08 May 2023 --- Research into the gut microbiome’s role in health continues to advance. US-based scientists at Harvard Medical School found a link between suppressing emotions and gut health among women but found no association with diets. Meanwhile, a China-based study found a link between Western diets and Crohn’s disease – a chronic inflammatory bowel disease in the gastrointestinal tract. “Using dietary information obtained from the Food Frequency Questionnaire, we computed the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) 2010 score – measuring adherence to a diet pattern based on foods and nutrients most predictive of chronic disease risk,” Dr. Shanlin Ke, a co-author of the study on emotions and the gut and a postdoctoral fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, tells NutritionInsight.