Now we know that our microbiom determines our health. In 2012, a project co-created by the American Gut Project, Earth Microbiome Project and the Human Food Project was created to investigate the types of microbes inhabiting the human body. By 2017, 15096 samples from 11,336 people were collected. The main group of respondents were Americans (n = 7.860) followed by the British (n = 2.518) and Australians (n = 321). The focus was on healthy people, aged 20 to 69, with a BMI of 18.5-30 kg / m2, who were free from diseases such as IBD, diabetes, and who had not taken antibiotics in the last year.
Collected data has showed that it was not the type of diet itself (vegan or unrestricted diet) but the variety of plant-derived products consumed that influenced the diversified intestinal microflora. People who consumed more than 30 different plant-based foods during the week had a more varied flora than those who consumed only 10 or less. This is one of the reasons that a diet containing different types of dietary fiber and resistant starch is likely to support a more diverse microbial community. Diversity acts as a protective trait that helps the intestines to prepare for stressful situations such as antibiotic therapy, stress, dietary stressors and infections
What can we count as plant products? Vegetables, fruits and also seeds, grains and nuts. What is our diet like today? Do we care about diversity in our busy lives? Do people who live alone have a harder to achive this? Dear friends, I encourage you to reflect on this research.
An idea for a dish that contains 8 vegetable products - pasta with vegetables and nuts: pumpkin, kale, tomatoes, onions, garlic, parsley, peanuts, pasta, olive oil
Ref:McDonald D, Hyde E, Debelius JW, Morton JT, Gonzalez A, Ackermann G, et al. American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research. mSystems. 2018; 3 (3): e00031-18.
