What is the microbiome?

Every one of us is different! But of course you know that! I have grey eyes, eat probiotics and fermented food to consume a variety of bacteria.  And eat a wide variety of food and vegetables to boost my prebiotic intake.  I have blonde hair and am a bewildered southerner wondering why I live in Manchester! Even if you match each of those, you may be female, or have a tattoo or speak 10 languages. Even the most identical of twins are still not 100% identical.  They still have subtle differences! But did you know that the same is true of our gut and the microbiome? (Reader beware, I may soon start talking about poo!)


So, what the hell is the microbiome?

If you’re like I was before I explored fermenting, you’re probably aware of probiotics.  These are foods containing ‘good bacteria’ such as natural unpasteurised yogurt that are good for your gut microbiome . You may even have heard of prebiotics.  These are food s(especially vegetables) that feed the bacteria in your gut microbiome.  It includes food stuffs such as raw garlic, onions, asparagus and dandelions (huh?).

And then there are postbiotics (no, I’m not making this up).  These are the bioactive compounds produced by the gut microbiome, after having consumed the prebiotics (wow that was a mouthful) in the food that we eat. 

If you’re interested to learn more about “my journey” you may find this recent article interesting

But why is all of this important?

Well, within your gut there are quite literally trillions of bacteria, fungi (yep – mushrooms grow inside of you, although we’re not yet at the stage of the ‘Last of Us’) and multiple other microorganisms and that is the microbiome!. And each one of our microbiomes are different.

The next section borrows quite heavily from Tim Spector’s book ‘Spoonfed‘.  I’ve sampled and adapted just a small part, but he goes into much greater detail if you find this interesting.

Quite recently there has been a major study called PREDICT being undertaken between Kings College London, Stanford University and Massachusetts General Hospital. As part of this study, over 2,000 volunteers from across the UK and US had various clinical measurements taken.  This included things such as insulin, fat levels and blood sugar levels.  The participants were measured in response to a combination of similar and freely chosen meals with over 130,000 meals and 32,000 muffins eaten. From this study it was identified that identical twins shared just over 37% of their gut microbiome species, which is only slightly higher than two completely unrelated people. 

But how could this be (and why haven’t you mentioned poo yet)?

Well, further studies have shown that foods with similar nutritional value can have very different effects on the gut microbiome. Several lucky volunteers were asked to collect daily stool samples whilst recording what they ate (yaaaay he’s finally talked about poo).  The studies showed that some foods boosted or reduced certain bacteria, however not everybody reacted the same. Some foods that seemed to boost bacteria in one person, had far less of an effect in others.  Whilst foods that were very similar – cabbage and kale – generally had the same impact on the microbiome.  However, unrelated foods with similar nutritional components had very different impacts.

So why is this relevant?

Essentially, to keep our microbiome and us healthy, it means that we need to eat a varied diet.  Just eating the same food over and again isn’t going to keep benefiting you. It also means that what may be beneficial for one person, may not be beneficial for another.  Or, not to the same extent. So, if you want a healthy gut microbiome, eat a rainbow diet of fruit, vegetables, legumes and plenty of pre and probiotics. 

If you are after a recipe to add in some unusual plants to add to your diet, you may be interested by this wild garlic pesto with lacto-fermented citrus recipe.  Or if you fancy a sweet treat, you may wish to try this foraged primrose curd recipe.