Me, my gut, mi-crobiome

How I discovered the microbiome and good gut health, or as Beyonce may say, “Me, my gut, mi-crobiome”

My colleagues always like to joke that I take the hard option when there’s a perfectly straightforward solution and can’t understand why someone would make their own yogurt or spend 48 hours baking a loaf of bread, but where is the joy in buying something when you can create food, watching it slowly bubble and gurgle away?

So there I was – the week before Christmas 2019 – looking for Christmas presents for my wife, yet getting hideously distracted, wandering into Lakeland (quite possibly my favourite shop) at the Trafford Centre that I found myself looking at a Mad Millie kefir starter kit which ultimately piqued my interest in all things home fermentation and led to me discovering that firstly there was a gut microbiome (along with a skin and mouth biome) and secondly, what it was! As I followed the instructions for the first time – leaving my milk at room temperature for a couple of days!! – I was left aghast, as I realised that the shop bought stuff I’d been drinking, along with lots of other products had similarly gone through such a process. But, how had I previously not got ill from consuming “gone off milk”?

Several weeks later and having read several of Sandor Katz’s books (a true legend of fermentation), my mind had been well and truly blown at this whole process of food and drink preparation. I’d had several attempts at sourdough, with each and every one of my loaves being an unmitigated disaster, but had had several successes making Kimchi, preserved lemons, Ginger Beer and ‘champagne tomatoes’. Meanwhile, all this time I was learning more about probiotics and how all these goodies had such an impact on my gut health.

Fast forward to today and my kitchen is a burping, gurgling, smelly kitchen. My pride and joy ‘Clint Yeastwood’ (my sourdough starter) has taken on the role of mistress. He is now dined and watered more often than my wife. Similarly, my kombucha SCOBY, tibicos, various vegetable ferments and rows of Kilner jars have subjugated my wife and two kids to second class citizens in their own home. My learning has now gone from understanding that not only are fermented foods good for general gut health, but having listened to a talk by Prof Tim Spector and reading his book ‘Spoonfed’ (more about that another time) I now understand how important good gut health is on our microbiome, and how intrinsic that is to overall health and wellbeing.