Can the American Food System help the human microbiome thrive?
/The Sage School’s 10th and 11th grade students, known as the “Raven Band”, are studying American Food Systems. The year-long project will culminate with a community feast organized and designed by the students based on what they’ve learned from conventional and small farming. They are just beginning to build their menu, offering local foods available in spring from farms they visited last fall – plus the sauerkraut we made in class on Monday.
To begin, I asked the students what they believe is working well within America’s food system. There was a lull. Finally, one student spoke up, “We’re producing a lot of food.” Right. Silence. I knew many of the teens in the room yet wondered if they were too unfamiliar with me to communicate more.
I moved on: What’s not working? “We’re not producing enough healthy food,” another student replied. Interesting observation. Knowing the definition of “healthy” is subjective, I asked what, particularly, is unhealthy about the food we’re producing. “The soil.” Immediately, another student piped up, “Dirt is dead; soil is alive. We’re growing food in dirt.” Aha. “Yeah, and it’s not really good for us,” another added.
We were getting somewhere. Growing food in matter that was either dead or alive – a perfect segue to discussing ecosystems. Plants need a diverse ecosystem to thrive. Animals need to eat alive, healthy plants. When I asked whether our food system has an impact on human health, there were many nods and a unanimous, “Yes.”
Our conversation quickly turned to the key point I wanted to drive home: Our internal human ecosystems work similarly to our food system. When we feed it what it needs to flourish, it will. We’re more likely to be healthy when we eat primarily foods grown in rich, diverse environments. Conversely, our internal ecosystems suffer (and so do we) when we eat food raised in depleted, infertile material.
The human ecosystem is the microbiome, comprised of bacteria, microbes, fungi, viruses, parasites – and their genetic material – living symbiotically on and within our bodies. We have skin, respiratory, oral and gut microbiomes. In fact, every living thing has a microbiome – and we directly influence one another. Hence, many professionals in the functional nutrition and medicine community now believe human health mirrors environmental health, both on a mass scale and regarding individual health. I agree and allude to this concept regularly in my work with clients, guiding them to balance, repair, restore and recolonize internal ecosystems with every meal.
In addition, I suggest foods and beverages, like sauerkraut, to feed two bodies that work in harmony with each other: our physical, human body and our bacterial body – the microbiome.
I was in class to discuss the gut microbiome. With 10 times more bacteria than cells in the body and 500-1000 different strains of bacteria in the gut at any given time, the bacteria of the human microbiome make up 99% of the DNA in our bodies. These bacteria live in the digestive tract, eyes, skin, mouth, airways, blood and vagina (for women), adding up to several pounds of body weight. Some bacteria are permanent; others pass through us daily. Human bacteria are so active, they have the same metabolic capacity as the liver (1). Naturally, it makes sense to pay attention to bacteria we host – or are they hosting us?
Bacteria and humans have co-evolved. Approximately 4 billion years ago, bacteria appeared in oceans as blue-green algae. Throughout time, bacteria and soil – mostly broken rock – symbiotically began transforming ecosystems, forming oxygen and complex species like plants. Eventually, ~300,000 years ago, homo sapiens evolved (2) – perhaps also from bacteria? Our mitochondria – the “powerhouses” of our cells – were once purple bacteria (3).
While human evolution from bacteria remains unclear, it’s evident the human microbiome plays a major role in human health. Bacteria in humans was discovered in the 17th century by the “father of microbiology,” Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, while researching pathogenic diseases (4). In the 21st century, we are just beginning to understand the advantageous effects of bacteria (5).
Our class conversation did not focus on discovering the microbiome. Rather, we talked about the roles of “friendly” versus “opportunistic” bacteria and how our diet feeds each. Whichever bacteria is flourishing influences what we eat, by contributing to cravings, hunger, satiety and influencing digestion, absorption and elimination of nutrients. Everything we consume – and how our bacteria use these nutrients – affects most systems in the body, from mood and cognition; to skin, hair, nail and teeth conditions; immune health and disease risk; hormone metabolism and weight regulation; sleep patterns and energy levels; digestion and detoxification; aging and anxiety – and overall nutrient status (1, 6).
So, what do we eat for our microbiome to flourish? Not the Standard American Diet. Ultra-processed foods with refined sugars and grains, additives, preservatives, emulsifiers, dyes and environmental toxicants like pesticides feed opportunistic bacteria (think: weeds). Also, chronic exposure to contaminants, medications, antibacterials, stress, alcohol, tobacco and more, damages the microbiome and underlies symptoms of modern dis-ease.
Conversely, foods containing pre-biotic fibers and fermented foods with probiotic bacterial strains feed the “commensal” gut bacteria (think: flourishing gardens). Together, pre- and probiotic foods create a diverse ecosystem, helping fight infectious diseases and keep fungi and yeasts from overgrowing; act as antioxidants and antagonize cancer and tumor cells; metabolize pollutants and heavy metals; make nutrients (like B-vitamins) and increase mineral absorption; metabolize hormones and regulate digestion, motility and blood flow (7). These foods help us feel and look healthy.
In the barn while the students massaged salt into cabbage to make sauerkraut, one of the teachers asked me, “How would you answer your own question: What’s working in the American food system.” Hmm. I suppose it’s accessibility – a global boon. We can buy summer, tropical and prepared cultural and traditional foods all year round, in most places, offering a wide variety of options to help meet our individual nutrient needs (assuming we know them) to potentially thrive. We don’t have to preserve food – we can buy kraut and other foods that support our microbiome.
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Interested in an educational curriculum designed for adolescents to know themselves through project-based learning centered around human ecology? Check out The Sage School.
Did you read my article about whether the Standard American Diet is making us sick? If not, check it out HERE.
Gut problems? IBS? Skin issues? Imbalanced hormones? If you’re ready for a deep dive into your gut and overall health, reach out. I have space for 1-2 Deep Dive clients.