What do you know about the bacteria and the metabolites that they produce in your body?
Indirectly our microbiota may control us and not the other way around. 1/3 of the metabolites in our blood come probably from gut bacteria through their daily metabolic activities. Stable balanced biota is important and foods like resistant starch can provide gut microbiota harmony. Our food choices are important for the biota we have.
The inborn meaning of life for bacteria (and probably also for most if not all life forms on earth) is to propagate. During evolution bacteria have perfected this skill far better than any other life forms on earth. They are ubiquitous in nature and greatly diverse, in terms of number, genetic variety, habitat, you name it.
They exploit virtually all matters, both inorganic and organic, from the deepest depth of the ocean to the tip of the highest mountains, to grow and thrive. From the microbial point of view, the human gastrointestinal tract (and also other animals’) is a perfect food store where they receive daily meals and propagate. From time to time, some nasty bugs can go havoc on their food store and cause major damages in terms of diseases. Humans try then to get rid of these bad bugs with different means, including antibiotics intervention and order will be restored. However, the nasty bugs keep always coming back, stronger and better equipped (e.g., with increasing antibiotic resistance) every time.
What can we do? Yes, we can keep developing new weapons to fight back as we have done during the last 50-60 years. Or, maybe a better and more sustainable approach is to treat the good bacteria in our gut nicely and be their friends. Give them proper food (prebiotics), so that the good ones will dominate. These good ones will help us to digest our daily food, provide us energy and vitamines,as well as to expel the bad bugs from our gastrointestinal tract. We have to live with and believe in our friends living inside us.
Yes, in gut friends we believe.
Blogginnlegget er basert på to seminarer som ble holdt 15.10 ved Det norske Vitenskaps-akademi:
Tampering with your gut bacteria: really smart or really frightening?
The right food for the right gut bacteria: staying healthy, hearty and slim
