Fig. 3

Changes in Lactobacillales abundance and processed meat intake, and associations between changes in Lactobacillales abundance and processed meat intake. a The relative abundance of the order Lactobacillales increased in the ICR group after the 12-week intervention but returned to levels similar to baseline at the end of follow-up as shown by boxplots (defined as in Fig. 3); statistical significance was assessed by Wilcoxon signed-rank test. b Participants in the ICR group significantly reduced their intake of processed meat during the 12-week intervention period, although intakes increased again at follow-up. In contrast, there was no significant change in the consumption of processed meat in either the CCR or CTR groups as shown by boxplots. c The changes in the abundance of Lactobacillales after 12 weeks were significantly associated with the changes in processed meat intake (Spearman correlation, q = 0.02). Scatter plot showing Spearman correlation between changes in the relative abundance of Lactobacillales and changes in processed meat intake. d The genus Streptococcus, which belongs to the order Lactobacillales, also significantly co-varied with the changes in processed meat intake after the 12-week intervention (q = 0.02). e Abundance changes in Lactobacillales and its member genus Streptococcus were significantly associated with changes in processed meat intake after 12 weeks. Bar length indicates q value (FDR-corrected p-value) and effect size is color-coded. Additional file 4: Source data