You are reading a single comment by @skydancer and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
so their idea of normal or baseline may be completely arbitrary
Part of the aim is to learn more about the Microbiome.
The muffins are standardised across the study, the controlled factor, and as you suggest everyone's response will differ in response to the breakfast muffin overload. This is what they're measuring.
skydancer
https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/commercial-gut-microbiome-testing.html
Seems to suggest we know so little about gut microbiome that we have no idea what "healthy" actually looks like so their idea of normal or baseline may be completely arbitrary and not much helpful at all.