This projects aims to characterize dietary habits and nutrition quality of pro-vegetarian diets as compared to omnivorous diets. It also aims to stablish gut microbial and metabolit profiles of this dietary pattern, in order to elucidate the role of plant-based diets in cancer prevention and treatment.

Plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, cereals, nuts and seeds, legumes, and vegetable oils) are the main source of fiber and other bioactive compounds in the diet. Plant-based diets are therefore assumed to prevent mortality and the ocurrence of chronic diseases including cancer. However, evidence on this issue is still scarce, and the mechanisms and drivers of their potential health benefits are also only partially known.

The main objectices of this project are:

1. To develop and validate dietary assessment methods for the vegetarian population
2. To assess dietary habits and consumer beliefs of vegetarians with respect to omnivores, considering different types of vegetarian diets
3. To identify a gut microbiota signature related to plant-based diets from subgroups of subjects following a plant-based diet foods (vegans, lacto-vegetarians, …, and pro-vegetarians) and omnivorous subjects (non-plant-based diets), from stool metagenomic sequencing.
4. To relate this signature with metabolites present in faeces (related to the presence of certain microbial species) and in urine to improve the predictive capacity of the microbial signature of vegetable diets.
5. Validate the signature using independent study populations, and including colorectal and breast cancer survivors as another study target.

Inclusion Criteria:

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Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnancy or lactation
• antibiotic treatment in the previous 2 weeks

University students and staff, mainly. Healthy volunteers from the general population. The control group will be matched by age and sex to the vegetarian diet study groups.