Book Review: Dirt is Good

Book Review: Dirt is Good

Dirt is Good: The Advantages of Germs for Your Child’s Developing Immune System answers parent’s questions about the microbiome and their kid’s health. Parents, hold on to your diaper bags, Dirt is Good: The Advantages of Germs for Your Child’s Developing Immune System seeks to answer microbiome-related parenting questions. Science writer Sandra Blakeslee teams up with microbiome scientists, Rob Knight, PhD and Jack Gilbert, PhD, to eloquently capture the answers to the hundreds of questions Rob and Jack have been asked by concerned parents. After a general introduction about the human microbiome, Dirt is Good starts with the interaction of the microbiome and human immune system in pregnancy. Continuing on through birth, first foods (both liquid and solid), the book touches on a range of topics organized loosely into chapters including the environment, conditions, depression, vaccines, and tests. There’s an amazing diversity of chapter topics. What Dirt is Good does well Talks candidly, clearly, and quickly about the current understanding of the microbiome and children’s health. Dirt is Good is clear about not overselling the microbiome and current probiotics. Throughout the book are stories of how their experience as parents and microbiome researchers change their ideas of cleanliness and health. What is

Microbial “Trash” is Human Treasure

Microbial “Trash” is Human Treasure

We humans have been treasuring and using microbial “trash” for tens of thousands of years. We eat and nurture microbes for their waste products – yes, you eat microbial poop. Metabolic by-products or “waste” would be more appropriate to say in a classroom/polite company, but really – it’s just “poop”. Yogurt, sauerkraut, buttermilk, kefir, bread, beer, wine, cheese, even chocolate, and coffee – are all tasty to us because microbes have eaten the sugars in milk or some plant part. With the exception of corn, whatever you eat goes into your mouth in one form and comes out the other end in a totally different form. Same with microbes. Bacterial Poop: Sugars to Lactic Acid Bacteria like Lactobacillus sp. eat lactose milk sugars and poop out lactic acid. That’s why unflavored, unsugared yogurt is tangy and slightly sour. Same thing with the buttermilk I’ve been culturing recently. YUMMY. Other Lactobacillus sp. eat plant fiber sugars and poop out lactic acid to make sauerkraut and kimchee. Check out a yogurt experiment my girls and I did a while ago. Yes, the girls roll their eyes when I say that they are eating microbial “trash”. Fungal Farts: Sugars to alcohol and carbon

Thumb-sucking and Nail-biting Reduce Common Allergies?

Thumb-sucking and Nail-biting Reduce Common Allergies?

Thumb sucking and nail-biting early in life may reduce allergies later in life. Linus’ thumb-sucking habit just might reduce his risk of common allergies. An article in Pediatrics found that kids who had their fingers in their mouths at ages 5, 7, 9, and 11 years old were less likely to have a reaction to a skin prick test for allergies later in life (ages 13 and 32 years) [1]. Study participants were pricked with common allergens including: house dust mites, grass, cat, dog, horse, wool, and several fungi at ages 13 and 32.

It’s All About the Breast Milk Sugars, Baby

It’s All About the Breast Milk Sugars, Baby

Helpful infant gut bacterium, Bifidobacterium infantis, uses special breast milk sugars to grow that other bacteria can’t use. Breast Milk Sugars Don’t Feed the Infant As parents we often try to limit sugar for our kids. However, with breast milk – the sugars are essential food for helpful bacteria that grow in an infant’s gut. Along with fats, water, antioxidants from mom’s diet, antibodies, and other compounds, breast milk has a diversity of complex carbohydrate sugars. Called human milk oligosaccharides (HMO), these chains of carbohydrates bonded together are difficult to break apart. Humans do not make the enzymes that can break these breast milk sugar bonds [1, 2]. Our helpful gut bacteria do [3-6]. Infants and most gut bacteria don’t have the enzymes in their guts to digest the sugars that dominate human breast milk. The beneficial bacterium, Bifidobacterium infantis, uses enzyme Endo BI-1 for breaking sugars to use for food. This may explain why B. infantis dominates the gut of breast fed babies. HMO sugars are extremely different from their refined and over-processed cousins that we use to sweeten our drinks and solid foods. Refined and processed sugars are primarily simple carbohydrates made of a few carbon molecules bound together

New Year’s Resolutions for Your Microbiome

New Year’s Resolutions for Your Microbiome

Get dirty, sleep, eat a diversity of real food, avoid antibiotics The beginning of a new year is always a time for reflection and resolutions for lifestyle changes and New Year’s resolutions! I’d suggest if you want to improve your life and health, start with the very numerous, yet invisible portion of yourself – your microbiome.  The digestive system microbiome is best understood of all the human microbiomes. The importance of these invisible organisms for human health is increasingly apparent. However, scientists are still unraveling what makes up a “healthy” and “unhealthy” gut microbiome. It’s too early in the science to offer exact prescriptives, such as specific probiotics to take at certain doses or how many grams of fiber to incorporate in your diet. However, recent observational and even experimental research, points to general suggestions to improve gut microbiome health. Interestingly many of these suggestions often align with age-old healthy habits, but some may seem initially counterintuitive.