#you are foraging for food like our ancestors its in your DNA!!

[headspace-hotel]

@handmed0wnart

I think "casual" gardening/farming would absolutely help, for sure, the crucial part though is community

in other words, you don't just grow to provide for you, but also feed other people in your community even if just one or two neighbors

the future I envision is one where this forms a kind of community safety net where it's socially commonplace to barter for things and even if everything goes to hell you know you'll have eggs and potatoes

This in combination with foraging wild edibles and/or kinda-sorta-cultivating the stuff that grows wild around you. wild blackberries and amaranth literally grow wild in my back yard, and we have a red mulberry tree that just sprouted up by itself randomly.

Listen—

people are super suspicious of the idea that a community could be in any way self sustaining through casual gardening, because that just seems so naive. subsistence farming has always been a miserable way of life, right

(And like, I don't even think "self-sustaining" is necessary. If a community could get literally 10% of their food by growing it themselves, that would be amazing. death to walmart)

But listen

We have easy, widespread access to technology that would have absolutely revolutionized food systems at any point in history before 100 years ago

Like, it makes me want to explode how little our incredible technological capabilities are being exploited. Humans legitimately trial-and-errored everything with basically the same SUPER LIMITED capabilities for thousands of years, and figured out these highly complicated methods of preserving food and keeping it edible, and growing food, and finding food, and making toxic things edible, and generally getting more food per food. And these things figured out by humans with ZERO resources outside of the natural world around them profoundly shape the ways we eat to this day

But now? We have freezers! That's a huge one. When it's strawberry season or blackberry season or blueberry season, you don't have to get embroiled in a nerve wracking scramble to turn it all to jellies and jams! You can just chuck that shit in a freezer and all its nutritional value will remain, unchanged, 5 months later! Wow!!

Also. We can develop GMO plants by purposefully selecting genes to insert into a genome. Our ancestors literally brute forced that shit without even knowing what DNA *was* by selectively breeding and waiting for cool shit to happen for thousands and thousands of years.

Do you know what else is absolutely revolutionary to the whole act of growing plants? Plastic, actually. You, yes you, can make a greenhouse out of plastic. You don't have to have a billion individual panes of glass that are themselves super hard to make, you can literally just buy a roll of clear plastic for cheap.

I just think about it all the time. Farmers of the past would have lost their minds over a length of PVC pipe or an electric heating pad because of the mind-boggling amount of stuff you could *DO* with that stuff that is so simple.

Our world can get by without stretching our ingenuity to the limits, so we don't. But if we DID. Oh boy. Ohhhhh boy

from my curious non-expert point of view, I am not seeing a way to fix food and agriculture systems without increasing the proportion of people who are farmers

[wanderingcas]

EMERGENCY(not really, but it’s fun to say) I am to be going to Costco in a few hours, what should I get to last me a while and have good food besides? (I’m cooking for a half no meat, half no dairy household of 4) thank you so much, fellow sam(antha)!!

hello anon!! i love this question!!

firstly the great news is that lactose free milk lasts for MONTHS and way longer than normal milk, so if half of your house is lactose free then get 3-4 cartons of that - Lactaid is a great brand, because it tastes like normal milk so the non lactose free people will drink it probably, plus it's good to cook with.

on the topic of meats: chicken and beef freeze really well, so if you get enough of that to stock but not overpack your freezer, you'll be good to go for that half meat-loving household.

ok now for the list of veggies/fruits that don't go bad quickly!!

spaghetti squash

potatoes

mushrooms

garlic

onions (but don't put them with the potatoes, the fumes will make the potatoes go bad faster. also yellow onions last the longest in my experience)

get frozen. veggies. i can't stress this enough

frozen. fruits. also important

carrots

oranges (they can last longer than a week if you refrigerate them, also vitamin c is crucial)

celery

dry/canned goods you should consider getting that go with most meals:

beans (dried or in a can, doesn't matter, pick your favorite)

rice

dry pasta

flour (whole wheat and all-purpose, to make bread, i can shoot you a recipe but remember to get active dry yeast too if you do that)

ramen (if you want to be cheap - ramen is VERSATILE)

broth granules (vegetable, chicken, beef - whatever you need)

canned tomatoes (i like diced the best)

cereal

eggs. they'll last past the expiration date - even up to 2 extra weeks if you have a kickass fridge

don't forget to get something fun to make too, like some boxes of cake mix. life should be fun:')

my big advice? get recipes compiled together before you go to the grocery store - and plan on making a BUNCH and freezing as much as you can. you can freeze anything. ANYTHING. if you need ideas i can shoot you recipes, but soups are easy (like chicken noodle, without the chicken even, or chili), fried rice, pasta ... all of this can be made in bulk and frozen. hell, you can even freeze BANANAS.

and remember: realistically, you'll run out of some stuff you need in 2-3 weeks probably, unless you're planning on eating plain meals (which, unless you guys are sick, it shouldn't come to that). so go in with the mindset of what you need in the next month, with the spark of hope that you can restock. if you CANT restock, it'll be okay - like i said, if you are sick or can't leave for a while, it'll just be plain meals, like beans and rice, for a while, so make sure you stock up on stuff that can get you through at least a few months like that.

i hope this helped!! i'm half asleep with a cat on my chest so i'm really hoping i'm making sense and didn't miss anything. feel free to send me any questions about recipes or lists or whatever, whenever! i'm happy to help:)

[smugtownmushrooms]

I know, it’s just some lemon, but I swear they’re more! These lemons have more to them. First, they were grown right here in Rochester, NY at my parents house from a lemon tree that’s older than me. A potted cutting my Παππού’s brother brought back from Florida ages ago that bears fruit twice a year & that lives indoors in the mud room during these colder months but get put outside in May. Lemon is woven through my DNA. It’s been with me since before I knew me. Before words described objects. Lemon is part of my family. Lemon is part of our tradition & familial food ritual. Most times when food was being prepared it wasn’t asked if it needed salt but it was usually, “Does it need lemon? Have you added lemon?!” « Έβαλες λεμόνι; « Greeks adore lemon. We squeeze it on most food. Salads, meats, soups & of course in tea. 🍋 My grandfather would even collect fallen green leaves & add it to linden flower tea or chamomile. Simmered on low, with water added as its being used. I’m starting to count the days that I return back to Greece this fall to bask in it sun filled glory. To immerse in its healing power to reconnect and stabilise me like nothing else can. Revival of roots, long dried from assimilation and the disintegration of family tradition and culture due to capitalism. There much to be be said but for me, it is part of the process of my healing and personal growth to reconnect to my ancestors land. Are your ancestors part of these lands too? Together with six others we explore hidden treasures of the less travelled roads, so to speak. We will eat the best food together. Vegans don’t worry. You’ll have plenty to enjoy. Together we will walk ancient paths & smell the flowers blossoming and watch the fall bees forage tirelessly for the nectar of prized & medicinal mint family relatives, arnica, fir & more. We will pick lemons from the trees. Forage fallen chestnuts and enjoy the clean air & water. Together we visit & submerge our bodies into healing hot springs that have been running for millennia. Join me! October 15-24, 2019 More info on my website #smugtownmushrooms #mycology #lemon #greece #fungi https://www.instagram.com/p/Bwb-fL1gzaV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1pmhqg3klma0c

[frazzledontoast-blog]

Fasting for brain health?

Giving up eating? No? Not even for a short while?

If you had clapped eyes on me a year ago you would have seen an emotionally frazzled, chronically exhausted, comfort eating, hormonal wreck masquerading as Wonder Woman. Cape on, I seamlessly juggled my career, home, husband, dogs, chickens, and kids (in no particular order) whilst finding time to prepare great meals and get to the gym.  Just check out my social media, it must be true. Reality was, as soon as I came home and hung up my cape, I felt more like a car crash happening in slow motion. 

To cut a long story short, I ended up committing to a 30 day nutritional re-boot programme, part of which involved starving myself a day a week, sorry, fasting. I’m sure like anyone else who has dabbled with intermittent fasting, I assumed it was a sneaky way to cut calories. And yes, there is some truth in that - over time people who intermittently fast reduce calorie intake by 20-30% and don’t tend to ‘over feed’ on non-fasting days (in addition to feeling unbearably smug the next day).

But as it turns out, after a few weeks on this new regime, I started to feel a certain clarity, the fog in my head lifted, I felt a little sparkly, I might even go as far as to say I was feeling like myself again. My perspective returned, I stopped being a domestic martyr and wrestled back some me time, the dogs weren’t walking on egg shells and my family started to breathe again.

So what do we really know about the effects of intermittent fasting on the mind and body? Can I attribute part of my rehab to IF? Actually, what is intermittent fasting exactly?

IF is defined as the rhythmic disruption to the flow of calories into your metabolism - we need to remember that a calorie is a measure of the energy, not the nutritional, content of our food. And its a really popular lifestyle choice in 2018, there are 35 IF Facebook groups alone!  Some people practice alternate day fasting (eating less than 500 calories every other day), some people advocate periodic fasting (at least five consecutive days of consuming water or a fasting mimicking diet) but time restricted feeding (eating confined to an eight hour window or less every day) is gaining ground as an eminently less scary way to get all the health benefits and still be able to function in modern life.

Without doubt, our ancestors had a sporadic access to food throughout their lives that depended on their foraging skills and hunting prowess.  As a result, over hundreds of thousands of years, our physiology evolved such that our mental and physical performance remained unaffected by fasting. It would seem that hunger is indeed just a feeling, not an emergency!

However, before we go any further, you may be in need of an old school, Biology lesson.  When you eat a meal, the carbs, fats and proteins are broken down into simpler units by your digestive system and fibre is digested by the bacteria in your gut.  These simpler units - the amino acids, glucose, fructose and fatty acids - pass in to your bloodstream and this nutrient rich blood heads off to your liver. Some of the glucose is stored as glycogen and some remains in the blood to be used by muscle and brain cells for energy. Fructose is converted to fat, packaged up and released back into the bloodstream. 

Your pancreas senses a high blood sugar concentration (all that glucose) and releases insulin which activates your cells to use up the glucose. Insulin also activates fat cells (adipose tissue) to store the fat. Between meals, glucose and insulin levels drop and fat cells release fatty acids into your blood to be used as an energy source by your cells, in particular, muscle cells. However, these fatty acids cannot cross the blood-brain barrier and so are of no use to your brain cells or neurons. Your liver comes to the rescue, converting fatty acids to ketone bodies which can be used by neurons in the brain as an energy source. 

Approximately 12 hours after eating glucose and glycogen stores are depleted and the body starts to rely on fatty acids and ketones for energy.  Your body is now in a fasted state.

And this is when the magic starts to happen. There is reliable evidence from both rodent and human studies that IF practised over the medium to long term can prevent, and even reverse, all aspects of metabolic syndrome - that includes abdominal adioposity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and stroke.  That in itself would be good reason to take a serious look at IF, but it is the incredible benefits for brain health that are even more exciting - and this is why I am a convert.

In the fasted state, once the glucose and glycogen has been used up, your cells become stressed which has been proven to cause them to make changes that result in them becoming more resilient, DNA repair is enhanced and they focus on getting their housekeeping done (this is called autophagy). This is the important part because autophagy is the process by which the 30 trillion cells in our body round up toxins, pathogens, junk protein and damaged organelles - essentially they get round to doing their recycling, clearing out the junk and they end up becoming far more efficient.

Specifically though, your brain is benefitting most. Putting your neurons under stress by disrupting their nutrient supply also leads to significantly elevated levels of BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor) which is responsible for the growth and survival of adult neurons and the regeneration of damaged ones. And to cap it all, BDNF prevents age related alterations in serotonin and dopamine levels as well. 

Giving up eating will literally improve your ability to focus on tasks, learn faster and remember more.  You will be happier, sleep better and be in a great mood - that would be the unshakeable smugness you radiate when you break your fast.

IF is more effective at slowing down ageing and disease than the use of supplemental vitamins, minerals and antioxidants (such as vitamins C and E). In fact, the supplementation of vitamins C and E during fasting actually overrides all the benefits of IF - it would seem that cells don’t respond by increasing their natural defences if you help them out and they don’t improve their insulin sensitivity.  They need to experience mild stresses to perform at optimal.  

Now the reversing ageing bit makes everyone’s ears prick up! 

One of the most important organelles in your cell are your mitochondria which are essentially your powerhouses. They provide you with energy but one of the byproducts are free radicals. These are highly reactive, destructive little molecules that attack anything and everything, including our DNA and the mitochondria themselves, and the accumulated damage is a primary factor in ageing. And, as you might have already surmised, our neurons have an awful lot of mitochondria because they need to generate a lot of energy which makes them particularly susceptible - we know for a fact that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. 

Our cells naturally produce antioxidants (and they are provided courtesy of a balanced diet) which mop up and neutralise excess free radicals, and the key here is excess. Life is never black and white, and this applies to free radicals. In low to moderate concentrations, free radicals are a useful weapon against invading microbes and play a vital role in cellular communications. However, a natural consequence of ageing is that the free radical damage builds due to producing fewer antioxidants and the decline of our housekeeping systems, amongst other reasons. Evidence suggests that ramping up autophagy through IF targets damaged mitochondria and their new replacements are more efficient, less prone to produce free radicals, and ageing is slowed.

Finally though, this post wouldn’t be complete without briefly visiting the news last year that IF has been shown to completely reverse diabetes in mice and similarly promising results have been seen in small scale human trials. 

Diabetes is an insulin problem, not a glucose one.  Insulin is a hormone that signals to cells to take up glucose from the blood stream by binding to receptors on the surface of the cells, essentially opening the gates. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly targets and destroys insulin producing beta-cells in the pancreas. In type 2 diabetes, cells lose their sensitivity to insulin, their insulin receptors stop working, and the pancreas stops producing insulin. Either way, cells are unable to take up glucose and metabolise it to provide energy.  

During fasting periods in the mice trials, the pancreas shrunk, autophagy kicked in and damaged beta-cells that were not producing insulin were removed. Remarkably though, after several cycles of fasting and feeding, the beta-cells regenerated, insulin sensitivity improved leading to a significant decrease in blood sugar and nearly normal insulin production resumed. IF had initiated healthy regrowth of the pancreas  - it was back in working order. Simply astonishing that there might be a drug free solution for diabetics, given the huge problem it is becoming in the UK.

Clearly the science holds up, the question is, is IF for you? 

Firstly, it is not just about meal skipping. The easiest way to start is probably time restricted feeding - eating from midday to 8pm and then fasting for 16 hours everyday. You need to consider how you are going to break your fast as planning a balanced nutritious meal is imperative. You won’t reap the benefits if you continue to fill yourself up on high calorie, nutritionally bankrupt, processed food. And make sure you drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated. 

I fast for 24-36 hours once a week. Usually that involves having supper on Thursday evening and then fasting through Friday until I break my fast on a Saturday morning with a fully balanced, probiotic shake. During the fasting day I support my body with a botanical based tonic, herbal teas and lots of water. It’s not that scary, honest!

Secondly, be sensible. You shouldn’t be considering fasting if you are pregnant or if you think it might lead you down a path to disordered eating. And don’t set yourself up to fail! It is much harder to make any sort of lifestyle change if you don’t have the support of your family, so get them on board before you start. There is lots of good advice out there, you are sure to find something that works for you.

[researching01]

7 Modern Lifestyle Habits Doing the Most Damage to Your Brain

New Post has been published on https://headacheshelp.com/awesome/7-modern-lifestyle-habits-doing-the-most-damage-to-your-brain/

7 Modern Lifestyle Habits Doing the Most Damage to Your Brain

There’s no doubt about it. The modern world is bad for your brain.

With restaurant food delivered right to your doorway 24 -hours-a-day, never-ending dings and digital screens, 70 -hour work weeks expended largely sitting at a desk, air , noise, and sunlight pollution everywhere, and known toxins in food, clothes, and everyday items, our modern living environments is still far from healthy for your brain. In Why You Need to Give Your Brain a Break, I write :P TAGEND

Over millions of years of evolution, human life moved at a much slower pace, in rhythm with the sun and nature. In the societies of our ancestors, hunting and assembling food and tending to the other necessities of life would have only consumed a few hours a day. That left a lot of time for a person’s brain and body to relax, socialize, or be in a state of rest.

Now, most Americans sprint through life, running 10 hours a day, doing the same thing all day long. Then, they come home and expend hours on the computer doing more run, playing on their telephone, watching TV, or engaging in some other mind induce activity. After getting too little sleep, they jump out of bed only to do it over again. This modern lifestyle creates chronic stress which shown by as all kinds of mental and physical health problems.

Your Lifestyle Controls Your Genes

It was once believed that your genes were the blueprint for your biological destiny. Not so. The primary purpose of the Human Genome Project was to decipher the code of these plans. It found that the genetic differences between people were actually quite insignificant and accounted for less than one percent of the total variation. So, why then do some people live to old age with a healthy mind and body while others do not?

The answer is epigenetics.

Epigenetics research is proving that who you are is the product of your life experiences which cause changes in how your genes operate. Genes switch on or off depending on what happens in your life. In other words, you are born with certain genes, but your life experiences decide which genes get expressed and which genes don’t.

Genes switch on or off depending on what happens in your life.Click To Tweet

In the book, Genius Foods, Max Lugavere writes :P TAGEND

If our genes are akin to the keys on a grand piano with twenty-three thousand notes, we now understand that our selections are able to influence the song that is played. This is because while our selections can’t change our hard-coded genetics, they can impact the layer of chemicals that sit atop our DNA, telling it what to do.

The 7 Worst Brain” Bad Guys”

The primary lifestyle factors which influence your cognitive health through epigenetics are explained below. Each component overlaps many of the others- meaning that if you improve one, it can make it easier to make healthy gains in the other areas. The opposite is also true.

Rednes

Inflammation is an immune system response that evolved to protect your body from infection and injury. It was originally designed to kick in when needed to anticipate, intercept, and destroy bacteria and viruses. The inflammation response was meant to be a short-term response with localized effects. However, today, our immune systems remain chronically activated because of our lifestyles and diets.

Chronic inflammation can have long-term, whole-body impacts and plays a role many diseases, including diabetes, arthritis, lupus, MS, allergies, COPD, inflammatory bowel illnes, cardiovascular diseases, and more. In the brain, rednes has been linked to brain fog, Alzheimer’s and dementia, and depression.

Overfeeding

For the first time in the history of the Earth, there are more overweight than underweight human being. While being overweight can cause a multitude of health problems, it’s especially bad for your brain. Numerous studiesshow that as a person’s weight and BMI( body mass index) increases, their brain shrinks in sizing. Excess weight often leads to obesity and diabetes. These conditions destroy synapses, wither blood vessels in your brain, batter neural pathways, and kill neurons. The outcome is a smaller brain.

In Your Brain Shrinks As Your Waist Expands, I write :P TAGEND

One study found that the brains of obese people seemed 16 years older than their healthy equivalents while the brains of overweight people looked 8 years older. Researchers classified this as’ severe’ brain degeneration with serious implications for aging, including a heightened hazard of Alzheimer’s.

Obesity also increases inflammation caused by excess fatty tissue. This can lead to difficulty in blood flow and an increased risk of blockage, both of which can cause strokes.

Nutrient Deficiency

Despite eating an overabundance of food, numerous examines indicate that over 90 percentage of Americans do not get the recommended daily vitamins and minerals from their diets. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion,across almost every age and sex group, U.S. eating patterns are too low in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, dairy, seafood, and oil and too high in refined grains, added sugars, saturated fats, sodium.

Dietary Intakes Compared to Recommendations. Percent of the U.S. Population Ages 1 Year and Older Who Are Below, At, or Above Each Dietary Goal or Limit

This kind of diet primes the body for disease and illness- especially the brain. A nutrient-poor diet affects brain and mental health at every age. Unhealthy diets increase the risk for psychiatric and neurologic conditions, such as depression and dementia.

Toxic Exposure

You eat and are surrounded by known neurotoxins every day. Studies show that neurotoxins shortened the lifespan of nerve cells and cause various health problems. The symptoms of neurotoxicity scope from temporary, minor, and reversible to chronic, serious, and potentially permanent brain or nervous system damage.

Minor symptoms can include headache, memory loss, impaired vision, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, sexual dysfunction, impaired motor abilities, and tingling, numbness, or weakness of the limbs. Neurotoxicity can also manifest as psychological problems including nervousnes, depression, mental confusion, compulsive behaviors, hallucinations, and changes in personality.

The availability of neurotoxins has increased dramatically in the last few decades as our food is even more processed, and we are heavily dependent on synthetic, fabricated products and live in chemically treated surroundings. Most restaurant and junk food contain high quantities of neurotoxic additives because they stimulate the food taste good and make you crave more.

Common environmental pollutants, such as auto emissions and pesticide exposure , are also damaging your brain.

Chronic Stress

On a biological level, stress is a normal physical response which originally evolved to keep you safe. It was necessary for human survival. Like inflammation, stress was meant to be a short-lived response to a life-threatening situation. The problem is that, in today’s world, too many of us have a stress reaction to almost everything that happens and live our lives in a constant country of stress.

The long-term activation of your stress-response system and the overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones that results can interrupt almost all your body’s procedures. Chronic stress literally injury your brain and body increasing your risk of many health problems , including :P TAGEND

Anxiety Depression Digestive problems Headaches Heart disease Sleep problems Weight gain Memory and concentration impairment

Physical Stagnation

Humans evolved to move — hunting, foraging, running, climbing, — and that movement promotes brain growth. This growth takes place especially in the prefrontal cortex, which is essentially your humanness. In Spark, The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, Dr. John Ratey explains it this way :P TAGEND

The real reason we feel so good when we get our blood pumping is that it makes the brain function at its best. The phase of exercise is to build and condition the brain .” The reverse is also true, however: “What virtually no one recognizes is that inactivity is killing our brains … If your brain isn’t actively growing, then it’s dying.”

The analyses are overwhelming. In 2011, The Mayo Clinic went through 1,600 newspapers on workout and there was no disputing that workout had a definite positive effect on memory, learning, performance, and motive while reducing depression, age-related decline, and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Exercise also promotes neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, the production of new neurons and the relation between neurons which helps keep your brain healthy and aids mental health. Ratey declares that “Exercise is the single most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function.”

Sleep Loss

In Genius Foods, Lugavere says :P TAGEND

[ G] ood quality sleep is a precondition for optimal brain quality and health . ….( you get) Costco-size gains for dollar store endeavour, and yet our collective sleep indebtednes is rising .”

Insufficient sleep is a huge problem- so much so that the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention( CDC) proclaimed it a public health epidemic similar to the warns issued about smoking cigarettes decades ago. Sleep deprivation can have serious short-term and long-term outcomes. After just one night of skimping on sleep, the results can be seen in delayed reaction times, glucose levels, mood, headache, impaired memory, and hormone imbalances. Not getting enough sleep can literally construct you sick, fat, and stupid.

Lack of sleepslows down your thinking, impairs your memory, concentration, decision, and decision-making, obstructs learning, and contributes to depression. Sleep is absolutely essential for your brain to work properly because during sleep your brain is busy processing information, consolidating memories, making connects, and clearing out toxins. When asleep, your brain does its housework and not having adequate time to do this could potentially accelerate neurodegenerative illness. Recent research shows that not getting enough sleep may actually shrink your brain.

The post 7 Modern Lifestyle Habits Doing the Most Damage to Your Brain appeared first on The Best Brain Possible.

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[sherristockman]

What a Hunter-Gatherer Diet Does to the Body in Just 3 Days Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola If you’re not convinced that eating a healthy diet is crucial to your health, and perhaps for reasons that might be a surprise, you may remember the story of an undergraduate student who spent a solid month eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at McDonald’s. The rule was that every time someone took his order and asked if he wanted something “super-sized” he had to go for it. Over those few days and weeks, he not only gained weight, his liver was damaged and several other changes took place that prompted his doctor to advise him to go off the diet for the sake of his long-term health. At the time, the high levels of the worst kinds of fat, high carbs and a blend of toxic preservatives and other chemicals were blamed for his quickly failing condition, but as The Conversation astutely notes, tongue in cheek, there are “others” who don’t appreciate being fed a fast-food diet: the microbes teeming in your intestines: “These are the hundred trillion microbes that outnumber our total human cells ten to one and digest our food, provide many vitamins and nutrients and keep us healthy. Until recently we have viewed them as harmful — but those (like salmonella) are a tiny minority and most are essential for us.”1 The premise has been backed up by other studies2 showing this to be the case — that atherosclerosis can even be induced by combining a “low colonic bacterial diversity” gut with a high, “bad” fat diet. Bacteria and fungi in your digestive tract, principally your large intestine, and the type of food you’re eating — while simultaneously “feeding” the critters that make up your microbiome — can make or break your health. Your gut health sets the tone for your mood, metabolism, immune system and so much more.3 How Do You Measure Someone’s Gut Microbiome? A couple of scientists conjectured that while someone’s low microbiome population makes a positive shift when they begin eating a healthier diet, it wasn’t clear whether someone with a “healthy stable” gut bacteria could be improved in a matter of days. When Tim Spector, researcher and professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, joined colleague Jeff Leach (founder of the American Gut, the world’s largest open-source/crowd-funded microbiome project in the world) in Tanzania where the latter had been living and working among one of the last hunter-gatherer groups in Africa, the Hadza, they had an opportunity to find out. As previously noted, a “low-diversity” gut is one that doesn’t have a wide representation of bacteria, which makes the individual more susceptible to disease. An organization called Map My Gut can assess the diversity of peoples’ gut ecosystems using state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technology to identify microbes. This is done by “matching” pieces of bacterial DNA, the website explains: “We literally create a map of the microbial contents of your gut, hence the name. Our microbiome specialists then add an individualized analysis of your results. Finally, we create a thorough report that describes the key microbes we’ve found living inside you and what they mean for you and your health.”4 Analysts representing Map My Gut suggest that people who have trouble controlling their weight, have been on antibiotics long term, have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), colitis or other gut issues, want to change their diet or are interested in learning the status of their gut health may benefit from such an assessment. The ‘Most Diverse Microbiome on the Planet’ Spector had his intestinal flora tested along with 100 other people and discovered that his own microbiome was the healthiest of all of them — or more correctly, had the best gut diversity, which is linked to a low risk of many diseases as well as obesity. As it happens, the Hadza people have the richest and most diverse gut health on the planet. Leach suggested that Spector adopt a three-day nutritional plan of adopting the Hadza hunter-gatherer diet, which wastes nothing and kills nothing unnecessarily. One has to wonder if he at that point wondered what he might be agreeing to; Spector wrote for CNN: “I would measure my gut microbes before heading to Tanzania, during my stay with the Hadza, and after my return to the UK. I was also not allowed to wash or use alcohol swabs and I was expected to hunt and forage with the Hadza as much as possible — including coming in contact with the odd Hadza baby and baboon poo lying about.”5 After only three days with the remote tribe and eating everything they ate, the team, including Leach and his “poo” samples, would return to London for sample testing. The Hadza’s Million-Year-Old Diet Visiting such a remote area started with the Mount Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania, northward for an overnight stop in Arusha (where Spector’s first “poo” sample was taken) before another eight hours to Lake Eyasi and the Serengeti region. Hadza hunter-gatherers still sleep in grass huts or by the fire and forage for the same plants and animals as they’ve done for centuries. Spector’s first breakfast consisted of pods from the seemingly limitless baobab trees, the seeds of which contain high amounts of fat, fiber and vitamins. Its chalky flesh, mixed with water with a stick, was placed in a mug to make a thick, milky, “surprisingly pleasant and refreshing” porridge with a citrusy tang. His two mugs proved to be quite filling. As a snack: “The wild berries on many of the trees surrounding the camp — the commonest were small Kongorobi berries. These refreshing and slightly sweet berries have 20 times the fibre and polyphenols compared with cultivated berries — powerful fuel for my gut microbiome.”6 Harder to eat, their late lunch was a few high-fiber tubers, “like tough, earthy celery,” which women dug up with a sharp stick and tossed onto the fire. Spector didn’t ask for seconds but didn’t feel hungry, which he attributed to the high-fiber breakfast. Later, nobody seemed interested in dinner. Then came a hunting party to locate two porcupines, about 45 pounds each, eventually tracked to their tunnel system in a termite mound. Considered a rare delicacy, the tribesmen dug and tunneled to find them, careful of the razor-sharp quills, until they were speared. “A fire was lit. The spines, skin and valuable organs were expertly dissected and the heart, lung and liver cooked and eaten straight away. The rest of the fatty carcass was taken back to camp for communal eating. It tasted much like suckling pig.” 7 Subsequent meals were similar, other than a changeup of meat from a 9-pound hyrax, “a strange furry guinea-pig-like hoofed animal” related to the elephant. Dessert was honey retrieved high from a baobab tree, the bonus being the honeycomb complete with larvae, full of “good” fat, sugars and protein, a combination being “the most energy-dense found in nature,” which Spector said “may have competed with fire in terms of its evolutionary importance.” What Do Three Days on a Native Tanzanian Diet Do for Your Gut? Returning to London and subsequent testing, Spector learned that between his first and last sample submittals, his gut diversity had made a “stunning” 20 percent increase, which included some new African microbes, such as those of the phylum Synergistetes. But in a matter of days, the diversity and bacteria number returned to where they had been before the experiment. He called it “bad news.” “But we had learnt something important. However good your diet and gut health, it is not nearly as good as our ancestors.' Everyone should make the effort to improve their gut health by re-wilding their diet and lifestyle. Being more adventurous in your normal cuisine plus reconnecting with nature and its associated microbial life, may be what we all need.”8 Two years later, Leach observed how impressed he was by the variety of plant and animal species (around 600, mostly birds) the Hadza consumed compared to the few consumed in the West, as well as their availability above and below the ground and that in comparison, the current human microbiome could be called an ecological disaster zone — a proverbial canary in a coal mine, with every evidence of having breathed its last. In addition, he wrote, the reduction in the number and assortment of bacteria in the human microbiome seems to be simultaneous with the rate of disease, but: “What we don’t know is which way cause and effect runs. Does disease cause a drop in microbial diversity or does a drop in diversity cause — or precede — disease?”9 Further, in relation to the Hadza diet: “With each animal killed, microbes are given the opportunity to move from one species to the next. With each berry that is plucked from a bush or tuber dug from beneath the microbial-rich ground, each and every act of foraging keeps the Hadza connected to an extensive regional (microbial) species pool.”10 He surmises that the relatively lower number of gut bacterial diversity could be a combination of a degraded regional species pool or an increase of environmental filters, such as too much time indoors, which reduces your exposure to microbial diversity,11 the increase of caesarean birth and decrease in breast-feeding, as well as the wide use of antibiotics, from antibiotics in the meat you eat12 to antibacterial hand soaps. How Can You Diversify Your Gut Health in Today’s Culture? A number of factors in today’s culture can adversely influence your gut health, from getting inadequate fiber, which causes, among other things, constipation, to consuming massive amounts of sugar, which feeds the bacteria you don’t want and ravages your intestines, opening the door to multiple diseases. Your gut microbiome can even hamper gene expression. Prevalent lifestyle and environmental challenges certainly don’t help, with the lack of exercise, pesticides, herbicides and genetically engineered (GE) foods tainting the collective gut, pollution, vaccinations and drugs — including those in your food — as virtual gauntlets your system is forced to run through unless you take precautions to curb their effect. Multiple clinical studies show that your diet is the key to developing a more diverse gut “culture,” if you will, and optimizing your health. One of the easiest ways to do this is by simply adding to the diversity of foods you eat, especially plant-based foods. How alarming is it that recent studies show about 75 percent of the Western diet consists of as few as 12 plants and products from five animal species?13 Gut bacteria can ferment soluble fiber in vegetables, legumes and fruits, the byproducts of which help to feed the cells lining your colon to prevent problems associated with leaky gut syndrome. The most important fermentation byproducts are short-chain fatty acids,14 which help balance your immune system to the point of preventing Crohn’s disease and asthma. Besides branching out and bringing more food diversity into your life, introducing more of these high-fiber foods is easy and delicious. According to Greatist,15 the highest fiber foods include split peas, lentils, black and lima beans, artichokes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, raw berries and avocadoes. To help get your gut health under control and minimize, prevent and even eliminate your risk of many chronic diseases, try: Eating fermented food, such as kimchi and other fermented vegetables, kefir, kombucha and raw, grass-fed yogurt, which you can make yourself. Eating more prebiotic foods, like unripe bananas, papayas, mango, white beans, lentils and seeds, which are resistant starches, which optimize your gut health. Taking a fiber supplement such as psyllium seed husk if you can’t seem to get enough through your diet. Eating foods containing lots of polyphenols, such as raw cacao (found in some dark chocolate), onions, Matcha green tea, blueberries and broccoli. Taking a high-quality probiotic supplement that can make it to your intestines intact to optimize the number of bacteria, which incidentally must have health-promoting features that remain through their production process. Simple measures such as opening your windows to get outside air, growing your own organic garden (or buying organic), avoiding antibiotics and eating as much of the vegetable and fruit as you can, such as the outermost skins of onions and the stems, not just the floret, of broccoli, and washing your hands with plain old soap and water rather than relying on germicidal soaps to keep germs at bay (which in fact do the opposite) are also important. Finally, keep yourself informed of things like which foods contain the highest levels of pesticides and what meats contain the most antibiotics. Pass your knowledge along, because the planet your grandparents enjoyed is not the same one your children and grandchildren will grow up on.