Saturated fats can nourish inflammatory microbes. So can two common food additives, CMC and P80, used to lengthen the shelf life of ice cream, frozen desserts, and other processed foods; they also suppress anti-inflammatory bugs.25 Dietary fibre has the opposite effects. This is a catch-all term for various complex plant carbohydrates that our microbes can digest. Fibre has been a mainstay of health advice ever since Denis Burkitt, an Irish missionary surgeon, noticed that rural villagers in Uganda eat up to seven times more fibre than Westerners. Their stools are five times heavier, but pass
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