The relationship between snacking and the gut microbiome
The microbiome composition differentiated individuals based on their snacking quality (AUC = 0.617). As the frequency of snacking might also be related to the quality of the snack, we tested whether the gut microbiome was able to discriminate participants that snack rarely versus those that snack regularly, but we did not see an association (AUC = 0.521). We matched participants for meal quality (see Methods), and the average AUC was reduced to 0.555. This suggests overall diet may have stronger effects on the microbiome than snaking alone.