Fig. 4

Different food consumption characterizes the different microbiota structures. a PCoA based on unweighted UniFrac distances of the fecal microbiota. The biplot of the average food coordinates weighted by frequency of consumption per sample was superimposed on the PCoA plot to identify the foods contributing to the ordination space (blue arrows). Only the food categories showing a significant correlation with the sample separation (p < 0.05, permutational correlation test) were displayed. Samples are colored by participant group (C1–C4, see Fig. 1). The black arrows at the bottom indicate the direction of the microbiota diversity, energy, and fiber intake gradient along PCo1. b Summary of total energy intake (in kilocalories per day) and fiber consumption (expressed as grams of fiber per 1000 kcal consumed) and c percentage of macronutrient intake in all women, stratified by microbiome configuration (i.e., C1 to C4). * p < 0.05; Wilcoxon rank-sum test