Microbiome
Points covered:
If something doesn’t provide both energy and nutrition, it isn’t food
Protect the gut lining with a healthy mucosal layer by fasting and avoiding lectins
Lots of prebiotics and probiotics
A variety of foods, focusing on vegetables, healthy fats, and complete proteins
Limit or avoid sugar, processed foods, grains, and oxidized vegetable oils
Second only to sleep is what we put into our mouths. We’re not eating for one, or even two, but trillions (microbiome), even quadrillions (mitochondria)– truly a universe within. What makes a food, food? It provides energy to burn, and supports the body’s function. If it doesn’t do both, it’s not a food, but a semi-digestible substance.
Many healthy whole foods are broken down by the microbiome to be absorbed through the gut’s lining– the epithelial layer is the last line of defense, before the immune system gets involved, spurring an inflammatory response. The chinks in it amour are the tight junctions between cells. As these are the same junctions as the blood-brain barrier, the chemistry that exposes the gut to toxic substances, also exposes the brain. In addition to this layer, a mucosal lining keeps the outside of our body (lumen) from mixing with the inside. The health of these two barriers reduces / eliminates “leaky gut,” a chronic inflammatory condition that forms the roots of many lifestyle-related diseases.
Lectins are proteins created by plants as a defense against being eaten, found in wheat as gluten. Fructose is a component of sugar (sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup), found in the majority of the Standard American Diet. Although there are many other substances like them, both are akin to keys, unlocking the tight-junctions of our epithelial cells, and is why leaky gut (coupled with “brain fog”) is a key symptom of gluten intolerance and sugar toxicity. Not only does fructose damage the gut lining, brain barrier, and liver, it plays havoc in the production of ATP. Although many are harmless, some lectins are the most poisonous substances in nature, causing death in a matter of minutes. The best way to deal with the effects of these molecules is to generally avoid them. For lectins, simply remove the parts of the food that contain them (often the skin), or denature the entire food with a pressure-cooker (especially beans). Also, cut out sugar, and avoid foods like nightshades, legumes, and grains. Another strategy is maintaining both soluble and insoluble fiber, adding a third barrier, like buffer. A generous supply of both types of fibers regulates the absorption of all gut chemistry.
How and when we eat has profound effects on our health. Eating isn’t like refueling a car– stick in the gas, roar the engine, press the pedal, and off we go. Eating’s more like running a manufacturing plant with lots of stages, processes, and procedures. Steel doesn’t magically emerge from a cold furnace, likewise, food isn’t optimally processed if the digestive equipment isn’t properly brought online. Shoving food down at a drive through gives our body little time to prepare. On the other hand, through our “foraging” (AgRP, or agouti-related protein) neurons, the sights and smells of preparing a meal not only brings online the proper chemistry, but gears up an appropriate appetite. When fixated by our plate of food, the AgRP neurons can “see” just how much food will meet our needs, and that’s before the first bite. Furthermore, preparing the material by thoroughly chewing our food improves digestion, while the ritual itself consciously connects us to its flavors, equipping deeper parts of the gut with targeted chemistry.
When we eat also matters. After sufficient time without calories, the bacteria in our gut is forced to snack somewhere else. From enzymes and acids to endotoxin and metabolites, the mucosal layer is constantly attacked, pitted like castle walls bombarded by cannon fire. When we’ve stopped feeding the critters within, they turn to consume the walls. Ravishing an already weakened structure might sound like a bad thing, and for a nutritionally compromised body, it can be, but for bodies with sufficient resources and functioning cellular equipment, this process is a vital mechanism of repair, working similarly to the role of osteoclast and osteoblast in maintaining healthy bones. While the bacteria consumes the pitted exterior– like the osteoclast– the body replaces it with a smooth, structurally-sound interior– like the osteoblast.
Equally important to the maintenance of our gut barrier, is the housekeeping of our individual cells– a secondary benefit of going for long periods of time (fasting) without eating. Autophagy (to eat one’s self) is the state of recycle and repair, carried out by our individual cells once the glucose in our blood has been used up, and we enter ketogenesis– burning keytones from fat instead of glucose from food. This state signals the mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) receptor, telling the cells it’s time to stop making new proteins and start recycling waste. Imagine a construction site that never tidied up. Sure, at the end, we’ve got this nice house, but it’s full of garbage– not a home. That’s what our cells look like when we don’t allow them time to keep up with the housekeeping.
A diet for a healthy biome includes prebiotics– in most cases, fiber, especially resistant starches found in tubers, like sweet potatoes and jicama. There are two kinds of fiber, soluble and insoluble. Together, they feed our biome, while helping our guts regulate absorption, especially sugar. Refined sugar is a primary pathway of type II diabetes, and critical to the growth of tumors (tumors require glucose). If “food” is in a package, and says it has fiber, it’s likely soluble. Cooking, chemistry, freezing, they all turn insoluble fiber into soluble, and once that happens, it cannot be reversed. For most of us, the challenge is getting enough insoluble fiber, which comes from a variety of raw vegetables.
Probiotics are usually live bacteria, found in fermented foods, and in most cases, a great way to heal the gut and maintain diversity. However, the science is still developing in this area and dubious claims are being made as to the “best” strains to be supplementing with. Rest assured that no matter what we discover to be truly beneficial, diversity is the priority, not a particular, universal strain. The makeup of our biome changes hour-to-hour, and managing its lifecycle is important.
Our biome is our internal rain forest. Like any habitat, a diversity of life makes for a resilient ecosystem. Varying the types of vegetables, fruits, and proteins allows for “seasons” to occur, meaning a selection of bacteria will flourish for a time, before others replace them. This translates into a variety of nutrients and genetic functions, provided by the countless unique genes present within this population. If we lock a specific variety of bacteria in place– no matter how beneficial– it leaves our immune system vulnerable. Eating a range of foods, assembled as different meals each day, ensures the body’s best chances at having the resources it needs for those unpredictable challenges. Additionally, we run the risk of creating immune sensitivity to overeaten foods. Eat enough cashews, and white bloods cells will sense a prolonged over-concentration of related proteins, leading to inflammation– a healthy treat suddenly becomes an unhealthy threat.
The effects of processed foods, sugars, grains, and “bad” fats vary from person to person, but none are required for a healthy body, and are best replaced with whole foods and beneficial fats like olive oil’s mono-saturated fat. In fact, just as one cannot both sleep well and be mentally ill, by totally removing these foods, one will not be obese, nor suffer chronic diet-related conditions. Satiety, or the sensation of fullness, isn’t so much a result of how much we eat, but what we eat. Fat is key to the production of leptin, a “feeling full” hormone. We mustn’t avoid fat, but instead, be mindful of the fat we consume. For instance, a saturated fat found in dairy (pentadecanoic acid) called C15 is vital to preventing Cellular Fragility Syndrome, which is being linked to all kinds of miladies, including mitochondrial disruption, type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Cheese is a great source of C15, but to break down the protein casein– a troubling source of inflammation for some– simply cook the cheese (180°F) before consuming it.
Other ideas to reduce food-related inflammation include: reduce sugar and processed food to zero; avoid oxidized, polyunsaturated, vegetable fats; and, although there are some of us who do a better job of metabolizing grains, some grains are better choices than others, like rice and quinoa for wheat and corn. But again, none of these food are necessary for a healthy body, and in most cases, for most people, their benefits will never outweigh their costs.
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