewer kinds of gut microbes in people who took antibiotics. Baldanzi 2026 · 14,979 people · Sweden2025 Diet patterns Gut microbes told vegans, vegetarians and omnivores apart, in each of 5 cohorts; vegans and omnivores most clearly on average. Fackelmann 2025 · 21,561 people · Italy, UK, US2024 Coffee Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus is higher in people who drink more coffee. Manghi 2024 · 22,867 people · UK, US
By category
Diet patterns1 study Vegan, vegetarian, omnivoreFood and drink7 studies Coffee, fiber and plants, fermented foods…Medicines8 studies Antibiotics, acid reducers, metformin…Body and routine5 studies Exercise, sleep, smoking…Early life2 studies Caesarean birth, vaginal birth, breast milk…Place and home2 studies Where people live, pets
Field notes so far
Food and drink Coffee Coffee drinkers' gut microbes differ in a few specific ways, most clearly in one microbe, Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus, which is higher in people who drink more coffee in the UK and the US. Seen again and again Diet patterns Diet patterns Gut microbes tell vegans, vegetarians and omnivores apart in one large study of 21,561 people in 5 cohorts. Seen again and again Medicines Antibiotics Here the evidence goes furthest: one study followed the same people through a course of antibiotics, and a large study saw differences years after people took them. Seen more than once