Fish oil diet benefits may be mediated by gut microbes

Gut bacteria share some of the responsibility for the beneficial effects of fish oil and the harmful effects of lard, the results of new research suggests. The study authors, writing this week in Cell Metabolism, found that mice on diets rich in fish oil versus diets rich in lard (e.g., bacon) produce very different bacteria in their guts. They then transferred these different gut microbes from the first two groups of mice into other mice to see how they affected health.