Maternal High Fibre Fermented Diet Effect on Breastfed Infant Gut Microbiome

Participants will be provided with and asked to consume specific foods high in various types of fibre to promote a variety of substrates for gut bacteria including inulin, galactooligosaccharides (GOS), and β-glucan. Participants will also be asked to consume 2 fermented items, yogurt and kefir. Study foods will be commercially available including a high-fibre bar made from chicory-derived inulin (1 bar of 35 g/d), oat-containing cakes (4 oatcakes of 35 g/d) or oat porridge (1 sachet of 38.5 g/d), shredded wheat cereal biscuits (2 biscuits of 45 g/d), hummus (½ pot of 100 g/d), and/or baked beans (½ can of 100 g/d) or lentil soup (1 can of 400 g/d), and low fat yogurt (1/3 pot of 150 g/d) and kefir (½ bottle of 250 ml/d). The total amount of fibre study foods will provide is approximately 25 g/day which will be consumed in addition to the habitual diet. The total amount of fibre will be expected to reach the 30 g/day recommendation and will range between 25 - 40 g/day.

Participants will follow their habitual diet and will not consume any of the study foods (i.e., high-fibre fermented foods). The population average fibre intake for women in Scotland is 16 g/day (The Scottish Health Survey 2021).