Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that light and microbes are good for us. They are two of the most influential evolutionary influences on human biology

If, like me, you are interested in how gut microbiota affect human health, read on. Long under-investigated and poorly understood gut fungi appear to affect health much more than their small numbers suggest and likely influence what happens to the much more numerous bacteria each of us have in our gut.

Until recently I believed that eating plant fibre was required by everyone for gut lining health. Once again, it appears that I was wrong. I’ve also recently found out that dietary fibre may even be harmful for people suffering from gut issues like IBS and IBD. The good news is that gut lining health is enabled by a handful of beneficial metabolites, only one of them originating from dietary fibre. The key is metabolic flexibility.

Our gut microbiome is continually in contact with our environment and the consequences can be significant. We can easily create and expose our microbiome to a healthy natural environment. This gives us the best chance of maintaining gut health. Attempts to return a damaged gut microbiome to a healthy state are not always positive. Intrusive interventions should be undertaken with great care.

I listen to many podcasts and I love it when a long-form discussion changes my mind about something. This podcast “What your GP doesn’t tell you” is one of my favourites because the host is smart, engaging and asks intelligent follow-up questions of her guests. Her discussion with surgeon James Kinross is one of the most illuminating I’ve encountered on the subject of the human microbiome and how it interacts with our environment to affect human health from start to finish, quite literally.

Are you interested in finding out more about human nutrition but don’t have the time or patience to search the academic literature? I am interested and find that when I translate that literature into simpler language, it helps me to understand and retain what is being said. This is the first in what may be a series of simple summaries of articles that interest me.

The gut microbiome is a vital part of the human holobiont providing a virtuous cycle of health outcomes when we nourish it properly.  There is much still to be learned about how we can nourish our gut microbiota but we do know that each of us is different and we are likely to benefit from a range of carbohydrates from a range of sources.

Previously I wrote that “I now eat for my body and my gut microbiome”. Here I try to describe the microbiome and how it works. The composition of the human microbiome is unique to every one of us, but irrespective of this we each benefit from vital core beneficial functions. We must remember its need for nourishment because without our microbiome, we just wouldn’t exist.

It is well understood now that humans and all other animals and plants on earth have evolved alongside important symbiotic microorganisms, referred to as their microbiota. In this relationship, we act as the host upon and within which our microbiota live and work with us cooperatively.