1. Introduction
wasting
WASTED, WASTING, ADVERSE EFFECTS
These authors contributed equally to this work.The gut microbiota exert a profound influence on human health and metabolism, with microbial metabolites playing a pivotal role in shaping host physiology. This study investigated the impact of prolonged egg supplementation on insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and circulating short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). In a subset of a cluster-randomized trial, participants aged 8–14 years were randomly assigned into three groups: (1) Whole Egg (WE)—consuming 10 additional eggs per week [In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that globally, 148 million (22.3%) children under the age of five were stunted, and 45 million (6.8%) were wasted. More than three-quarters of all children with severe wasting live in Southern Asia and Africa [In our recent publication, we demonstrated that whole egg supplementation improved growth, reduced the prevalence of stunting, and enhanced nutrition biomarkers without adverse effects on blood lipoprotein levels. Intriguingly, we identified a notable increase in the abundance of specific gut microbiota. Noteworthy genera like Currently, a multitude of studies have reported that sufficient protein intake may contribute to skeletal health by enhancing calcium absorption and increasing circulating IGF-1 levels in the bloodstream [In recent years, the impact of an individual’s dietary choices on changes in the gut microbiota has gained considerable attention [