Functional Medicine Associates on Gut Flora

Why Do We Need To Increase Microbial Diversity

Science suggests that increasing microbial diversity may well be good for health. Why is this? I think of it like this – Imagine good microbial diversity as a rainforest which has a very diverse ecosystem. Our gastrointestinal macrobiotic is one of the most complex and diverse ecosystems on the planet.

We home more than 100 trillion organisms with hundreds of species that contain 100xs more microbial DNA than each of our human cells.

This extreme variety, like the rainforest gives these systems its ultimate flexibility. Imagine a field of corn, if attacked by a fungi or insect, then the whole crop may well be affected, it has limited flexibility. In a diverse ecosystem if one group gets affected then it’s not a problem in the bigger picture.

This is what we are learning about human biological systems, the bigger the flexibility/variability in the system the healthier it is (think HRV science as an example)

“I love the idea of introducing one new and novel food per week.”

It is something I ask every single patient to do. It is something we do at home as often as possible, not easy with kids. As a family we are currently enjoying a new pallet of Eastern European/ Baltic Sea recipes. Here is our beetroot and beef brisket soup with sour cream and lots of dill. Really loving dill at the moment! We also found a new Romanian food shop and have been using their brine fermented gherkins. This is a powerhouse of a meal for the microbiotica. You may just want to start a little more simply. On this advice I suggest a rainbow of colours is what you should be looking to achieve daily.

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Interested in Finding Out More?

Read about the Importance of Gut Health Testing here.

Read about why gut health is so crucial here.

Visit our shop for digestive aids here.

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