O.K. for most of your life you’ve been exercising, eating properly, getting enough sleep, supplementing, and limiting toxins in your life so you’re set to live to a ripe old age, right? Wrong.
It turns out there’s a major influence on our health that we were totally ignorant of until it came to the forefront about a decade ago– microbiome health. You’re not truly healthy unless you also have a healthy microbiome, those trillions of bacteria residing in your large intestines. Conversely a unhealthy microbiome predisposes us to many modern western diseases. It’s a contributing factor in higher prevalence of those diseases of aging.
Don’t despair, the biggest contributor to a healthy microbiome is merely to properly feed it. But, our current day western diet is actually starving them. Feed them well and they’ll feed you with beneficial compounds, starve them and they will actually eat you!
The Human Microbiome Project
This new awareness emerged after the completion of the pivotal Human Genome Project in 2008 when the NIH launched an equally enlightening project called “The Human Microbiome Project”. It first identified what comprised the human microbial flora and then went on to elucidate the roles of these microbes in health and disease states. The project was completed in 2016. Today, we’re still sorting out what all of this means. But there has been a lot of lab studies on mice and even humans confirming this human/microbiome symbiosis and the best practices to optimize it.
Just what is the Microbiome?
You heard the expression that pregnant women are ‘eating for two’, well how about all of us are eating for 100 trillion. That’s about how many microorganisms occupy our large intestines. Sounds gross, but it’s actually a good thing.
Not only that, but a healthy adult has approximately 1,200 different species of
bacteria residing in his or her gut, some are bad, but most are good. These microbial residents have 100 times more genes than we do thus making us actually more microbial than human.
You may recall from high school anatomy that we have two types of intestines, the small and the large – the large is commonly referred to as the “colon”. The microbiome mostly reside in the colon, which contains about 10,000 times more bacteria than the small intestine. This places them at the very end of the food line. Most non-fibrous foods are consumed by us in the small intestines and never make it to the colon.
Consequently a healthy microbiota requires fiber by which to live and thrive. Since humans cannot digest fiber, it’s the only food that makes it all the way to the colon to feed the microbiome and they gladly feast on it.
But in our Western societies we’re just not eating enough fiber to feed these critters. The average American consumes around 10-15 grams of dietary fiber per day. The USDA actually recommends 30-35 grams per day. By those measures we’re eating a third less fiber than the dietary experts say we should.
And that USDA number may be understated. After 200,000 years of evolution, it is believed by scientists that our ancient hunter-gatherer forebears, from which we co-evolved, ate on the order of 100- 150 grams of fiber per day. So, by those measures we’re consuming about 10% of what we’ve evolved to. We probably don’t want to consume the copious quantities of those tough fibrous roots those hunter-gathers did, but we do need to ‘up our game’.
An Incredible Symbiosis
O.K., so we have these bugs in our gut, but how does that possibly affect our health? After all, we are at the nascent stages of our understanding our relationship with them. What scientists do know is that the microbiome affect our digestive health, our metabolism, our systemic immune function, our central nervous system, just about every part of our biology is affected by these microbes. Scientists further believe that many autoimmune diseases can be ameliorated by a healthy microbiome.
Inflammation is the Culprit of a Myriad of Diseases and It’s Affected by Your Microbiome
We coexist in close proximity to our bug friends, very close. In fact, the epithelial lining of our colon is only a single cell thick. That’s the barrier that keeps theses trillions of bugs within the gut from not invading our body. Unfortunately, there are instances where this protective layer has breaches and is porous and allows bacteria to enter our body and trigger an array of immune responses.
In a healthy person, in addition to the epithelial lining there is a thick mucus lining that reinforces that epithelial barrier. So, the end goal is to keep that mucus lining as thick as possible.
Mother nature knows it’s risky to have trillions of bacteria only a thin layer away from our body, so it’s deployed a large number of immune cells along the tract. If fact there are more immune cells lining our gut than any other part of our body.
If we fail to feed the microbiome properly, those bugs will eat us. That is, they will take to eating that vital mucus lining. Not that they want to harm their host, it’s the drastic measures they’ll take if they’re starving. Whoops that’s a problem, they’re diminishing the very barrier that’s designed to keep them in the gut and not roam around our body.
When there’s a breech and living bacteria, or their dead parts pass through the barrier, our immune cells are activated and start to kill the invading microbes. The killing of the bacteria releases lipopolysaccharide endotoxins which gets into the bloodstream which causes a general inflammatory response within the entire body.
Many other diseases are also driven by this inflammation, such as cancer, metabolic syndrome, and many of the autoimmune diseases. Of note is that these diseases are less prevalent in societies where there is more fiber in the diet. It’s highly unlikely that of these different diseases each have their own unique cause. It’s highly probable that there may be just one upstream cause — inflammation.
In contrast, if there’s sufficient dietary fiber present, there’s plenty for these bugs to eat and they don’t touch the mucus lining – all is good in that aspect.
But a lot more benefit accrue to having a healthy, well fed microbiome. One benefit of feeding your bugs is that they’ll reward you with beneficial compounds, namely short chain fatty acids, or SCFAs. They eat the fiber and poop out the SCFA’s. Gut epithelial cells rely on SCFAs for energy.
The SCFA’s provide for a healthy epithelial lining thus keeping that barrier nice and tight, plus the mucus layer rebuilds to a healthy level providing more separation. General health improves with well-fed bugs that stay on their side of the barrier.
Some SCFAs will then enter the bloodstream which increase favorable T-regulatory cells which sets our immune response to a proper set point and not go haywire. Again, it’s an overactive immune system that can cause other diseases and autoimmune disease. It turns out the same bacteria that can trigger an overreacting immune system can also calm it down. It all depends on what side of the fence they’re on and that’s determined by how well we feed them.
Shift to More of a Plant Based Diet
O.K., now that we’ve scared the bejesus out of you and you’re convinced you want a healthier gut, what to do?
The only real dial you have to turn is diet. That is, putting beneficial foods into your system and avoiding foods that are bad.
Since most plants are beneficial to the microbiome, it requires making a dramatic shift to a plant based diet. No, you don’t have to go totally vegetarian or vegan, it’s just that your plate should now be skewed with more vegetables than proteins and fats.
Don’t think you can just ingest copious quantities of Metamucil and get all your fiber. Science has shown that the more diverse a microbiome the better. Again, there can be as many as 1,200 different species of bacteria, each affecting us in a different manner and each requires a slightly different fiber to thrive on.
The way to foster a diverse microbiome is to eat a diverse array of vegetables and fiber. Each vegetable type will feed a different type of bacteria.
Brain Gut Connection
To orchestrate our whole digestive process, our gut has its own nervous system called the enteric nervous system is a massive web of 500 million neurons spread over the entire digestive tract often referred to as the ‘second brain’.
Further this brain system is also connected to our central nervous system through the vagus nerve, kind of a superhighway between the gut and the brain. Scientists are in the early stages of lab studies with mice to figure out what this all means.
Some lab studies find that mice with a microbiome have higher levels of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor, BDNF, than a control group of mice without a microbiome. BDNF is important for learning, memory, higher order thinking.
Of particular note is that up to 80% of serotonin is made in the gut. Serotonin
is a neurotransmitter that affects our mood.
The hypothesis derived from these mice studies is that mental performance and elevated mood could be highly influenced by our gut.
Avoiding “Leaky Gut”
We already explained the permeability of the gut lining and the importance of the mucus layer. But there are some bold assertions out there as to how to protect that barrier further. There are assertions that certain foods, like those high in lectins and the nightshade family and dairy products can cause gut permeability, or more commonly referred to as “leaky gut”.
Again, leaky gut occurs when there is a compromised gut mucus lining augmented by separations in the epithelial lining causing the bacteria and its parts to enter the bloodstream. As mentioned gut permeability can lead to a severe immune response and is a major contributor to autoimmune diseases.
The theory is that living plants develop lectins to guard against insects eating them, so it’s somewhat toxic. Lectins are proteins that we do not digest, so they travel all the way to the colon. Because lectins are sticky proteins, they bind to the gut wall causing severe irritation and ultimate permeability.
The advice from those pundits on this matter are to avoid foods that are high in lectin. The major groupings are many foods that we’ve been taught are good for us: legumes, and whole wheat. Here’s a list of foods that are purported to be harmful to your gut:
| Tomatoes | Potatoes |
| Peppers | Eggplant |
| Lentils | Beans |
| Soybeans | Peanuts |
| Chickpeas |
If one is not able to eliminate these foods, than any attempt to reduce the intake may lead to better health. In particular, if you’re suffering from any form of autoimmune disease like asthma and allergies, it may be worth a try.
At the very least, when preparing these riskier foods, be sure to totally boil them. Lectins are water-soluble and typically found on the outer surface of a food. The high wet heat will inactivate most of the harmful lectins.
Offsetting the above, here’s a list of foods that are low in lectin and are favorable to your microbiome. Eat more of these:
| Onions | Parsnips | Jerusalem Artichokes |
| Sweet Potatoes | Carrots | Nuts |
| Artichokes | Blackberries | Broccoli |
| Brussels Sprouts | Cabbage | Leeks |
| Mushrooms | Radishes | Swiss Chard |
| Strawberries | Avocados | Beets |
| Nuts (not peanuts) | Dark Chocolate | Chicory Root |
| Garlic |
A Word about Antibiotics
Antibiotics are a wonder drug, they’ve saved millions of lives since we started its use. However, when your illness is borderline, discuss with your doctor if it’s possible to forego its usage to see if you’ll heal on your own. If not, by all means take the antibiotics.
If your doctor agrees, not taking antibiotics will do your microbiome a world of good. Antibiotics are broad based, they’ll kill every microbe it comes in contact including all those good bugs you’ve worked so hard to culture.
So, if your infection is not severe, omit the antibiotics and let your good bugs live to take care of you in other ways.
Let’s get Dirty
We hesitate to write this section. As of this writing, the coronavirus is raging throughout the U.S. and countless lives are lost.
The universal prophylactic is to wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap. And that’s a good thing, we need to wipe out this deadly virus.
Sans pandemics, the concept we’re trying to get across is this. Since the
enlightenment that diseases pathogens can spread and we’ve gone from one extreme to another. From filthy conditions in poor parts of cities with dirty water where disease readily spread to being “over-sanitized”.
Unless you live on Love Canal, the dirt in your back yard safe, if you ingested a little of it, you’re introducing new bugs to create a diverse microbiome. If you grow an organic vegetable garden, you can eat the veggies right off the plant without washing and actually be healthier as a result. Something to keep in mind, someday where there are no pandemics.
Also, your pet is introducing differing strains of bacteria and you you’re not even aware of it.
Prebiotics and Probiotics
In a nutshell, probiotics are living cultures that we eat to introduce good bacteria to our gut. Prebiotics are the foods we ingest that will feed our microbiome.
Now, you can spend a fortune on both prebiotics and probiotics in supplement form. The concern is that they are not regulated. You could be getting good stuff, or totally wasting your money.
A better way is to go natural. You can find beneficial probiotics in fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, pickles and sauerkraut. Unfortunately, it’s not a once and done affair. Those bacteria introduced via probiotics tend not to stay, they’re eliminated. But they do a whole lot of good while they’re in your system, so it’s best to take some form of “natural” probiotic daily.
As for prebiotics, these are all those high fiber foods we’ve been talking about. But there are a couple of high quality vegetables like onions, chicory root, garlic and Jerusalem artichokes that are high in inulin, a particularly high quality fiber for your gut. So, eat more of these.
The Takeaways
O.K., if you’ve found religion that nurturing your microbiome will lead to greater health for you, human. We’ve boiled it down to simple steps you can adopt today:
- You’re microbiome is starving, you have to consciously feed it.
- Skew your diet to being more plant based.
- Add more naturally fibrous plants to your plate.
- Up your game, men should consume minimally 30 grams of fiber every day, women 24.
- When thinking of high quality fiber, think root crops like our forebears ate.
- Improve the diversity of your microbiome, by eating a variety of vegetables.
- Improve the diversity of your microbiome by eating what’s available seasonally.
- Ingest natural probiotics daily.
- If your doctor agrees, avoid antibiotics.
Bon appetite.