The Good Gut Quotes

“registered dieticians, and other health professionals. Justin’s talk was the highlight of the event for me. It conveyed the excitement of discoveries about the human microbiome and suggested answers to puzzling questions I had about health conditions that are on the rise. Asthma, allergies, and autoimmunity have all increased in North America and other developed areas of the world. Why is the incidence of peanut allergy so much greater today than it was when I grew up in the 1950s? And what is the explanation for the spectacular increase in gluten sensitivity? That last question had bothered me greatly. Granted that gluten”
― Justin Sonnenburg, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long Term Health

“We encourage you to follow the changes occurring within your microbiota by participating in the American Gut Project. Although we are not involved in this crowd-funded science project, it is run by a team of well-respected scientists and has provided thousands of people with information about their microbiota. You can have your gut microbiota sequenced before and during your process of microbiota improvement to witness the changes to the new aspects of your diet and lifestyle. You will be provided with a report specifying the types of microbes that make up your microbiota and how it compares with others who have participated as well as to people living in developing regions of the world (Malawi and Venezuela). This information will not only allow a better view of your microbiota and how it compares with others, but will also contribute to the scientific understanding of these communities. To guide you in your journey of microbiota revitalization, we recommend submitting multiple samples—an initial sample to document where your microbiota started out, then one or more after you have made dietary and lifestyle adjustments in order to see how these changes are impacting your gut community over time. This will not only be informative but may also motivate you to keep improving the health of your microbiota.”
― Justin Sonnenburg, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health

“This chicken-and-egg problem is common in scientific research and is often difficult to address. Often we can say with certainty only that two factors (the microbiota and obesity, in this case) are correlated or coincident, but not necessarily causally related. However, here is where the power of the gnotobotic mouse can really be seen. Jeff’s team transplanted the microbiota from the obese mice into lean mice with no previous microbiota. Suddenly the lean mice with the obese microbiota began to gain weight, even though there had been no change in their diet or exercise habits! What these scientists had shown, to the surprise of many, was that the gut microbiota is enough to cause weight gain in an otherwise lean, healthy mouse. These findings forced the scientific community to reframe our view of the gut microbes. Clearly the microbiota is not just a collection of innocuous bacteria loitering within our gut. These bacteria are capable of profoundly changing the biology of their host and may be a major contributor to one of the most alarming health issues in the Western world.”
― Justin Sonnenburg, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health

“Застосування антибіотиків у дітей пов’язане з ризиком низки недуг, як-от: астма, екзема й навіть ожиріння. Як лікування антибіотиками може призвести до цих захворювань, поки не відомо, але схоже, що розлади мікрофлори спричиняють проблеми, які, на перший погляд, не пов’язані з кишечником.”
― Джастін Зонненбурґ, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health

“Regardless of the issues with defining and measuring dietary fiber, if you examine the Nutrition Facts Labels of many packaged foods, you will find that dietary fiber is lacking in much of what we normally eat. Packaged foods made with refined flour and copious amounts of added sugars provide no sustenance for the microbiota and likely translate into guts populated by starving microbes. The FDA recommends that an adult male consume 38 grams of dietary fiber per day while a woman should consume 29 grams. Despite these recommendations, the average American consumes a measly 15 grams of dietary fiber per day, a deficiency that is undoubtedly contributing to the malformation of the Western microbiota. While images of emaciated microbes may be floating through your mind, this is not strictly the case: bacteria can be extremely resourceful in their dietary-fiber-deprived state. That is because they have another source of carbohydrates, our intestinal mucus. During times of low fiber consumption, gut bacteria can sustain themselves on the carbohydrates that our intestinal cells continually secrete into the gut environment, which serves as a barrier to protect our own human cells from direct contact with the microbiota. But by feasting on mucus carbohydrates, our microbes deplete the protective gut mucus layer, compromising barrier function and increasing inflammation. While the long-term effects of less gut mucus on human health are still unknown, preliminary experiments suggest that loss of intestinal mucus can lead to colitis. But the microbiota is very adaptable: provide sustenance in the form of dietary fiber and many microbes will switch their focus from eating your mucus to eating your most recent meal.”
― Justin Sonnenburg, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health

“After a single FMT an astounding 81 percent of these recurrent infections were cured, compared to the 31 percent cure rate in the group that tried another round of antibiotics alone. A second FMT was performed on the remaining 19 percent of nonresponders and the overall cure rate climbed to 94 percent. This cure rate was so high that the researchers felt it was unethical to continue the study and abruptly terminated it and offered FMTs to all the participants.”
― Justin Sonnenburg, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health

“colonize the gut may determine our interactions with the environment, protecting us from or predisposing us to the development of allergy and autoimmunity. They may protect us from or predispose us to becoming obese or diabetic. They may inhibit or intensify inflammation in the body. They may interact with artificial sweeteners to cause insulin resistance and weight gain in some individuals. They may even influence mental function and emotional wellness. I first heard about this new view of the microbiome from one”
― Justin Sonnenburg, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long Term Health

“The lesson here is that it is possible that raising children in an overly hygienic environment could have a long-lasting detrimental impact on the development of their immune systems.”
― Justin Sonnenburg, The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-term Health