The Great Yogurt Experiment – Test 1

The Great Yogurt Experiment – Test 1

It’s taken too long for me to actually do it, but now I HAVE!! I’ve made homemade yogurt! Correction – WE experimented with making homemade yogurt! Despite my love of all things microbial and my dislike of spending lots of time cooking, I’ve not really made much fermented foods other than pickles about 15 years ago. Those days are changing! Several friends along the way have encouraged me to make homemade yogurt, but reading the book The Good Gut pushed me over the edge. Certainly we go through a ton of yogurt and heck – what kind of microbe-lover am I to not make fermented foods? Ever since getting pregnant with Emily, my mid-morning snack has been a cup of plain Greek style yogurt that I add fruit to. Yogurt, especially the thicker Greek-style, is the one thing all members in my family enjoy – and so do our microbes. It’s a fabulous substitute for sour cream and often adds depth to butternut squash soup. Funny – reading this – it sounds like I like to cook and am a foodie. Truth is, that’s my husband, but I guess he’s teaching me to appreciate food more nowadays. So – how

A Bacterial Scoop on Poop

A Bacterial Scoop on Poop

Changes in poop quantity, quality, and color is a concern to gut microbiome scientists and parents alike. In Science of Mom’s recent post “How Often Should a Baby Poop?” she discusses the amazing variability in pooping patterns between babies and also as a kid ages. I was, of course, excited to see that she mentioned a little about the influence of the gut microbiome, but her post inspired me to think more about pooping patterns from a microbiome perspective. Individual variability First, it’s not too surprising that there’s a huge variability between infants and pooping frequency. Several studies demonstrate that each individual’s gut microbiome is unique. In the guts of healthy adults, a single, unique bacterial strain can be used to identify each individual [1]. With each bacterial strain comes some unique abilities. Various bacterial taxa digest different foods and/or produce and transport different vitamins, amino acids, and other basic nutrients. So microbiome community A may process the nutrients faster, more efficiently, or completely than microbiome community B. That difference in the microbiome community function plus the differences in human gut anatomy due to human genetics could lead to a wide range in pooping frequency. Feeding differences Second, as Science

How does the probiotic LGG work?

How does the probiotic LGG work?

The probiotic LGG works by making resident gut bacteria produce anti-inflammatory products. How do probiotics work? Do they do anything or am I flushing money down the toilet? Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), one of the most common probiotics available, can improve a variety of digestive disorders [1, 2], psychiatric disorders [3], and atopic dermatitis [4] in infants and children. LGG does not “move in” and establish residence in the gut [5]. It simply passes through. Findings from this study by Eloe-Fadrosh et al. suggests that probiotic bacteria may not need to take up residence in the human gut to be helpful, but that these effects are variable among individuals. Claire Fraser’s research group at the University of Maryland, Institute for Genome Sciences and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital for Children examined samples from an open label study (people knew they were taking a probiotic) to assess safety of the probiotic LGG [6] in healthy, elderly patients. Fecal samples of 12 healthy adults (7 females and 5 males) ages 65 to 80 were collected prior-to, during, and one month after taking the LGG probiotic twice daily. The number of different types of bacteria and genetic activity of the microbiome was compared within and

Where does your microbiome come from?

Where does your microbiome come from?

Sharon Muza at Lamaze International’s blog Science & Sensibility recently asked me to do a guest blog on the source of the human microbiome. My post – The Healthy birth: Dyad or Triad? Exploring Birth and the Microbiome – focuses on literature from the last few years identifying three potential sources: birth mode (vaginal or Cesarean), birth location (home, birth center, and hospital), and first foods (breastfeeding and/or formula). New findings that were especially interesting to me included

Normal disturbance of the microbiome

Normal disturbance of the microbiome

“Great”, you’re thinking, “I’m covered in little germs microbes and they live on me in their special habitats, icky, but so what?” These microbes may provide specific benefits, such as the nutritional examples mentioned earlier. However, perhaps one of the biggest services these microbes have is simply taking up space! “Niche filling” or “colonization resistance” is an important and essential ecosystem service. In any habitat, there are places to live and nutrients to feed upon. An example is my attempt at gardening. Each spring we clean out the garden and plant seeds and seedlings. Most years we put down weed cloth around the seedlings. My organic gardening teacher recommended planting clover as a cover crop. Both are doing the same thing – filling an available habitat to prevent weeds from colonizing and competing with the plants that we hope to harvest later. This past summer I got busy and didn’t get the weed cloth down. UGH. The weeds overtook the garden this year and we only got a few tomatoes and peppers. The squash, beans, and broccoli were overrun. Bummer – lesson reinforced. Similarly, your microbial ecosystem needs to stay intact, filled, and in balance. Aristotle once said “Nature abhors