Feed Your Flora -- And It'll Feed You!

What’s more personal than DNA, right? Well, recent science shows that our gut contains over 40 trillion little microbes that happen to disagree. These guys create what the medical experts call our Microbiome.

The major difference is that DNA is fixed at birth , you always have the same genes; but it’s actually our gut microbiome that causes expression of some genes and not others. This expression - caused by changes in our microbiome - is examined further in the field of Epi-Genetics.

Besides turning on and off different genes for expression, gut bacteria also happens to play a key role in producing important regulatory compounds. For instance mood regulators and neurotransmitters like Serotonin, Dopamine which if absent lead to depression.

If your gut bacteria can change your mood, you can literally have a 'gut feeling'.

So it’s easy to see why taking non-specific antibiotics isn’t a good idea unless really needed, because it can actually lead to imbalanced microflora and negatively affect our mental state.

The easiest way to feed your flora is eating root vegetables with resistant starch (like sweet potatoes and onions) that make it to the lower bowel undigested. There our Microflora eat it and thrive, producing happy hormones for us. Maybe it’s their way of rewarding us for eating foods that feed them.

That’s a symbiotic relationship we see in all successful species. So feed your flora and it will feed you!