Different health topic, but I think it could maybe apply in our case as well as far as recovery.
Again im maybe looking more so at the site of nutrient absorption, which would maybe more so be the small intestine/stomach.
Even after starving children get enough to eat again, they often fail to grow. Their brains don’t develop properly, and they remain susceptible to diseases, even many years later. Two studies in Science this week now suggest fostering the right gut microbes may help these children recover.
Together, their teams reported in 2014 that the gut microbiome normally “matures” as an infant grows into a toddler. They also noticed that it remains immature in severely malnourished children, dominated by bacteria found in younger healthy children. Two years later, the researchers put mature and immature microbiomes from children into mice raised without microbes. Animals given the immature microbiomes put on less muscle, had weaker bones, and had impaired metabolisms, suggesting a mature microbiome might be needed for proper development.