Clearly this is an encouraging finding but something we probably already knew intuitively; after all adding new microbes with fermented foods is instantaneous where as growing a new microbiome with high fibre foods takes time. My question is, if the fermented food is only transient and a normal Western diet low in fibre is continued will this diversity sustain itself or will it degenerate to its previous state? In other words a high fibre diet although taking longer to establish a diverse microbiome will also help to sustain it in the long run. So, yes, kick start your new microbiome with fermented plants and sustain it with a high fibre whole plant based diet. But didn't we already know this?

@Nick - well put, my thoughts as well.

What constitutes fermented foods? Pickles and such? I need to look into this...

If fermented grapes count I have a very diverse bioome now!

from med.stanford.edu, "...foods such as yogurt, kefir, fermented cottage cheese, kimchi and other fermented vegetables, vegetable brine drinks, and kombucha tea..."

Vegetable brine drinks? That seems pretty hardcore.

NIce Job Rich - an excellent synopsis with the absence of extremely important supportive information that I have lifted from the Stanford page:
"Eating foods such as yogurt, kefir, fermented cottage cheese, kimchi and other fermented vegetables, vegetable brine drinks, and kombucha tea led to an increase in overall microbial diversity, with stronger effects from larger servings."
Clearly certain fermented grapes have health benefits, as do pickles, but where lay or non-medical people take this without the list above is absurd to inane. Personally I am all the above except for fermented cottage cheese & kimchi. But I can let "food be my medicine" or exercise a "healthy lifestyle diet" as Hippocrates wrote.

Articles like this should include the quantities of foods and a list of them.

One serving of fermented foods were defined as the following: kombucha, yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, kvass = 6 oz, kimchi, sauerkraut, other fermented veggies = 1/4 cup, vegetable brine drink = 2 oz. Broad categories of fermented foods were grouped into cottage cheese, kefir, kombucha, vegetable brine drinks, vegetables, yogurt, other foods, and other drinks.

Yes Ion4, I've also quite a diverse range of fermented plants in my diet. Fermented grapes. Fermented grain. Fermented barley. Even fermented sugar cane. I should live to 100!

i suspect microbiomic diversity is very specific. One needs fermented food supplements for each food type one consumes... Eg Natto for beans, KimChi/Kraut for Vegy fibers, Yoghourt for sweets and milks. Personally i look for and consume a variety of fermented foods including Kefir, Kombucha ... a continuous stream keeps the good DNA tools in and the baddies are crowded out.