Monday, July 31, 2017

Building Muscle . . . Myths and Facts


Are you interested in building muscle?  Gaining more strength?  There is so much information available to us today and your answers are just a google search away, or perhaps it’s something you were told at the gym or by a good friend. The problem is similar to stories that are handed down from family member to family member, the answers you find may not always be supported by fact, or they’ve been updated based on recent information.
I’d like to share today some myths and facts about building muscle. Many athletes think of building muscle in terms of strength and physical function. However, there is much more to muscle than just size and strength. Maintaining or improving our physical function by working on our muscles is a vital part of overall health. ¹
So whether you are an athlete or just someone wanting to be healthier, here are some myths and facts about building muscle. Please do feel free to share the biggest myth you have encountered. I would love to hear from you.
Building Muscle – Myth #1:  Fat Turns into Muscle or Muscle Turns into Fat
You may be under the misconception that if you work out, you will turn your fat into muscle or that if you stop working out, your muscle will turn into fat.  Not only is this not true, but it’s also impossible.  Muscle and Fat are made up of very different types of cells. (fat is made up of adipose tissue, while muscle is made of proteins)  If you stop working out, it’s possible you will gain fat if you sustain the same amount of calories. You will also lose muscle mass plus you will probably gain some fat from inactivity but your muscle tissue will not turn into fat.  In addition, if you do have weight to lose and start working out, your fat will not turn into muscle. The fat loss will be a result of increased calorie expenditure and your new healthy habits.
Building Muscle – Myth #2:  BCAAs (Branched Chain Amino Acids) stimulate protein synthesis
In order to maintain a constant lean body mass, amino acids must be replaced, either by synthesis or via dietary protein or amino acid intake. The rate of synthesis must also exceed the rate of breakdown to gain muscle protein. However, this process requires nutrient intake or new amino acids to provide what’s needed to produce that protein.
There’s so much information about BCAAs, but it’s important to understand that all BCAAs are EAAs (Essential Amino Acids) but not all EAAs are BCAAs. Leucine, isoleucine, and valine are called “branched chain” because they’re the only amino acids to have a chain that branches to the side.
While BCAAs are vital for energy production and muscle metabolism, BCAAs alone do not stimulate muscle protein synthesis.  In fact, the few studies measuring the response to BCAAs have shown a decreased rate of muscle protein synthesis.²
Building Muscle – Myth #3: It’s just as easy to build lean muscle mass when you are young as when you are older
Building lean muscle mass becomes progressively harder and losing muscle becomes far easier as we age. The loss of muscle can start in some people as early as age 30, but by age 50, almost everyone is starting to lose a significant amount of muscle. In face, at around age 50, muscle mass loss averages 1-2 percent per year.³  The right balance and ratio of essential amino acids are clinically proven to reverse and prevent muscle loss, and when combined with good dietary choices and physical activity, gains are even greater! (see below to learn more about a product that has the right balance.)
Building Muscle – Myth #4:  The best time to work out is first thing in the morning
While there is some research that suggests by working out in the morning, it helps speed weight loss and boost energy, the best time for a workout is whatever time allows you to exercise most consistently.  However, there are other considerations including your body’s core temperature as well as  hormone levels and more.  Testosterone is important for muscle growth and strength and is produced late afternoon resistance training.  Read this great article to learn more. I like greatist because each of their articles has links to the science to support their claims.
https://greatist.com/fitness/whats-best-time-work-out
Building Muscle – Myth #5:  HIIT Builds Massive Muscles and Bulks you up
The focus of HIIT (high-intensity interval training)  is cardiovascular endurance and preventing muscle breakdown during exercise, not to build massive muscles and bulking.  It can help to maintain the lean muscle you have but it will not help you to build muscle mass.
However, studies have shown that in the 24 hours after a HIIT workout, the body produces 450 percent more HGH, encouraging your body to build and preserve lean muscle mass while still ridding the body of excess fat.4
Building Muscle – Myth #6: Sit-ups are the best way to get six-pack abs
You can do sit-ups, but it won’t help as long as you still have body fat covering the muscles.  You want to take a more comprehensive core training where you challenge all the muscles plus change your diet. As livestrong shares, “sit-ups strengthen muscles that lie under fat but don’t do anything to help you lose the padding keeping those muscles hidden.”
The authors of the Harvard Healthbeat newsletter also writes, sit-ups or crunches strengthen just a few muscle groups.  “Through dynamic patterns of movement, a good core workout helps strengthen the entire set of core muscles you use every day.”  You can learn more here:  http://www.businessinsider.com/best-exercise-6-pack-abs-core-2017-4
Building Muscle – Myth #7:  There isn’t an optimal profile of essential amino acids clinically proven to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and build muscle strength at any age.
False! ðŸ™‚  Okay . . . okay . . . this one is leading in to my sharing with you about a product that went through many studies to achieve the “perfect balance” of essential amino acids.  What’s interesting is this ideal mixture of essential amino acids equally brought about improved muscle protein synthesis in younger people AND older people.  As Dr. Wolfe, the formulator shares in his book, “The Building Blocks of Life”, this was quite a breakthrough considering the fact that stimulating muscle protein synthesis in older individuals is an age-old challenge

Friday, July 28, 2017

Kale nutrient may yield significant cognitive benefits

Researchers have found that lutein, a nutrient and organic pigment found in kale, spinach, avocados, and eggs, may be effective in rejuvenating cognitive functions.
The health benefits of green foods, such as kale, spinach, and other leafy vegetables, have long been discussed by nutritionists.
The importance of lutein - a nutrient and organic pigment, or carotenoid, found in a range of foods including kale, carrots, and even eggs - has often been singled out by specialists in recent studies. Medical News Today, for instance, have lately reported on lutein's role in reducing inflammation in heart disease.
New research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in collaboration with the University of Georgia in Athens, has unveiled yet another health benefit of lutein: the ability to counteract cognitive aging.
Lead researcher Dr. Naiman A. Khan, of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois, and his colleagues published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

Cognitive aging sets in early

The researchers started from the premise that cognitive aging becomes apparent earlier in life than one might expect.
Previous studies had only monitored cognitive aging in elderly adults, but Dr. Khan and his colleagues wanted to take a different approach.
"As people get older, they experience typical decline. However, research has shown that this process can start earlier than expected. You can even start to see some differences in the 30s," says first study author Anne Walk, a postdoctoral researcher also at the University of Illinois.
With this in mind, the researchers recruited 60 adult participants aged between 25 and 45, setting out to investigate whether or not lutein intake can have an impact on cognition.
The researchers explain that lutein is a naturally occurring substance that cannot be synthesized in the human body. This is why it must be absorbed from foods that synthesize it, such as kale and other green leafy vegetables, or else through food supplements.
"If lutein can protect against decline, we should encourage people to consume lutein-rich foods at a point in their lives when it has maximum benefit," says Walk.nce assimilated by the human body, lutein can be detected in brain tissue as well as in the eyes' retinas, which makes the appraisal of lutein levels more convenient, as non-invasive measurements can be taken.

More lutein improves cognitive performance

On this occasion, the researchers gauged lutein levels in the participants' eyes by asking them to respond to flickering light stimuli.
The neural activity in the participants' brains was assessed by electrodes attached to the scalp, as each participant was tasked with an attention-related exercise designed to test their selective attention, attentional inhibition (the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli), or response inhibition (the ability to suppress inappropriate impulses).
Dr. Khan and colleagues found that the participants who exhibited higher levels of lutein were cognitively more similar to younger individuals than they were to individuals of the same age with lower lutein levels.
"The neuro-electrical signature of older participants with higher levels of lutein looked much more like their younger counterparts than their peers with less lutein. Lutein appears to have some protective role, since the data suggest that those with more lutein were able to engage more cognitive resources to complete the task," explains Walk.
Following this study, the researchers seek to gain a better understanding of how a larger lutein intake might impact the level of the carotenoid accumulated in the retina, and to what extent lutein levels actually influence cognitive capacity.
"In this study we focused on attention, but we also would like to understand the effects of lutein on learning and memory," concludes Dr. Khan.

Why Movement Matters

While nowhere in the definition of fitness does it say “shredded” or “ripped,” culturally that’s how many define it. A quick glance at the fitness media landscape seems to validate the claim that fitness is by and large a quality of looking the part. To be sure, the fitness business is more than happy to oblige the aesthetic desires of consumers promising to pave the way in melting fat, toning muscles and delivering the six-pack that many covet. But behind the fitness fads, fancy gimmicks, and glossy before and after photos, fitness in the long run isn’t really about how you look — it’s about how you feel. To that end, fitness is also about how well you perform and how well you move.
Indeed, moving well has a lot of benefits, and ironically one of them is that doing so will likely help you get the physique you desire. Take one look at the athletes and artists who move with grace and effortless ease (dancers, surfers, martial artists, rock climbers, etc.), and more often than not, these individuals are toned. That said, whether a functional body leads to a defined body or it’s the other way around isn’t the point. Regardless of why or how you work out, moving well should be near the top of your list.

Here are a few reasons why you should train to move well.

You’ll live longer.
A Brazilian study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology had thousands of participants sit down and stand back up from a sitting position on the ground. Those who stood up unassisted and with relative ease scored well, while those who required assistance did not. The findings were startling. Those who scored poorly had twice the chance of dying within the next six years when compared to those who scored well. The take-away? How well you move directly correlates to how long you will live.
You’ll live better (build resiliency).
In the United States, the typical health-care model or bell curve of life longevity tends to be shaped more like a downward staircase. That is, the body deteriorates as we suffer health setbacks, and at each step down the staircase, our quality of life deteriorates, as well. Most would agree it would be much better to live a robust and healthy life full of graceful physical expression and then not wake up one day when we are 100 years old. Resiliency is about riding that wave to stay on top of the curve and living a healthy life until the wave crashes with a sharp drop off at the end. When you train your body to move well — in an unpredictable, fluid and dynamic way — you prepare yourself to ride the wave for as long as possible.
You’ll stay motivated.
Part of the inherent problem in defining fitness by aesthetics is the lack of long-term sustainable motivation. Aging simply isn’t a good companion for the “bigger, faster, stronger” mantra our fitness culture is largely predicated on. On the flip side, you can be a more proficient dancer with the passing years, and you can be a better martial artist with longevity and practice on your craft. Ultimately, getting better at something provides lasting motivation.

So how should you go about moving well?

Hire a performance coach and/or take a mobility class.
Taking a mobility-focused performance session is a far cry from your standard fitness class. Instead of burpees, push-ups and biceps curls, the focus is on agility, multidirectional movement and acceleration. Each movement is broken down piece by piece until it’s perfected. There are many benefits to such training — improved performance, reduced injury and greater efficiency in movement, to name a few.
Train in mixed martial arts (MMA).
MMA is actually a combination of four sports (wrestling, boxing, jiu-jitsu and kickboxing). A few years ago, ESPN ranked the most difficult sports based on a matrix of data from speed to agility to hand-eye coordination. Three of the top six were boxing (No. 1), wrestling (No. 5) and martial arts (No. 6). While MMA is particularly challenging and dynamic, cage fighting and the rigorous training of MMA is certainly not for everyone. That said, martial arts of any sort will help you move better. Lastly, proficiency as a martial artist is also about learning to breathe correctly, which also correlates to moving more efficiently.
Get up and dance!
An interesting study in the Journal of Neurophysiology concluded that professional ballet dancers enable their nervous system to coordinate their muscles. The study also suggests that dancers have improved balance compared to those who are untrained. The report suggested that years of training actually changed how the nervous system coordinated muscles for walking and balancing motions. In a nutshell, dancing will help you move better. If dancing is not your thing, try gymnastics, yoga or, again, martial arts.
Train with high-speed resistance training (HSRT).
A study published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Agingconcluded that HSRT in elderly women resulted in clear improvements in balance, strength, power, functional movements and perceptual well-being. The take-away is you don’t have to be a Mikhail Baryshnikov or Jet Li to move well. Training with traditional exercise such as medicine-ball throws, dynamic weight training and countermovement jumps will help you be a better mover, as well.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with a desire to look your best, but if health truly is your most valuable possession, how you move is more important than how you look. Moving well not only helps you stay healthy, get fit and potentially live longer, but you also typically look pretty darn fit!

Study finds 90 percent of American men overfat



Does your waist measure more than half your height?
If so, you may be part of the global overfat pandemic. A recent article, published in Frontiers in Public Health, suggests it to be even more prevalent in developed countries where up to 90 percent of adult males and 50 percent children may suffer from this condition. In the top overfat countries, 80 percent of women fall into this category.
The problem is particularly pervasive in the English-speaking countries of the United States and New Zealand, but also in Iceland and even Greece where people are generally thought to be healthy. This trend may be bad news for developing countries as well, since they have followed the trend of developed nations in the growing overfat pandemic.
The term overfat refers to the presence of excess body fat that can impair health, and may include even normal-weight non-obese individuals. Excess body fat, especially abdominal fat, is associated with increased risk of chronic diseases, increased morbidity and mortality, and reduced quality of life.
Researchers Philip Maffetone, Ivan Rivera-Dominguez and Paul B. Laursen reported earlier this year in the journal Frontiers of Public Health that up to 76 percent of the world's population may be overfat. Now these same researchers have focused their efforts on data from 30 of the top developed countries, with even more alarming findings.
In addition, a recent rise in the incidence of abdominal adiposity, the unhealthiest form of excess body fat, has been observed in both adults and children, indicating a direct link to insulin-resistance, the body's natural propensity to convert and store carbohydrate foods as fat.
The relationship between the overfat condition and poor health is a spectrum or progression in which the vicious cycle of excess body fat, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation lie at one end, causing abnormal blood fats (cholesterol and triglycerides) and glucose, and elevated blood pressure, which then produces a variety of common diseases at the other end.
Being overfat is linked to hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, Type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis and gout, pulmonary diseases, sleep apnea and others.
Many physically active people, including professional athletes in various sports and active U.S. military personnel, also may fall into the overfat category.
Traditional means of assessment, such as stepping on a scale or calculating Body Mass Index (BMI), are ineffective at determining whether someone is overfat. Instead, researchers recommend taking a measure of the waistline (at the level of the belly button) and comparing it to height: The waist measure should be less than half a person's

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Materials provided by FrontiersNote: Content may be edited for style and length.

Eating at 'wrong time' affects body weight, circadian rhythms

A new high-precision feeding system for lab mice reinforces the idea that the time of day food is eaten is more critical to weight loss than the amount of calories ingested.
Mice on a reduced calorie plan that ate only during their normal feeding/active cycle were the only ones among five groups to lose weight, despite consuming the same amount as another group fed during their rest time in daylight, according to the study at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
"Translated into human behavior, these studies suggest that dieting will only be effective if calories are consumed during the daytime when we are awake and active. They further suggest that eating at the wrong time at night will not lead to weight loss even when dieting," said Dr. Joseph S. Takahashi, Chairman of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Using high-tech sensors and automated feeding equipment, scientists developed the feeding system to help answer the difficult question of why calorie-restricted diets improve longevity. They say the new set of tools has already offered fresh insights.
Among the findings published in Cell Metabolism, scientists documented how mice on a diet reduced their eating to a very short time period and were unexpectedly active during the day -- the normal rest period for the nocturnal animals. These data reveal previously unknown relationships among feeding, metabolism, and behavior.
"It has been known for decades that caloric restriction prolongs lifespan in animals, but these types of studies are very difficult to conduct because they required manual feeding of subjects over many years. Therefore, shortcuts were taken in order to deal with practical matters such as the normal Monday-to-Friday work week," said Dr. Takahashi, holder of the Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience.
Besides affecting weight, scientists believe the timing of food consumption affects one's circadian rhythms and may be the route by which dietary habits impact lifespan. The study reinforced this notion by testing the day/night cycles of mice under different feeding schedules.
Two groups of mice that were fed at the wrong times during their normal light-dark cycle -- those with a 30 percent calorie reduction and others with unlimited food access during the day -- remained active at night, suggesting they might have chronic sleep deprivation.
This is an especially important factor for scientists to consider for future research, given that many calorie-reduction studies involve only daytime feeding, which is the wrong time for otherwise nocturnal mice. Without accounting for the timing of food intake, research that examines the effects of calorie reduction on lifespan may be skewed by hidden factors such as lack of sleep and desynchronized circadian rhythms.
Dr. Takahashi said the automated system developed for this latest study helped his team address this issue and other confounding variables that have inhibited previous research, including the varied amounts of food given and how quickly it is consumed.
"Despite the importance of these factors, manipulating when and how much food is available for extended periods has been difficult in past research. This automated system, which can be scaled up for large and very long longevity studies, provides the means to address open questions about what mechanisms extend lifespan in mammalsand whether it is actually the calorie reduction or the time at which food is consumed that extends lifespan," Dr. Takahashi said.

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Materials provided by UT Southwestern Medical CenterNote: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:
  1. Victoria A. Acosta-Rodríguez, Marleen H.M. de Groot, Filipa Rijo-Ferreira, Carla B. Green, Joseph S. Takahashi. Mice under Caloric Restriction Self-Impose a Temporal Restriction of Food Intake as Revealed by an Automated Feeder SystemCell Metabolism, 2017; 26 (1): 267 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.06.007

How physical exercise prevents dementia

Numerous studies have shown that physical exercise seems beneficial in the prevention of cognitive impairment and dementia in old age. Now researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt have explored in one of the first studies worldwide how exercise affects brain metabolism.
In order to further advance current state of knowledge on the positive influence of physical activity on the brain, gerontologists and sports physicians at Goethe University Frankfurt have examined the effects of regular exercise on brain metabolism and memory of 60 participants aged between 65 and 85 in a randomised controlled trial. Their conclusion: regular physical exercise not only enhances fitness but also has a positive impact on brain metabolism.
As the researchers report in the current issue of the medical journal Translational Psychiatry, they thoroughly examined all the participants in the SMART study (Sport and Metabolism in Older Persons, an MRT Study) by assessing movement-related parameters, cardiopulmonary fitness and cognitive performance. In addition, magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) were used to measure brain metabolism and brain structure. Following this examination, the participants mounted an exercise bike three times a week over a period of 12 weeks. The 30-minute training sessions were individually adapted to each participant's performance level. The participants were examined again after the end of the programme in order to document the effects of this physical activity on brain metabolism, cognitive performance and brain structure. The researchers also investigated to what extent exercise had led to an improvement in the participants' physical fitness. The study was conducted by the Gerontology Department of the Institute of General Medicine (headed by Professor Johannes Pantel) and the Department of Sports Medicine (led by Professor Winfried Banzer).
As expected, physical activity had influenced brain metabolism: it prevented an increase in choline. The concentration of this metabolite often rises as a result of the increased loss of nerve cells, which typically occurs in the case of Alzheimer's disease. Physical exercise led to stable cerebral choline concentrations in the training group, whereas choline levels increased in the control group. The participants' physical fitness also improved: they showed increased cardiac efficiency after the training period. Overall, these findings suggest that physical exercise not only improves physical fitness but also protects cells.

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Materials provided by Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am MainNote: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:
  1. S Matura, J Fleckenstein, R Deichmann, T Engeroff, E Füzéki, E Hattingen, R Hellweg, B Lienerth, U Pilatus, S Schwarz, V A Tesky, L Vogt, W Banzer, J Pantel. Effects of aerobic exercise on brain metabolism and grey matter volume in older adults: results of the randomised controlled SMART trialTranslational Psychiatry, 2017; 7 (7): e1172 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.135


Diet choice, reproduction of fruit flies affected by gut bacteria

Increasingly understood to be vital for wellbeing, gut microbiota are the trillion of microorganisms that live in the digestive tract of humans and other animals. Known to affect a range of physiological traits including development, immunity, nutrition and longevity, researchers are now investigating how manipulating gut microbiota might influence other aspects of health.
Two new studies -- from the University of Sydney's multidisciplinary Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences (SOLES) in collaboration with Macquarie University's Department of Biological Sciences -- have discovered the gut microbiota of the common fruit fly has a significant effect on their foraging behaviour and reproductive success, and that its influence can be carried down to the next generation.
Published in the journal Current Biology today, the study into foraging behaviour manipulated the type and timing of bacteria individual flies were exposed to, and examined their olfactory-guided preferences to food microbes and nutrients.
In addition to foraging for nutrients to achieve a balanced diet, the researchers found flies also forage for bacteria to populate a healthy gut flora. Responding to smells associated with particular bacteria in foods, the flies showed a distinct preference for more beneficial types of bacteria over less-beneficial types or food lacking the bacteria.
Lead author Dr Adam Wong, who conducted the research while at the University of Sydney and is now based at the University of Florida, said the findings warranted further investigation to determine how other animals interact with beneficial microbes in foraging.
"We knew animals foraged for nutrients, in ways that optimise their performance and physiology." he said.
"Understanding they also forage for beneficial microbes opens up a whole new dimension for future research. The symbiotic relationship can shape how animals, including humans, may perceive and prefer different nutrients and microbes for better overall health."
In a separate study, published in Biology Letters, researchers inoculated flies with different types of microbes to observe the consequences of changes in the gut bacteria composition of sexually interacting fruit flies.
They found the reproductive investment and success of a mating pair was influenced by gut bacteria, as well as the body mass of offspring.
Lead author Dr Juliano Morimoto, now at Macquarie University, said the findings reveal the effect of gut microbiota on reproduction, but also suggest these effects can be carried over to the next generation.
"Given the importance of the gut microbiota in physiology and health, our findings reveal important and long-lasting effects of gut bacteria on reproduction and offspring traits," he said.
"As understanding of the gut microbiome and its effect increases, the potential for breakthroughs in understanding broader health impacts increases too."
Professor Stephen Simpson, Academic Director at the Charles Perkins Centre and a co-author on both papers, said the studies provided an exciting illustration of how microbes can influence the behaviour of host animals, which could be important for understanding gut microbiota and cognitive function in humans in the future.
"With the burgeoning interest in the role of the gut microbiome in health, and cross-talk between the gut and the brain, this demonstration that bacteria in the gut influences foraging and reproductive behaviour is of particular interest for further research," he said.
Dr Fleur Ponton, last author on both studies and based at Macquarie University's Department of Biological Sciences, said the success of this collaboration highlighted the importance of multidisciplinary and inter-institutional research.
"Beyond the biomedical significance of this research, there are potential interesting applications in the context of invasive and pest species control," she added.

Story Source:
Materials provided by University of SydneyNote: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:
  1. Adam Chun-Nin Wong, Qiao-Ping Wang, Juliano Morimoto, Alistair M. Senior, Mathieu Lihoreau, G. Gregory Neely, Stephen J. Simpson, Fleur Ponton. Gut Microbiota Modifies Olfactory-Guided Microbial Preferences and Foraging Decisions in DrosophilaCurrent Biology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.022

What a Hunter-Gatherer Diet Does to the Body in Just 3 Days


If you’re not convinced that eating a healthy diet is crucial to your health, and perhaps for reasons that might be a surprise, you may remember the story of an undergraduate student who spent a solid month eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at McDonald’s. The rule was that every time someone took his order and asked if he wanted something “super-sized” he had to go for it.
Over those few days and weeks, he not only gained weight, his liver was damaged and several other changes took place that prompted his doctor to advise him to go off the diet for the sake of his long-term health.
At the time, the high levels of the worst kinds of fat, high carbs and a blend of toxic preservatives and other chemicals were blamed for his quickly failing condition, but as The Conversation astutely notes, tongue in cheek, there are “others” who don’t appreciate being fed a fast-food diet: the microbes teeming in your intestines:
“These are the hundred trillion microbes that outnumber our total human cells ten to one and digest our food, provide many vitamins and nutrients and keep us healthy. Until recently we have viewed them as harmful — but those (like salmonella) are a tiny minority and most are essential for us.”1
The premise has been backed up by other studies2 showing this to be the case — that atherosclerosis can even be induced by combining a “low colonic bacterial diversity” gut with a high, “bad” fat diet. Bacteria and fungi in your digestive tract, principally your large intestine, and the type of food you’re eating — while simultaneously “feeding” the critters that make up your microbiome — can make or break your health. Your gut health sets the tone for your mood, metabolism, immune system and so much more.3

How Do You Measure Someone’s Gut Microbiome?

A couple of scientists conjectured that while someone’s low microbiome population makes a positive shift when they begin eating a healthier diet, it wasn’t clear whether someone with a “healthy stable” gut bacteria could be improved in a matter of days.
When Tim Spector, researcher and professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, joined colleague Jeff Leach (founder of the American Gut, the world’s largest open-source/crowd-funded microbiome project in the world) in Tanzania where the latter had been living and working among one of the last hunter-gatherer groups in Africa, the Hadza, they had an opportunity to find out.
As previously noted, a “low-diversity” gut is one that doesn’t have a wide representation of bacteria, which makes the individual more susceptible to disease. An organization called Map My Gut can assess the diversity of peoples’ gut ecosystems using state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technology to identify microbes. This is done by “matching” pieces of bacterial DNA, the website explains:
“We literally create a map of the microbial contents of your gut, hence the name. Our microbiome specialists then add an individualized analysis of your results. Finally, we create a thorough report that describes the key microbes we’ve found living inside you and what they mean for you and your health.”4
Analysts representing Map My Gut suggest that people who have trouble controlling their weight, have been on antibiotics long term, have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), colitis or other gut issues, want to change their diet or are interested in learning the status of their gut health may benefit from such an assessment.

The ‘Most Diverse Microbiome on the Planet’

Spector had his intestinal flora tested along with 100 other people and discovered that his own microbiome was the healthiest of all of them — or more correctly, had the best gut diversity, which is linked to a low risk of many diseases as well as obesity. As it happens, the Hadza people have the richest and most diverse gut health on the planet.
Leach suggested that Spector adopt a three-day nutritional plan of adopting the Hadza hunter-gatherer diet, which wastes nothing and kills nothing unnecessarily. One has to wonder if he at that point wondered what he might be agreeing to; Spector wrote for CNN:
“I would measure my gut microbes before heading to Tanzania, during my stay with the Hadza, and after my return to the UK. I was also not allowed to wash or use alcohol swabs and I was expected to hunt and forage with the Hadza as much as possible — including coming in contact with the odd Hadza baby and baboon poo lying about.”5
After only three days with the remote tribe and eating everything they ate, the team, including Leach and his “poo” samples, would return to London for sample testing.

The Hadza’s Million-Year-Old Diet

Visiting such a remote area started with the Mount Kilimanjaro Airport in Tanzania, northward for an overnight stop in Arusha (where Spector’s first “poo” sample was taken) before another eight hours to Lake Eyasi and the Serengeti region.
Hadza hunter-gatherers still sleep in grass huts or by the fire and forage for the same plants and animals as they’ve done for centuries. Spector’s first breakfast consisted of pods from the seemingly limitless baobab trees, the seeds of which contain high amounts of fat, fiber and vitamins. Its chalky flesh, mixed with water with a stick, was placed in a mug to make a thick, milky, “surprisingly pleasant and refreshing” porridge with a citrusy tang. His two mugs proved to be quite filling. As a snack:
“The wild berries on many of the trees surrounding the camp — the commonest were small Kongorobi berries. These refreshing and slightly sweet berries have 20 times the fibre and polyphenols compared with cultivated berries — powerful fuel for my gut microbiome.”6
Harder to eat, their late lunch was a few high-fiber tubers, “like tough, earthy celery,” which women dug up with a sharp stick and tossed onto the fire. Spector didn’t ask for seconds but didn’t feel hungry, which he attributed to the high-fiber breakfast.
Later, nobody seemed interested in dinner. Then came a hunting party to locate two porcupines, about 45 pounds each, eventually tracked to their tunnel system in a termite mound. Considered a rare delicacy, the tribesmen dug and tunneled to find them, careful of the razor-sharp quills, until they were speared.
“A fire was lit. The spines, skin and valuable organs were expertly dissected and the heart, lung and liver cooked and eaten straight away. The rest of the fatty carcass was taken back to camp for communal eating. It tasted much like suckling pig.” 7
Subsequent meals were similar, other than a changeup of meat from a 9-pound hyrax, “a strange furry guinea-pig-like hoofed animal” related to the elephant. Dessert was honey retrieved high from a baobab tree, the bonus being the honeycomb complete with larvae, full of “good” fat, sugars and protein, a combination being “the most energy-dense found in nature,” which Spector said “may have competed with fire in terms of its evolutionary importance.”

What Do Three Days on a Native Tanzanian Diet Do for Your Gut?

Returning to London and subsequent testing, Spector learned that between his first and last sample submittals, his gut diversity had made a “stunning” 20 percent increase, which included some new African microbes, such as those of the phylum Synergistetes. But in a matter of days, the diversity and bacteria number returned to where they had been before the experiment. He called it “bad news.”
“But we had learnt something important. However good your diet and gut health, it is not nearly as good as our ancestors.' Everyone should make the effort to improve their gut health by re-wilding their diet and lifestyle. Being more adventurous in your normal cuisine plus reconnecting with nature and its associated microbial life, may be what we all need.”8
Two years later, Leach observed how impressed he was by the variety of plant and animal species (around 600, mostly birds) the Hadza consumed compared to the few consumed in the West, as well as their availability above and below the ground and that in comparison, the current human microbiome could be called an ecological disaster zone — a proverbial canary in a coal mine, with every evidence of having breathed its last.
In addition, he wrote, the reduction in the number and assortment of bacteria in the human microbiome seems to be simultaneous with the rate of disease, but: “What we don’t know is which way cause and effect runs. Does disease cause a drop in microbial diversity or does a drop in diversity cause — or precede — disease?”9 Further, in relation to the Hadza diet:
“With each animal killed, microbes are given the opportunity to move from one species to the next. With each berry that is plucked from a bush or tuber dug from beneath the microbial-rich ground, each and every act of foraging keeps the Hadza connected to an extensive regional (microbial) species pool.”10
He surmises that the relatively lower number of gut bacterial diversity could be a combination of a degraded regional species pool or an increase of environmental filters, such as too much time indoors, which reduces your exposure to microbial diversity,11 the increase of caesarean birth and decrease in breast-feeding, as well as the wide use of antibiotics, from antibiotics in the meat you eat12 to antibacterial hand soaps.

How Can You Diversify Your Gut Health in Today’s Culture?

A number of factors in today’s culture can adversely influence your gut health, from getting inadequate fiber, which causes, among other things, constipation, to consuming massive amounts of sugar, which feeds the bacteria you don’t want and ravages your intestines, opening the door to multiple diseases. Your gut microbiome can even hamper gene expression.
Prevalent lifestyle and environmental challenges certainly don’t help, with the lack of exercise, pesticides, herbicides and genetically engineered (GE) foods tainting the collective gut, pollution, vaccinations and drugs — including those in your food — as virtual gauntlets your system is forced to run through unless you take precautions to curb their effect.
Multiple clinical studies show that your diet is the key to developing a more diverse gut “culture,” if you will, and optimizing your health. One of the easiest ways to do this is by simply adding to the diversity of foods you eat, especially plant-based foods. How alarming is it that recent studies show about 75 percent of the Western diet consists of as few as 12 plants and products from five animal species?13
Gut bacteria can ferment soluble fiber in vegetables, legumes and fruits, the byproducts of which help to feed the cells lining your colon to prevent problems associated with leaky gut syndrome. The most important fermentation byproducts are short-chain fatty acids,14which help balance your immune system to the point of preventing Crohn’s disease and asthma.
Besides branching out and bringing more food diversity into your life, introducing more of these high-fiber foods is easy and delicious. According to Greatist,15 the highest fiber foods include split peas, lentils, black and lima beans, artichokes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, raw berries and avocadoes. To help get your gut health under control and minimize, prevent and even eliminate your risk of many chronic diseases, try:
  • Eating fermented food, such as kimchi and other fermented vegetables, kefir, kombucha and raw, grass-fed yogurt, which you can make yourself.
  • Eating more prebiotic foods, like unripe bananas, papayas, mango, white beans, lentils and seeds, which are resistant starches, which optimize your gut health.
  • Taking a fiber supplement such as psyllium seed husk if you can’t seem to get enough through your diet.
  • Eating foods containing lots of polyphenols, such as raw cacao (found in some dark chocolate), onions, Matcha green tea, blueberries and broccoli.
  • Taking a high-quality probiotic supplement that can make it to your intestines intact to optimize the number of bacteria, which incidentally must have health-promoting features that remain through their production process.
Simple measures such as opening your windows to get outside air, growing your own organic garden (or buying organic), avoiding antibiotics and eating as much of the vegetable and fruit as you can, such as the outermost skins of onions and the stems, not just the floret, of broccoli, and washing your hands with plain old soap and water rather than relying on germicidal soaps to keep germs at bay (which in fact do the opposite) are also important.
Finally, keep yourself informed of things like which foods contain the highest levels of pesticides and what meats contain the most antibiotics. Pass your knowledge along, because the planet your grandparents enjoyed is not the same one your children and grandchildren will grow up on.