Clostridioides difficile infection flourishes with a high-protein, high-fat diet

Mice fed a high-fat, high-protein diet were more likely to develop and die from antibiotic-driven Clostridioides difficile infections than mice fed a standard diet. In the same study, published in the journal mSystems, a high-carbohydrate diet was protective against severe C. difficile infection--but the researchers suspect that such a diet could produce healthy, asymptomatic carriers that can spread the pathogen.