What does a juice cleanse do to oral bacteria?

Juice cleanses could adversely affect the oral microbiome.

In a study published in Nutrients, researchers assigned 14 participants to follow an exclusive juice diet, a juice plus food diet or a plant-based whole-food diet for a period of three days. They collected saliva, cheek and stool samples at baseline, following a preintervention elimination diet, postintervention and after 14 days with the goal of better understanding the impact of short-term juice consumption on gut and oral microbiome composition.

The researchers found that the participants who followed the exclusive juice diet presented with increased Proteobacteria and decreased Firmicutes bacteria in their saliva. Similarly, those who followed the juice plus food diet experienced increases in Proteobacteria and decreases in Firmicutes and Actinobacteria populations in their saliva.

Despite increases of porphyromonadaceae and rikenellaceae bacterial families linked to gut permeability and inflammation among the participants who followed the exclusive juice diet, changes in the gut microbiome were less prevalent.

The findings demonstrated changes in oral bacteria that metabolize simple sugars and could potentially redefine dietary recommendations. The researchers concluded that the reduced fiber and greater sugar and carbohydrate intake associated with short-term juice consumption could adversely affect the oral microbiome.

Read more: Nutrients

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