Lactobacillus

What Is the Role of Gut Bacteria in Calorie Restriction?

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Story at-a-glance

  • Life-long calorie restriction in mice significantly changes their gut microflora in ways that promote longevity
  • It appears that calorie restriction’s beneficial changes to gut microflora may be, in part, responsible for its observed enhancement of longevity
  • Intermittent calorie restriction, such as intermittent fasting, appears to provide many of the same health benefits as constant calorie restriction, including benefitting gut bacteria, extending lifespan and protecting against disease
  • What you eat is crucial to maintaining a healthful inner ecosystem; in addition to calorie restriction/intermittent fasting, avoiding excess sugars and grains and eating plenty of traditionally fermented foods are important

Lowering your caloric intake has been scientifically proven to slow down aging, reduce age-related chronic diseases and extend lifespan. The effects have been observed in a variety of species from worms and yeast to rats and fish, with some research showing that restricting calories in certain animals can increase their lifespan by as much as 50 percent.

There’s evidence that calorie restriction has a similar effect on the human lifespan, as well, and one of the key reasons why is likely related to its ability to lower your insulin levels as well as improve insulin sensitivity.

However, researchers recently studied whether calorie restriction also prompts changes to your gut microbiota, which may also be responsible for some of its beneficial role in health.

Calorie Restriction Prompts Significant Changes to Your Gut Bacteria

Science is increasingly revealing that microorganisms living in your gut are there performing indispensable functions. Known as your microbiome, about 100 trillion of these cells populate your body, particularly your intestines and other parts of your digestive system.

There is also an emerging consensus that most disease originates in your digestive system, and this includes conditions that impact your brain, your heart, your weight and your immune system, among others. There’s also evidence that the microorganisms present in your gut can affect how well you age,1 and this, of course, ties in directly with the latest research on calorie restriction and longevity.

One important thing to remember about the microbes in your gut is that they are not static. They can change profoundly throughout your life, for better or for worse, and one of the biggest influences on this change is your diet.

Indeed, the latest study showed that life-long calorie restriction in mice “significantly changes the overall structure of the gut microbiota” in ways that promote longevity.2 So it now appears that one reason why calorie restriction may lengthen lifespan is because it promotes positive changes to the microorganisms in your gut.

The researchers noted:

“Calorie restriction enriches phylotypes positively correlated with lifespan, for example, the genus Lactobacillus on low-fat diet, and reduces phylotypes negatively correlated with lifespan.

These calorie restriction-induced changes in the gut microbiota are concomitant with significantly reduced serum levels of lipopolysaccharide-binding protein, suggesting that animals under calorie restriction can establish a structurally balanced architecture of gut microbiota that may exert a health benefit to the host via reduction of antigen load from the gut.”

Intermittent Fasting May Provide Comparable Health Benefits to Calorie Restriction

While the research supporting calorie restriction is compelling, it’s not a very popular dietary strategy for most people, for obvious reasons. Many are simply not willing to deprive themselves of calories to the extent needed to prompt the beneficial effects.

An alternative that is much more acceptable is intermittent fasting, which can be as simple as restricting your daily eating to a narrower window of time of say 6-8 hours (this equates to 16-18 hours worth of fasting each and every day).

Recent research suggests that sudden and intermittent calorie restriction appears to provide many of the same health benefits as constant calorie restriction, including extending lifespan and protecting against disease. For instance, intermittent fasting leads to:

  1. Increased insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial energy efficiency – Fasting increases your leptin and insulin sensitivity along with mitochondrial energy efficiency, and thereby retards aging and disease, which are typically associated with loss of insulin sensitivity and declined mitochondrial energy.
  2. Reduced oxidative stress – Fasting decreases the accumulation of oxidative radicals in the cell, and thereby prevents oxidative damage to cellular proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids associated with aging and disease.
  3. Increased capacity to resist stress, disease and aging – Fasting induces a cellular stress response (similar to that induced by exercise) in which cells up-regulate the expression of genes that increase the capacity to cope with stress and resist disease and aging.

Intermittent Fasting Switches Your Body to Fat-Burning Mode… With Radical Improvements to Your Gut

If you want to give intermittent fasting a try, consider starting gradually. You can delay breakfast as long as possible and extend the time every day before you eat breakfast until you are actually skipping breakfast. Make sure you stop eating and drinking anything but water three hours before you go to sleep, and restrict your eating to an 8-hour (or less) time frame every day. In the 6-8 hours that you do eat, have healthy protein, minimize your carbs like pasta, bread, and potatoes and exchange them for healthful fats like butter, eggs, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil and nuts — essentially the very fats the media and “experts” tell you to avoid.

This will help shift you from carb-burning to fat-burning mode. Once your body has made this shift, it is nothing short of magical as your cravings for sweets, and food in general, rapidly normalizes and your desire for sweets and junk food radically decreases — if not disappears entirely.

Remember, it typically takes a few weeks for most to shift from burning carbs to fat-burning mode. Once you succeed and switch to fat-burning mode, you’ll be easily able to fast for 18 hours and not feel hungry. The “hunger” most people feel is actually cravings for sugar, and these will disappear once you successfully shift over to burning fat instead.

Another phenomenal benefit that occurs is that you will radically improve the beneficial bacteria in your gut, as occurs with calorie restriction. Along with improving your immune system, you will sleep better, have more energy, have increased mental clarity and concentrate better. Essentially, every aspect of your health will improve as your gut flora becomes balanced.

Certain Gut Bacteria are ‘Major Contributors’ to Cancer

As if you needed even more reason to optimize the bacteria in your gut, recent research has revealed an association between different gut bacteria and the development of lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells. The study involved mice with ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), a genetic disease linked to a high rate of B-cell lymphoma in both mice and humans. Those with certain microbial species in their gut lived significantly longer before developing lymphoma, and had less of the gene damage that causes the disease. The researchers also created a catalog detailing which types of bacteria had either promoting or protective effects on genotoxicity and lymphoma.

This is not the first time gut bacteria has been linked to cancer. Findings published in the journal Nature,3 for instance, reported the discovery of microbial-dependent mechanisms through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth. Another study, published in the journal Science,4 suggested cancer may be due to a chain reaction that starts with inflammation that disrupts your gut ecosystem, allowing pathogens, such as E. coli, to invade your gut and cause cellular damage.

Healthy Gut 101: How to Optimize Your Microflora for Better Health

With it now becoming increasingly clear that your microflora influence the expression of your genes, your immune system, weight, mental health, memory, and your risk of numerous chronic and acute diseases, from diabetes to cancer, destroying your gut flora with antibiotics and poor diet is a primary factor in rising disease rates.

As discussed, your diet is crucial in this equation, and it appears likely that calorie restriction, or intermittent fasting, may have a beneficial effect on the makeup of your microflora. But there are other factors, too. Remember, an estimated 80 percent of your immune system is also located in your gut, so reseeding your gut with healthy bacteria is important for the prevention of virtually ALL disease, from colds to cancer. In light of this, here are my recommendations for optimizing your gut bacteria.

  • Fermented foods are the best route to optimal digestive health, as long as you eat the traditionally made, unpasteurized versions. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner), fermented grass-fed organic milk such as kefir, various fermentations of vegetables like cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots, and natto (fermented soy).

Fermented vegetables, which are one of my new passions, are an excellent way to supply beneficial bacteria back into your gut. And, unlike some other fermented foods, they tend to be palatable, if not downright delicious, to most people. Most high-quality probiotic supplements will only supply you with a fraction of the beneficial bacteria found in such homemade fermented vegetables, so it’s your most economical route to optimal gut health as well.

  • Probiotic supplement. Although I’m not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are an exception if you don’t eat plenty of raw organic and fermented foods on a regular basis.

In addition to knowing what to add to your diet and lifestyle, it’s equally important to know what to avoid, for optimal microflora balance, and this includes:

Antibiotics, unless absolutely necessary (and when you do use them, make sure to reseed your gut with fermented foods and/or a probiotics supplement) Conventionally raised meats and other animal products, as CAFO animals are routinely fed low-dose antibiotics, plusgenetically engineered grains, which have also been implicated in the destruction of gut flora

 

 Processed foods (as the excessive grains and sugars, along with otherwise “dead” nutrients, feed pathogenic bacteria)

 
Chlorinated and/or fluoridated water

 

Source: mercola.com

 

Probiotics Might Lessen Infant Skin Problems?

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infant-skinBeneficial bacteria such as those found in fermented foods and probiotics thrive in your intestines to perform a magnificent symbiotic relationship with you, improving not only your overall health but even your skin.

Signals from these gut microorganisms are known to interact with organisms on your skin and research suggests these interactions, or another unknown probiotic-skin connection, can help with skin conditions, including eczema.

Beneficial Bacteria Halve Infants’ Eczema Risk

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, is very common in infants and young children. According to the American Academy of Dermatologists, it affects between 10 percent and 20 percent of all infants, resulting in red, itchy patches or rash on the skin (eczema is often known as “the itch that rashes,” meaning there’s really no rash until you start scratching the itchy area).

Eczema is more than just a skin problem, however, as it is an indication that there is a problem with your immune system. In fact, eczema is said to be one of the first signs of allergy during the first days of life, and about three out of four children with eczema later go on to develop asthma or hay fever.

What does this have to do with the beneficial bacteria in your gut?

Most people, including many physicians, do not realize that 80 percent of your immune system is located in your digestive tract, making a healthy gut a major focal point in your efforts to achieve optimal health. In fact, the root of many health problems is related to an imbalance of intestinal bacteria.

You may be surprised to learn that the bacteria in your gut outnumber the cells in your body by a factor of ten to one — you have approximately 100 trillion bacteria living in your GI tract, comprised of as many as 500 different species and 7,000 different strains. Collectively, each of us carries around several pounds of bacteria inside us!

The beneficial bacteria in your gut has actually been found to help prevent allergies by training your immune system to distinguish between pathogens and non-harmful antigens and respond appropriately – and this may be one reason why they also appear so beneficial for eczema.

According to the latest research, a review of 21 studies that included 11,000 participants, in children at risk for developing eczema, supplementing with a type of beneficial bacterial called Lactobacillus rhapsodic GG or Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain HN001 cut kids’ risk of developing eczema in half compared to those taking a placebo.1 Children that took other various mixtures of probiotics also had their risk of eczema at least halved.

Please note that this does not mean that this strain of beneficial bacteria is the only one that provides the benefit. It happens to be the one that was studied. These studies are not free and someone has to pay for them. But it is likely that most beneficial bacteria, especially lactobacillus strains, provide similar benefits.

A Simple Way to Lower Your Child‘s Risk of Eczema

That probiotics are beneficial for preventing eczema in infants is not a new finding, but rather one that I’ve been reporting on since at least 2001, when researchers also found infants receiving probiotics supplements were half as likely to develop the skin condition.2

In 2008, another found that children with only a limited variety of bacteria in their intestines one week after birth were more likely to developed eczema by the age of 18 months.3 Still more research published in 2009 also found that daily supplements of probiotic foods may reduce the risk of eczema in children by 58 percent.4

It’s thought that one reason giving an infant probiotics helps to stave off eczema and other allergic diseases is by beneficially altering the early colonization of bacteria in their gut, which may help the child’s immune system to develop and mature. At birth the human gastrointestinal tract is sterile, but in the first days, months and years of life a rapid colonization of bacteria occurs until a stable indigenous gut microflora is established.

Babies that are given the best start nutritionally by being breastfed (the major source of your immune-building good bacteria following their initial implantation through the birth canal) also tend to have intestinal microflora in which beneficial bacteria predominate over potentially harmful bacteria. So, the best way you can encourage your newborn’s gut health to flourish is by breastfeeding.

The most benefit from probiotics, at least in terms of eczema, may happen very early in life. After three months of life, the 2009 study above found no difference in the incidence or severity of eczema between groups given probiotics or a placebo, noting that the preventive effect appeared to be established within the first 3 months of life, although it appeared to be sustained during the firs two years.

What this means is it is essential that your baby to receive plenty of beneficial bacteria in the first few months of life and continuing through childhood and adulthood.

Your baby gets his or her first “inoculation” of gut flora from your birth canal during childbirth. If your flora is abnormal, your baby’s flora will also be abnormal; whatever organisms live in your vagina end up coating your baby’s body and lining his or her intestinal tract.

Many infants are challenged because their mother previously took birth control pills, was on antibiotics or was a typical American and ate 150 pounds or more of sugar a year. Any mother with any or all of these risk factors is likely to start her infant’s life out on shaky ground, as she is unable to provide them with optimal gut flora that will nourish their health. So any mother in this group needs to be especially conscious of this information and recommendations.

Studies show that a growing number of women have unknown vaginal infections at childbirth, which can result in the passage of abnormal microflora to their babies. This introduction of unfriendly flora, combined with antibiotic use, can predispose a baby to Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS). GAPS can have very damaging long-term effects on a child’s health, including such conditions as autism, ADHD, learning disabilities and a number of other psychological, neurological, digestive and immunological problems.

Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride is a neurologist and neurosurgeon who has devoted years of her career to studying this phenomenon, and how to treat and prevent it. Pathogenic microbes in your baby’s digestive tract damage the integrity of his or her gut wall, allowing all sorts of toxins, microbes and macromolecules from undigested food to flood his or her bloodstream, and then enter the brain and disrupt its development.

Breastfeeding protects your baby from this abnormal gut flora, which is why breastfeeding is so crucial to your child’s health. No infant formulas can do this.

Any time your baby is given a broad-spectrum antibiotic, his or her beneficial flora are wiped out, giving pathogenic flora (including antibiotic-resistant bacteria) a window of opportunity to overgrow and wreak havoc. It takes the “friendly flora” two weeks to two months to recover, but by then, some not-so-friendly ones have found a niche. The first symptoms you typically see are colic, loose stools, constipation, eczema or respiratory infections.

Adding a vaccine that further stresses your baby’s immature immune system is like adding fuel to a fire — conditions that raise your child’s risk for a major adverse vaccine reaction. In other words, a vaccine could be the proverbial “final straw” if your baby has GAPS. But all of this may be corrected, or even averted, by the addition of some natural probiotics.

Fermented Foods are Important for Babies, Infants and Children Too

Before you give your child fermented foods or probiotics it is especially important to recognize that they are not magic bullets and cure-all ills. They need to be integrated with a healthy diet. If your child is consuming loads of sugar, grains and fruit juices, those sugars will rapidly break down in the intestine and feed the pathogenic bacteria, which effectively competitively inhibit the beneficial bacteria you are supplementing with making them useless and virtually ineffective.

Once you have the diet optimized, providing abundant probiotics in the form of fermented foods is one of the most powerful ways to restore your baby’s beneficial gut flora. Oftentimes, a commercial probiotic supplement won’t even be needed.

Apart from breastfeeding, the first fermented food Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends for your infant is raw organic grass-fed yogurt (not commercial yogurt from the grocery store), because it’s well tolerated by most infants and children. It’s best to make your own yogurt at home from raw organic milk, and start with a very tiny amount. Once yogurt is well tolerated by your baby, then start introducing kefir. If you have any problems with cow’s milk dairy, you can try goat’s milk dairy as an alternative or substitute vegetables fermented with yogurt culture or kefir culture.

If your baby has a severe condition, such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), then the addition of a high-quality probiotic supplement may be needed.

You can ferment virtually any food, and every traditional culture has fermented their foods to prevent spoilage. There are also many fermented beverages and yoghurts. Quite a large percent of all the foods that people consumed on a daily basis were fermented, and each mouthful provides trillions of beneficial bacteria — far more than you can get from a probiotics supplement.

Here’s a case in point: It’s unusual to find a probiotic supplement containing more than 10 billion colony-forming units. But when my team actually tested fermented vegetables produced by probiotic starter cultures, they had 10 trillion colony-forming units of bacteria. Literally, one serving of vegetables was equal to an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic! Fermented foods also give you a wider variety of beneficial bacteria, so all in all, it’s your most cost effective alternative.

Fermenting your own foods is a fairly straightforward and simple process, which is described in detail here. Remember, in addition to protecting your child from developing eczema, research shows giving pregnant women and newborns doses of good bacteria can:

  • Help prevent childhood allergies by training infants’ immune systems to resist allergic reactions5
  • Help optimize your baby’s weight later in life6
  • Improve the symptoms of colic, decreasing average crying times by about 75 percent7
  • Reduce your risk of premature labor

Consuming fermented foods is, again, the best way to optimize your, and your children’s, beneficial gut flora. To learn more, please listen to my interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) who has been involved with nutrition for about 20 years. She’s now one of Dr. Campbell-McBride’s chief training partners, helping people understand the food preparation process.

Probiotics to Prevent Clostridium difficile–Associated Diarrhea.

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Probiotic prophylaxis lowered the incidence of CDAD by 66%.

Antibiotic treatment disturbs the normal gastrointestinal flora and raises risk for Clostridium difficile–associated diarrhea (CDAD). To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of probiotics for preventing CDAD, researchers performed a systematic review and meta-analysis. CDAD was defined as an episode of diarrhea associated with a positive C. difficile culture or toxin assay.

Twenty randomized, controlled trials that involved 3818 adults and children were included in the analysis; 18 studies were placebo controlled. Information on antibiotic regimens was not provided. Probiotics used in the trials included Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Saccharomyces, and Streptococcus species.

Probiotics lowered the incidence of CDAD by approximately 66%. The incidence of adverse events, including abdominal cramping, nausea, fever and flatulence, was higher among controls than among probiotic recipients (12.6% vs. 9.3%); no serious adverse events were attributed to probiotics. The results were similar among children and adults, with lower and higher doses of probiotics, and across the different probiotic species.

Comment: The authors believe that their meta-analysis provides moderate-quality evidence to support a clinically significant protective effect of probiotics in preventing C. difficile–associated diarrhea. As with any meta-analysis, the quality of individual studies varied; the grading methodology used in this analysis required a larger sample size for the evidence to be considered high quality. Nevertheless, given the lack of serious adverse events, we might reasonably encourage use of probiotics, particularly for susceptible patients, such as those who are receiving broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Source:Journal Watch General Medicine

Pregnancy Alters Resident Gut Microbes.

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The microbes that reside in your gut are very much a living, and integral, part of you.

Far from being just passive bystanders, the bacteria are impacted by your health, your lifestyle and even your life stages – and they actively change in response to different periods of your life, like pregnancy.

Your Gut Microbes Change During Each Pregnancy Trimester to Support Fetal Growth

The composition of a woman’s gut microbes actually changes during each trimester of pregnancy in ways that support the growth of the fetus. This is largely influenced by the hormonal shifts that occur during pregnancy.

Interestingly, for the first time, research has shown the microbes actually become less diverse and the number of beneficial bacteria decline while disease-related bacteria increase. Under normal circumstances, such changes could lead to weight gain and inflammation, but in pregnancy, they induce metabolic changes that promote energy storage in fat tissue so the fetus can grow.1

The study’s lead author noted:2

“The findings suggest that our bodies have coevolved with the microbiota and may actually be using them as a tool — to help alter the mother’s metabolism to support the growth of the fetus.”

The importance of gut flora continues during and after birth, and may have a profound influence on the baby’s health and development. An article in Science Daily reported on the featured findings of one related study,3 stating:4

“Each individual’s community of gut microbes is unique and profoundly sensitive to environmental conditions, beginning at birth. Indeed, the mode of delivery during the birthing process has been shown to affect an infant’s microbial profile. Communities of vaginal microbes change during pregnancy in preparation for birth, delivering beneficial microbes to the newborn.

At the time of delivery, the vagina is dominated by a pair of bacterial species, Lactobacillus and Prevotella. In contrast, infants delivered by caesarean section typically show microbial communities associated with the skin, including Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium, and Propionibacterium.  While the full implications of these distinctions are still murky, evidence suggests they may affect an infant’s subsequent development and health, particularly in terms of susceptibility to pathogens.”

Interestingly, gut flora is not the only factor influenced by the method of birth. One recent study showed that vaginal birth triggers the expression of mitochondrial uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) in mice, which is important for improving brain development and function in adulthood. The expression of this protein was impaired in mice born via caesarean section (C-section).5

Mom’s Gut Bacteria Seriously Impacts Baby’s Future Health

Microorganisms in your gastrointestinal tract form a highly intricate, living “fabric” that affects body weight, energy, and nutrition, among other factors.

Not only is each individual’s community of gut microbes unique, but the groundwork for each person’s gut flora is laid from birth. In fact, the mode of delivery during the birthing process has been shown to affect an infant’s microbial profile. This is in part why it’s so important for pregnant women to become mindful of their gut health, as it will affect not just their own health, but also that of their child.

The health implications of this variation in gut bacteria acquired from birth is exactly what Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride‘s research sheds light upon. Her research shows there’s a profound dynamic interaction between your gut, your brain, and your immune system, starting from birth. She has developed what might be one of the most profoundly important treatment strategies for a wide range of neurological, psychological, and autoimmune disorders—all of which are heavily influenced by your gut health.

I believe her Gut and Psychology Syndrome, and Gut and Physiology Syndrome (GAPS) Nutritional program is vitally important for MOST people, as the majority of people have such poor gut health due to poor diet and toxic exposures, but it’s particularly crucial for pregnant women and young children.

According to Dr. Campbell-McBride, in children with GAPS, the toxicity flowing from their gut throughout their bodies and into their brains continually challenges their nervous system, preventing it from performing its normal function and process sensory information. GAPS may manifest in a wide range of symptoms, fitting the diagnosis of either autism, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD) without hyperactivity, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, just to name a few possibilities… She explained:

“What I see in the families of autistic children is that 100 percent of mom’s of autistic children have abnormal gut flora and health problems related to that. But then I look at grandmothers on the mother’s side, and I find that the grandmothers also have abnormal gut flora, but much milder.”

In essence, what we have is a generational build-up of abnormal gut flora, with each generation becoming ever more prone to being further harmed.

What Might be Putting Your Gut Flora at Risk?

If you’ve taken antibiotics or birth control pills, if you eat a lot of processed or sugary foods – even if you were bottle-fed as a baby, all of these can impact the makeup of bacteria and microbes in your gut.

For instance, we now know that breastfed babies develop entirely different gut flora compared to bottle-fed babies. Infant formula never was, and never will be, a healthy replacement to breast milk, for a number of reasons — altered gut flora being one of them.

Dr. Campbell-McBride discovered that a large percentage of the mothers of autistic children were bottle-fed. Then, as they received many courses of antibiotics throughout their childhood, the abnormalities in their gut flora further deepened.

“Ever since antibiotics were prescribed, particularly from the 50s and 60s, they were prescribed for every cough and sneeze. They really over-prescribed antibiotics. And with every course of antibiotics, the abnormalities in the gut flora would get deeper and deeper in these girls. And then, at the age of 15, 16, these ladies were put on a contraceptive pill… [which] have a devastating effect on the gut flora. Nowadays ladies are taking it for quite a few years before they’re ready to start their family.”

So, to recap, bottle-feeding along with over-use of antibiotics and use of the contraceptive pill set the stage for increasingly abnormal gut flora with each passing generation. Then, add to that a diet of processed junk food and excessive consumption of fructose and other sugars and you have a prescription for disaster in terms of gastrointestinal health.

Dr. Campbell-McBride continued:

“Many of these modern factors created a whole plethora of young ladies in our modern world who have quite deeply abnormal gut flora by the time they are ready to have their first child. This is the abnormal gut flora that they are passing through their children.

So these babies acquire abnormal gut flora from the start and while the baby is breastfed the baby is receiving protection because whatever is in the mother’s blood will be in her milk. Women who have abnormal gut flora would have immune factors in their blood, which they have developed against their own gut flora to protect them. These immune factors will be in their milk.

While the baby is breastfed, despite the fact that the baby has acquired abnormal gut flora from the mom, there will be some protection. But as soon as the breastfeeding stops that protection stops as well. That is the time when the abnormalities in the gut flora really flourish and the child starts sliding down into autism or ADHD or ADD or any other learning disability or physical problems such as diabetes type 1, for example, and celiac disease or other autoimmune conditions, or… asthma, eczema and other physical problems. That’s where this epidemic comes from.”

If You’re Pregnant, This is One of the Healthiest Types of Food to Eat

Maintaining optimal gut flora by eating raw food grown in healthy, organic soil and ‘reseeding’ your gut with fermented foods and probiotics (this is essential when you’re taking an antibiotic), may be one of the most important steps you can take to improve your health and your baby’s during pregnancy. If you aren’t eating fermented foods, you most likely need to supplement with a probiotic on a regular basis, especially if you’re eating a lot of processed foods.

If you’re pregnant, however, I strongly recommend adding fermented foods to your diet. You can ferment virtually any food, and nearly every culture has traditionally fermented their foods to prevent spoilage. There are also many fermented beverages and yoghurts.

Fermenting your own foods is a fairly straightforward process. To learn more, please listen to my interview with Caroline Barringer, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) who has been involved with nutrition for about 20 years and is an expert in the preparation of the foods prescribed in Dr. Campbell-McBride’s GAPS Nutritional Program.

What Can You do to Encourage Healthy Gut Flora Once Your Baby is Born?

Breastfeeding was designed by nature to ensure that your child’s gut flora develops properly right from the start, as it is loaded both with beneficial bacteria and nutrient growth factors that will support their continued growth. It also has powerful components that will inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria and yeast. So one of the most important foundational elements of building a healthy GI system for your child is to first eat a healthy diet with fermented foods while you’re pregnant, and then breastfeed (whenever possible) for at least one year after your child is born.

Providing abundant beneficial bacteria in the form of breast milk and, later, fermented foods is one of the most powerful ways to restore your baby’s gut flora.

Once your baby is ready to start solid foods, the first fermented food Dr. Campbell-McBride recommends for your infant is raw organic grass-fed yogurt (not commercial yogurt from the grocery store), because it’s well tolerated by most infants and children. It’s best to make your own yogurt at home from raw organic milk, and start with a very tiny amount. Once yogurt is well tolerated by your baby, then start introducing kefir. If you have any problems with cow’s milk, you can always try goat’s milk or substitute vegetables fermented with yogurt culture or kefir culture.

  • ·         Source: Dr. Mercola