Lard and vegetable oil change gut bacteria in mice
What it found
In mice, six weeks of lard or vegetable blend oil changed the gut bacteria.
Lard was linked to a different set of bacteria than the vegetable oil.
What they found
Animal and lab studies
Gut bacteria changed
After six weeks, the overall gut bacteria in mice changed with both lard and vegetable blend oil. The composition and abundance of bacteria differed between the groups.
Lard-linked bacteria
In mice given lard, the abundance of Proteobacteria, Bifidobacterium, Stenotrophomonas, Coriobacteriaceae_UCG-002, and Desulfovibrio was higher than in control mice. Staphylococcus was lower.
Vegetable oil-linked bacteria
In mice given vegetable blend oil, Romboutsia was more abundant than in the other groups. Akkermansia, Roseburia, and Enteractinococcus were also linked to the vegetable oil diet.
Metabolic pathways
The predicted bacterial functions differed between diets. Lard increased glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and decreased starch and sucrose metabolism, while vegetable oil increased thiamine metabolism and decreased glycolysis/gluconeogenesis.
Bacteria and metabolism links
Coriobacteriaceae_UCG-002, linked to lard, had a strong negative correlation with glycolysis/gluconeogenesis. Roseburia, linked to vegetable oil, was most strongly associated with starch and sucrose metabolism.
What the authors conclude
“long-term consumption of lard or vegetable oil may affect glycolipid metabolism, but lard has a greater impact on human health and consequently host health.”
Also in their conclusions
- They conclude that lard or vegetable blend oil regulate the diversity, community structure, and function of gut bacteria in mice.
- They suggest that long-term lard consumption may lead to disorders in sugar and fat metabolism that affect host health.
- They state that further studies with larger sample sizes and culture-based methods are needed to confirm these findings.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see how lard and vegetable oil affect the gut bacteria, since diet is a major factor shaping the gut microbiome and fats are important nutrients.
They gave 18 Kunming mice either lard, a vegetable blend oil, or water by gavage twice a day for 42 days. Then they sequenced the bacteria in the mice's intestinal contents.
What it can’t tell you
- This was a study in mice, so it cannot show what happens in people.
- The study lasted only 42 days, so it cannot show the effects of long-term consumption.
- The authors used prediction methods, not direct measurement, so the metabolic changes are not confirmed.
The paper
- Title
- Comparative Analysis of the Gut Microbiota in Mice under Lard or Vegetable Blend Oil Diet
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Animals and lab studies
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY-SA. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Qiao B, Li X, Wu Y, Guo T, Tan Z (2022). Comparative Analysis of the Gut Microbiota in Mice under Lard or Vegetable Blend Oil Diet. Journal of oleo science. doi:10.5650/jos.ess22056Free full textPubMed 36198580DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error