Researchers are looking at measures like adjusting diet, managing manure, recalibrating stomach organisms and selectively breeding animals that burp less.
Experts in the United States said more studies were needed, but they emphasized that glucose test strips, which are covered by insurance, could be helpful for adjusting diet, exercise and drug regimens.
If validated, notes Zhang, these patterns could "allow at-risk individuals to adjust diet or lifestyle to control their weight".
"Perhaps by adjusting diet, one can shape the microbiome in a way that can promote health," adds Sarkis Mazmanian, a microbiologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, also unaffiliated with the study.
They determine the energy requirements of subjects and adjust diets as required, most often for weight maintenance, throughout the study.
Eight-week-old litter-matched mice from both genders were randomly placed on either a diet rich in saturated fats and cholesterol (modified diet, TD.88137, adjusted calorie diet, 42% from fat) (Harlan-Teklad) or continued on the standard diet for a period of 10 weeks.
Because several methodological factors in the MDCS may affect dietary measurements, all analyses were adjusted for diet assistant, period of data collection, diet methodology and past food habit change, as well as for total energy intake when stated.
Analyses concerning dietary intake were adjusted for diet assistant, the period of data collection, diet methodology (old or new method version) and recent food habit changes (yes or no), as well as for total energy intake when stated.
