March 12, 2023 • 19 mins
Our bodies are fantastic machines, and surprisingly some of that machinery doesn't belong to us! We are rife with microbes that are not "ours" yet work for (and sometimes against) us. Have we evolved to need them for our survival? In this episode, we discuss some of what these microbiota do for us, how we can unknowingly influence which of those critters get to hang around with us, what those ramifications can be on our health and wellness, and the conscious steps we can take to make positive change regarding our gut flora.
Show notes:
0:45 39 trillion microbes in our bodies - https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/human-microbiome/
1:04 Structure and function of the human skin microbiome - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4744460/?pg=1
1:35 Role of the normal gut microbiota - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4528021/
2:15 Gut Microbiota Differences According to Ultra-Processed Food Consumption in a Spanish Population - https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2710
5:29 Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4910713/?adb_sid=3f2fa233-444b-4e87-a5c4-0277499c4be4
13:00 Probiotic supplements might not be universally-effective and safe: A review - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332218345657
16:11 Effect of kombucha intake on the gut microbiota and obesity-related comorbidities: A systematic review - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408398.2021.1995321
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
greetings and welcome back to Primedy where we find simple techniques to address modern
problems for our primitive bodies my name is Andrew Pafford and I'm a health
and wellness professional with over a decade of experience helping Olympic level athletes
desk jockeys and seniors achieving their goals and improving their quality of life
in today's episode we'll be talking about gut health and more specifically the gut microbiota
(00:22):
what we know about the role in the human body how our lifestyle choices affected that microbiome and
what the ramifications of those changes may be as a reminder our Purpose with primary is to distill
scientific findings into easily approachable strategies and techniques to improve our health
and wellness so let's set the stage about what we already know our bodies have microorganisms
(00:43):
all throughout about 39 trillion as a matter of fact one could even make the argument that there's
more of them than us so are we more them than us another philosophical argument for another time
but suffice to say with overwhelming numbers it would be hard to believe if they didn't have an
effect on us and as it turns out they indeed do today we want to focus on the bacteria inside of
(01:08):
our bodies more specifically the bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal tracts
while bacteria in our skin can be influenced easily by our hygiene habits such as hand washing
and soap and shampoo altering bacteria in our guts is not as straightforward since that typically
requires ingestion of a substance I.E food and drink or quite possibly consuming nothing at all
(01:30):
additionally what are the possible consequences of these alterations while this field is constantly
evolving we currently know that the bacteria in our gut play a role in
nutrient metabolism how we metabolize drugs antimicrobial protection immunomodulation
affects our gut barrier and more so what does this have to do with our culture or more appropriately
(01:53):
or choices that are affected by our culture if we were to live in an underdeveloped part
of the world we would not have the option of choosing processed foods in America there are
areas known as food deserts where people can only find processed foods so how do processed foods and
non-processed Foods affect our gut microbiota well we'll turn our attention to a study called
(02:16):
gut microbiota differences according to ultra processed food consumption in a Spanish population
and others in it they stayed 359 individuals and were categorized by sex and the amount of ultra
processed foods they ate for this study they defined Ultra processed food apps and I quote
upfs are formulations ready for consumption made from refined food substances such as glucose syrup
(02:43):
modified starch maltodextrins hydrogenated oils protein fiber isolates or cosmetic additives with
a careful combination of simple sugars Salt Fat and various additives these Foods include sugar
sweetened beverages snacks industrial processed pastries meat and dairy products and quotes fast
food among others end quote but that while a little wordy should paint a pretty clear picture
(03:08):
of what foods we're talking about when we say UPF or Ultra processed foods what they discovered was
individuals who had five servings or more a day of UPS had higher values of total energy intake
BMI weight waist and hip circumference fat mass and triglycerides and really there's no surprise
(03:31):
there we've already harped about how fast foods are do terrible things to the human body but in
regards to the gut Flora today's episode a number of discoveries were made the diversity of bacteria
within a sample also known as the alpha diversity for those of you bio aficionados was significantly
lower in men who consumed five or more upfs a day translation the diversity of microbes in one's
(03:59):
gut diminished with the increased consumption of upfs so less diversity in this particular instance
is not a good thing so there's fewer types of different bacteria floating around in your gut
further while some populations of the bacteria went down with the increased upfs hence
(04:19):
less diversity something has to go away other populations went up
naturally to help with breaking down the food one is accustomed to eating the bacteria that you need
live on that food so if you only eat that type of food it's natural that those bacteria flourish
because your that food is their food too however the bacteria that were increased by eating upfs
(04:44):
are known to have connections to negative effects we're gonna throw out some specific
examples parabacteroids became over-represented and have been negatively correlated with memory
task performance enterobacterials also were among the populations increased and those
are known to be strongly related to dysbiosis and gut inflammation and even the development of IBD
(05:09):
so certainly these are not the friendly microbiota that we want to flourish in our guts
this is also one study that looks specifically at the relationship between upfs and microbiota
let's not forget that the direct impact of upf's on the body's own tissues and their relationship
with gut Flora so in this study dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota
(05:33):
promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome by Benoit fasting and others probably butchered
that's pronunciation I apologize but link to the show notes they study the effects of emulsifiers
on mice to better understand this I'm going to provide two pieces of prereqs prerequisite
information first emulsifiers are chemicals that allow quote immiscible ingredients to
(05:56):
mix a classic example of immiscibility is oil and water if you pour oil on water all the oil will
sit on top if you shake it up it might momentarily mix but within moments all the oil will flow back
to the surface they do not like mixing hence admissible emulsifiers allow these types of
fluids or these types of ingredients to combine and stay that way just about no shaking required
(06:22):
second piece of information we need to know is on mucus well our typical interaction with
mucus is when we are sick and are desperately trying to expel it from our body so that we
can breathe again is actually a crucial barrier inside of our sinuses lungs throat and GI tract
it's what prevents a lot of bacteria from latching on to us and attacking our tissues and making us
(06:46):
sick that's why we expel all that mucus is when we're sick we increase mucus production
bacteria gets trapped in it and we're trying to get that bacteria out of our bodies additionally
why do we tend to get sick so much more during the winter seasons because the cold thins our
mucosal Linings making it easier for the nasty germies to get through it and to our membranes
(07:08):
where they can do damage so you can think of it this way of skin is our first line of defense
on the outside mucus effectively performs that similar immune function on the inside albeit a
different manner of mechanism so armed with those two pieces of information let's return to the mice
a group of mice were administered emulsifiers via drinking water of one percent weight per volume
(07:34):
so if you have 99 water only one percent of that is emulsifier mind you soda and the foods that
we eat use much more than one percent so the mice were given this mixture for 12 weeks daily
in normal mice it was measured that a baseline Mouse had gut bacteria that resided in the mucus
(07:55):
approximately 25 micrometers away from the epithelial line which is the actual lining
of your gut mucus is not really you it's just a secretion so the epithelial lining is the true
wall of your gut so the bacteria reside at about 25 micrometers away from the lining in the mucus
and there were no bacterial stragglers observed within 10 micrometers of the lining so you can
(08:22):
think of that as like a No Man's Land there was no bacteria seen within 10 micrometers of the lines
you had a nice empty space where no bacteria were touching your wall therefore no interaction and no
possibility of getting sick in contrast the mice given the emulsifiers had bacteria residing 50
(08:43):
percent closer to the lining while observing many bacteria coming in contact with the lining all of
this was correlated with the reduced thickness of the gut mucus they were also able to note measural
changes in the gut microbiota as well so there were decreased levels of bacterials which are
(09:03):
associated with health and there were increased levels of mucolytic bacteria which literally
means mucus destroying bacteria while the paper goes on to describe a link to emulsifier use and
metabolic syndrome and inflammation I'm afraid that Strays from our topic today of microbiota
so I encourage you to check the show notes and give that article some time of day for some
(09:24):
more interesting information of the additional negative effects emulsifiers can have on our body
so with these two pieces of literature in what is an Ever blooming field of research
on gut microbiomes I hope we've established that what will become widely recognized as processed
foods diminish the good guys and increase some of the bad guys all of which is not good news
(09:46):
for us the fear-mongering aside let's get to the important part what are we supposed to do about it
well the first solution might sound obvious and rather flipping stop eating processed foods but
as I alluded to earlier that may not always be as straightforward as it seems some people may live
in those food deserts that I mentioned Others May fall prey to deceptive advertising such as quote
(10:10):
organic food labeling for example that emulsifier that I mentioned that was put in the mice's water
is known as carboxymethyl cellulose a derivative from cellulose which is what makes up plant cells
because it comes from an organic plant an organic Source I.E plants and I use the organic
(10:30):
term in the chemistry sense it is not incorrectly labeled as an organic food because it's a
component that comes from a living thing that they pull out and do chemistry to they can technically
say that that is an organic substance hence the organic label so while you can't acquire it air
quotes naturally like you could acquire a stevia plant simply from plucking it or harvesting sap
(10:54):
from a maple tree to make syrup you might end up spending extra on Foods labeled organic and still
might be consuming the same demons that in play that plague their inferiorly labeled brethren so
what's a realistic solution well I hope you enjoy cooking from raw ingredients because that's about
the safest way to avoid upfs and some of their processed ingredients it may not occur to people
(11:16):
that even innocuous items such as salad dressing and ketchup contain emulsifiers and contain some
of the processing downfalls as Twinkies in your favorite fast food guilty pleasure so the only
safe way to be sure is to cook from scratch another hot ticket item that has been floating
around as a result of the increased attention to gut micro Florida is probiotics and prebiotics
(11:40):
to just quickly distinguish probiotics are things that contain live bacteria think yogurt
kefir kombucha Etc and prebiotics are things that contain food that the bacteria eat basically your
food but typically recognized as high fiber foods as an aside I'm convinced that the human race is
(12:00):
obsessed with taking pills to change our condition we have pills that make you poop pills that keep
you from pooping pills that put gold flakes in your poop don't get me started many pills that
solve various forms of maladies and others that simply claim that they solve maladies so the
true Spirit of Being Human we've decided to we've decided that taking pills to kill bacteria was too
(12:21):
good so now we're putting bacteria in pills to put the bacteria back because taking a pill to fix our
pill problem doesn't sound like too much of a pill to swallow am I right so now we have probiotics
and prebiotics but are they any good and are they even necessary starters prebiotics as we stated
earlier is just bacteria food and the easiest thing is to just eat what the bacteria are already
(12:46):
eating and that's good old normal unprocessed food particularly those higher in fiber
as far as probiotic supplements are concerned the verdict is still out there is evidence for
good and bad it's either shown us at this time stamp particularly we don't know if what we're
getting is actually what's advertised since the supplement industry is largely unregulated do I go
(13:11):
for the sure thing and I just eat regular healthy Probiotic foods and avoid the supplements foods
that have been fermented contain the bacteria that we consume anyways we've just allowed the bacteria
to flourish through the fermentation process first before putting them into our bodies so
they are rich in these cultures sauerkraut kimchi Sriracha kombucha are great examples
(13:35):
personally I'm on the fence with yogurt and kefir as while they are both milk products milk in the
U.S is highly regulated and must undergo certain processing for good or bad before it can be used
so if you have your own cow at home then your business is your business but the vast majority of
Us westerners Fall subject to regulated processing milk with fun hormones and such that dairy cows
(14:00):
are given so we'll leave that argument for another time so how does one go about DIY fermenting Foods
well the internet is as always is a treasure Trove of knowledge now I'd strongly strongly recommend
watching a number of videos making the same food like watching five different videos on how to
make sauerkraut that way you have an idea of what the general process is and in case you get some
(14:23):
weird outlier weirdo doing something potentially hazardous you'll have other practiced individuals
be able to use as a comparison to go okay well they didn't do it so maybe I should do that
but as a quick teaser on what's involved let's go over all some that I've personally done and
can attest to their process firsthand sauerkraut involves three ingredients salt cabbage and a jar
(14:46):
not a lot of room for processing or error there are ample Guides Online so do your research first
as always as getting started is easy the fermenting might take some attention and
appropriate setup chop up your cabbage mash it in a bowl add salt throw it in the jar after a
week of fermenting voila go longer if you like the taste these are very reductive steps and there is
(15:12):
much more Nuance for the fermentation process like how to avoid getting mold and burping your jar
but that's literally all it takes so if you can afford cabbage salt and you have jars you
can afford to start amending your gut Flora now kombucha has become a personal addiction of mine
this one may not be for the easily squeamish as handling a scoby May strike many of you
(15:35):
as a little yuck but if you're a tea drinker this one is so easy to do once you've acquired a scoby
scoby is an acronym for a symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast scoby
so there's your microbiota right there it's in the name now most individuals recommend
finding a quote reputable source to acquire a scoby however I was able to grow my own scoby
(16:00):
from a store-bought kombucha so if you have jars sugar and tea then you can totally pull this off
and since I've already admitted to being partial with kombucha I've even provided
some lovely science-based evidence that drinking kombucha has beneficial effects for your body
do the show notes now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that drinking one magical
(16:21):
drink is going to fix all of your problems however it should not be discounted as one
more useful healthy lifestyle action that one can make to promote Better Health Wellness
additionally if you're a soda drinker drinking kombucha can be a great substitution to appease
that sipping addiction much like smokers trying to quit find having something else in their mouth
(16:43):
like gums sunflower seeds or toothpicks to be helpful if you just feel like you need to
constantly wet your palate and soda winds up being your crutch try slotting some kombucha in instead
it does still have a semi-sweet taste however the level of sugar compared to
a normal soda is much lower so it's a nice step down approach if you're trying to quit
if you saw kombucha in on the regular from the store it can be expensive another reason why I'd
(17:09):
recommend trying to make your own it is insanely more cost effective I believe at some point during
my weight loss series I mentioned that if you want to look healthy you have to live healthy
and do healthy things so preparing cooking and now fermenting your own food cuts a lot of the
guesswork out of what am I putting in my body is actually healthy forming as it pertains to gut
(17:34):
Flora preparing your own food means you have to re-establish a healthy gut microbiome and
continue to nurture it find yourself in a food desert it may you may need to get a little more
creative ordering dry goods online and having them delivered might open a couple doors of opportunity
tea and sugar are the only inputs you need to make kombucha so tracking down a store that
(17:57):
carries some kombucha so that you can grow your own scoby would be the final step and I've seen
kombucha in every major grocery in my area so someone near you has to have something
you can order oats nuts many other dry goods that have decent fiber content for your prebiotics
all it takes is a little curiosity and you might be surprised what all is actually available to
(18:22):
you that your local convenience store may not carry so recap for the day we learned
that microbiota control a great many things in our body and possibly more that we are not yet
aware of but we're learning new things every day two we learned that Ultra processed foods
can drastically change the landscape of the gut microbiome and almost in all negative ways three
(18:46):
we learned that while eating processed foods can ruin our gut Flora eating fermented and fibrous
foods can repopulate and nourish healthy gut Flora four we finally discussed a few strategies to go
about preparing foods that we can slot into our lifestyle that help us enjoy the benefits of good
microbiota thanks so much for tuning in and I appreciate your interest in health and wellness
(19:09):
remember your curiosity is important to us so send us your questions to info at primedy.org
as always strength comes in many forms from within and without so be strong to be useful take care
greetings and welcome back to Primedy where we find simple techniques to address modern
problems for our primitive bodies my name is Andrew Pafford and I'm a health
and wellness professional with over a decade of experience helping Olympic level athletes
desk jockeys and seniors achieving their goals and improving their quality of life
in today's episode we'll be talking about gut health and more specifically the gut microbiota
(00:22):
what we know about the role in the human body how our lifestyle choices affected that microbiome and
what the ramifications of those changes may be as a reminder our Purpose with primary is to distill
scientific findings into easily approachable strategies and techniques to improve our health
and wellness so let's set the stage about what we already know our bodies have microorganisms
(00:43):
all throughout about 39 trillion as a matter of fact one could even make the argument that there's
more of them than us so are we more them than us another philosophical argument for another time
but suffice to say with overwhelming numbers it would be hard to believe if they didn't have an
effect on us and as it turns out they indeed do today we want to focus on the bacteria inside of
(01:08):
our bodies more specifically the bacteria that live in our gastrointestinal tracts
while bacteria in our skin can be influenced easily by our hygiene habits such as hand washing
and soap and shampoo altering bacteria in our guts is not as straightforward since that typically
requires ingestion of a substance I.E food and drink or quite possibly consuming nothing at all
(01:30):
additionally what are the possible consequences of these alterations while this field is constantly
evolving we currently know that the bacteria in our gut play a role in
nutrient metabolism how we metabolize drugs antimicrobial protection immunomodulation
affects our gut barrier and more so what does this have to do with our culture or more appropriately
(01:53):
or choices that are affected by our culture if we were to live in an underdeveloped part
of the world we would not have the option of choosing processed foods in America there are
areas known as food deserts where people can only find processed foods so how do processed foods and
non-processed Foods affect our gut microbiota well we'll turn our attention to a study called
(02:16):
gut microbiota differences according to ultra processed food consumption in a Spanish population
and others in it they stayed 359 individuals and were categorized by sex and the amount of ultra
processed foods they ate for this study they defined Ultra processed food apps and I quote
upfs are formulations ready for consumption made from refined food substances such as glucose syrup
(02:43):
modified starch maltodextrins hydrogenated oils protein fiber isolates or cosmetic additives with
a careful combination of simple sugars Salt Fat and various additives these Foods include sugar
sweetened beverages snacks industrial processed pastries meat and dairy products and quotes fast
food among others end quote but that while a little wordy should paint a pretty clear picture
(03:08):
of what foods we're talking about when we say UPF or Ultra processed foods what they discovered was
individuals who had five servings or more a day of UPS had higher values of total energy intake
BMI weight waist and hip circumference fat mass and triglycerides and really there's no surprise
(03:31):
there we've already harped about how fast foods are do terrible things to the human body but in
regards to the gut Flora today's episode a number of discoveries were made the diversity of bacteria
within a sample also known as the alpha diversity for those of you bio aficionados was significantly
lower in men who consumed five or more upfs a day translation the diversity of microbes in one's
(03:59):
gut diminished with the increased consumption of upfs so less diversity in this particular instance
is not a good thing so there's fewer types of different bacteria floating around in your gut
further while some populations of the bacteria went down with the increased upfs hence
(04:19):
less diversity something has to go away other populations went up
naturally to help with breaking down the food one is accustomed to eating the bacteria that you need
live on that food so if you only eat that type of food it's natural that those bacteria flourish
because your that food is their food too however the bacteria that were increased by eating upfs
(04:44):
are known to have connections to negative effects we're gonna throw out some specific
examples parabacteroids became over-represented and have been negatively correlated with memory
task performance enterobacterials also were among the populations increased and those
are known to be strongly related to dysbiosis and gut inflammation and even the development of IBD
(05:09):
so certainly these are not the friendly microbiota that we want to flourish in our guts
this is also one study that looks specifically at the relationship between upfs and microbiota
let's not forget that the direct impact of upf's on the body's own tissues and their relationship
with gut Flora so in this study dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota
(05:33):
promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome by Benoit fasting and others probably butchered
that's pronunciation I apologize but link to the show notes they study the effects of emulsifiers
on mice to better understand this I'm going to provide two pieces of prereqs prerequisite
information first emulsifiers are chemicals that allow quote immiscible ingredients to
(05:56):
mix a classic example of immiscibility is oil and water if you pour oil on water all the oil will
sit on top if you shake it up it might momentarily mix but within moments all the oil will flow back
to the surface they do not like mixing hence admissible emulsifiers allow these types of
fluids or these types of ingredients to combine and stay that way just about no shaking required
(06:22):
second piece of information we need to know is on mucus well our typical interaction with
mucus is when we are sick and are desperately trying to expel it from our body so that we
can breathe again is actually a crucial barrier inside of our sinuses lungs throat and GI tract
it's what prevents a lot of bacteria from latching on to us and attacking our tissues and making us
(06:46):
sick that's why we expel all that mucus is when we're sick we increase mucus production
bacteria gets trapped in it and we're trying to get that bacteria out of our bodies additionally
why do we tend to get sick so much more during the winter seasons because the cold thins our
mucosal Linings making it easier for the nasty germies to get through it and to our membranes
(07:08):
where they can do damage so you can think of it this way of skin is our first line of defense
on the outside mucus effectively performs that similar immune function on the inside albeit a
different manner of mechanism so armed with those two pieces of information let's return to the mice
a group of mice were administered emulsifiers via drinking water of one percent weight per volume
(07:34):
so if you have 99 water only one percent of that is emulsifier mind you soda and the foods that
we eat use much more than one percent so the mice were given this mixture for 12 weeks daily
in normal mice it was measured that a baseline Mouse had gut bacteria that resided in the mucus
(07:55):
approximately 25 micrometers away from the epithelial line which is the actual lining
of your gut mucus is not really you it's just a secretion so the epithelial lining is the true
wall of your gut so the bacteria reside at about 25 micrometers away from the lining in the mucus
and there were no bacterial stragglers observed within 10 micrometers of the lining so you can
(08:22):
think of that as like a No Man's Land there was no bacteria seen within 10 micrometers of the lines
you had a nice empty space where no bacteria were touching your wall therefore no interaction and no
possibility of getting sick in contrast the mice given the emulsifiers had bacteria residing 50
(08:43):
percent closer to the lining while observing many bacteria coming in contact with the lining all of
this was correlated with the reduced thickness of the gut mucus they were also able to note measural
changes in the gut microbiota as well so there were decreased levels of bacterials which are
(09:03):
associated with health and there were increased levels of mucolytic bacteria which literally
means mucus destroying bacteria while the paper goes on to describe a link to emulsifier use and
metabolic syndrome and inflammation I'm afraid that Strays from our topic today of microbiota
so I encourage you to check the show notes and give that article some time of day for some
(09:24):
more interesting information of the additional negative effects emulsifiers can have on our body
so with these two pieces of literature in what is an Ever blooming field of research
on gut microbiomes I hope we've established that what will become widely recognized as processed
foods diminish the good guys and increase some of the bad guys all of which is not good news
(09:46):
for us the fear-mongering aside let's get to the important part what are we supposed to do about it
well the first solution might sound obvious and rather flipping stop eating processed foods but
as I alluded to earlier that may not always be as straightforward as it seems some people may live
in those food deserts that I mentioned Others May fall prey to deceptive advertising such as quote
(10:10):
organic food labeling for example that emulsifier that I mentioned that was put in the mice's water
is known as carboxymethyl cellulose a derivative from cellulose which is what makes up plant cells
because it comes from an organic plant an organic Source I.E plants and I use the organic
(10:30):
term in the chemistry sense it is not incorrectly labeled as an organic food because it's a
component that comes from a living thing that they pull out and do chemistry to they can technically
say that that is an organic substance hence the organic label so while you can't acquire it air
quotes naturally like you could acquire a stevia plant simply from plucking it or harvesting sap
(10:54):
from a maple tree to make syrup you might end up spending extra on Foods labeled organic and still
might be consuming the same demons that in play that plague their inferiorly labeled brethren so
what's a realistic solution well I hope you enjoy cooking from raw ingredients because that's about
the safest way to avoid upfs and some of their processed ingredients it may not occur to people
(11:16):
that even innocuous items such as salad dressing and ketchup contain emulsifiers and contain some
of the processing downfalls as Twinkies in your favorite fast food guilty pleasure so the only
safe way to be sure is to cook from scratch another hot ticket item that has been floating
around as a result of the increased attention to gut micro Florida is probiotics and prebiotics
(11:40):
to just quickly distinguish probiotics are things that contain live bacteria think yogurt
kefir kombucha Etc and prebiotics are things that contain food that the bacteria eat basically your
food but typically recognized as high fiber foods as an aside I'm convinced that the human race is
(12:00):
obsessed with taking pills to change our condition we have pills that make you poop pills that keep
you from pooping pills that put gold flakes in your poop don't get me started many pills that
solve various forms of maladies and others that simply claim that they solve maladies so the
true Spirit of Being Human we've decided to we've decided that taking pills to kill bacteria was too
(12:21):
good so now we're putting bacteria in pills to put the bacteria back because taking a pill to fix our
pill problem doesn't sound like too much of a pill to swallow am I right so now we have probiotics
and prebiotics but are they any good and are they even necessary starters prebiotics as we stated
earlier is just bacteria food and the easiest thing is to just eat what the bacteria are already
(12:46):
eating and that's good old normal unprocessed food particularly those higher in fiber
as far as probiotic supplements are concerned the verdict is still out there is evidence for
good and bad it's either shown us at this time stamp particularly we don't know if what we're
getting is actually what's advertised since the supplement industry is largely unregulated do I go
(13:11):
for the sure thing and I just eat regular healthy Probiotic foods and avoid the supplements foods
that have been fermented contain the bacteria that we consume anyways we've just allowed the bacteria
to flourish through the fermentation process first before putting them into our bodies so
they are rich in these cultures sauerkraut kimchi Sriracha kombucha are great examples
(13:35):
personally I'm on the fence with yogurt and kefir as while they are both milk products milk in the
U.S is highly regulated and must undergo certain processing for good or bad before it can be used
so if you have your own cow at home then your business is your business but the vast majority of
Us westerners Fall subject to regulated processing milk with fun hormones and such that dairy cows
(14:00):
are given so we'll leave that argument for another time so how does one go about DIY fermenting Foods
well the internet is as always is a treasure Trove of knowledge now I'd strongly strongly recommend
watching a number of videos making the same food like watching five different videos on how to
make sauerkraut that way you have an idea of what the general process is and in case you get some
(14:23):
weird outlier weirdo doing something potentially hazardous you'll have other practiced individuals
be able to use as a comparison to go okay well they didn't do it so maybe I should do that
but as a quick teaser on what's involved let's go over all some that I've personally done and
can attest to their process firsthand sauerkraut involves three ingredients salt cabbage and a jar
(14:46):
not a lot of room for processing or error there are ample Guides Online so do your research first
as always as getting started is easy the fermenting might take some attention and
appropriate setup chop up your cabbage mash it in a bowl add salt throw it in the jar after a
week of fermenting voila go longer if you like the taste these are very reductive steps and there is
(15:12):
much more Nuance for the fermentation process like how to avoid getting mold and burping your jar
but that's literally all it takes so if you can afford cabbage salt and you have jars you
can afford to start amending your gut Flora now kombucha has become a personal addiction of mine
this one may not be for the easily squeamish as handling a scoby May strike many of you
(15:35):
as a little yuck but if you're a tea drinker this one is so easy to do once you've acquired a scoby
scoby is an acronym for a symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast scoby
so there's your microbiota right there it's in the name now most individuals recommend
finding a quote reputable source to acquire a scoby however I was able to grow my own scoby
(16:00):
from a store-bought kombucha so if you have jars sugar and tea then you can totally pull this off
and since I've already admitted to being partial with kombucha I've even provided
some lovely science-based evidence that drinking kombucha has beneficial effects for your body
do the show notes now don't get me wrong I'm not saying that drinking one magical
(16:21):
drink is going to fix all of your problems however it should not be discounted as one
more useful healthy lifestyle action that one can make to promote Better Health Wellness
additionally if you're a soda drinker drinking kombucha can be a great substitution to appease
that sipping addiction much like smokers trying to quit find having something else in their mouth
(16:43):
like gums sunflower seeds or toothpicks to be helpful if you just feel like you need to
constantly wet your palate and soda winds up being your crutch try slotting some kombucha in instead
it does still have a semi-sweet taste however the level of sugar compared to
a normal soda is much lower so it's a nice step down approach if you're trying to quit
if you saw kombucha in on the regular from the store it can be expensive another reason why I'd
(17:09):
recommend trying to make your own it is insanely more cost effective I believe at some point during
my weight loss series I mentioned that if you want to look healthy you have to live healthy
and do healthy things so preparing cooking and now fermenting your own food cuts a lot of the
guesswork out of what am I putting in my body is actually healthy forming as it pertains to gut
(17:34):
Flora preparing your own food means you have to re-establish a healthy gut microbiome and
continue to nurture it find yourself in a food desert it may you may need to get a little more
creative ordering dry goods online and having them delivered might open a couple doors of opportunity
tea and sugar are the only inputs you need to make kombucha so tracking down a store that
(17:57):
carries some kombucha so that you can grow your own scoby would be the final step and I've seen
kombucha in every major grocery in my area so someone near you has to have something
you can order oats nuts many other dry goods that have decent fiber content for your prebiotics
all it takes is a little curiosity and you might be surprised what all is actually available to
(18:22):
you that your local convenience store may not carry so recap for the day we learned
that microbiota control a great many things in our body and possibly more that we are not yet
aware of but we're learning new things every day two we learned that Ultra processed foods
can drastically change the landscape of the gut microbiome and almost in all negative ways three
(18:46):
we learned that while eating processed foods can ruin our gut Flora eating fermented and fibrous
foods can repopulate and nourish healthy gut Flora four we finally discussed a few strategies to go
about preparing foods that we can slot into our lifestyle that help us enjoy the benefits of good
microbiota thanks so much for tuning in and I appreciate your interest in health and wellness
(19:09):
remember your curiosity is important to us so send us your questions to info at primedy.org
as always strength comes in many forms from within and without so be strong to be useful take care
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