Guicheng Zhou

With the advancement of modern competitive sports, specialized training regimens and tailored dietary patterns collectively shape a distinctive gut microbiota in athletes. This unique ecosystem exhibits high microbial diversity and is enriched with beneficial bacteria—such as short-chain fatty acid-producing strains—that contribute to enhanced athletic performance, support energy homeostasis and neural coordination, and mitigate exercise-induced injuries, thereby improving competitive outcomes. This review elaborates on the characteristics of the athlete gut microbiome across different exercise modalities, examines how microbial changes may benefit or pose risks to athlete health, and provides a unique perspective for developing microbiota-driven personalized nutrition strategies aimed at optimizing athletic performance.

Urbanization has significantly transformed dietary habits worldwide, contributing to a globally increased burden of non-communicable diseases and altered gut microbiota landscape. However, it is often overlooked that the adverse effects of these dietary changes can be transmitted from the mother to offspring during early developmental stages, subsequently influencing the predisposition to various diseases later in life. This review aims to delineate the detrimental effects of maternal urban-lifestyle diet (urbanized diet) on early-life health and gut microbiota assembly, provide mechanistic insights on how urbanized diet mediates mother-to-offspring transfer of bioactive substances in both intrauterine and extrauterine and thus affects fetal and neonatal development. Moreover, we also further propose a framework for developing microbiome-targeted precision nutrition and diet strategies specifically for pregnant and lactating women. The establishment of such knowledge can help develop proactive preventive measures from the beginning of life, ultimately reducing the long-term risk of disease and improving public health outcomes.