The Scoop in your Poop

You are what you eat

The nutrients from our diet impact every cell in our body: their function, structure and integrity. And now we know that the bacteria in our body can turn on and off certain metabolic pathways. Boosting the good bacteria in your colon while limiting the bad bacteria through diet could prevent or improve inflammatory conditions. 

Are we creating some diseases ourselves by the foods we eat?

The cells in our body are constantly dying off and new ones are being made. There’s some indication that the overgrowth of bad bacteria is changing the DNA in this process of cell development and creating  inflammatory conditions which include autoimmune disease like lupus, fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis. Could the 23.5 million people in the U.S. with these conditions improve their symptoms through their diet?

Improving your gut microbiome

Jeff Leach, from the Human Food Project, states that even though understanding the gut microbiome is in the early stages of research, dietary fiber is very important. Dietary fiber feeds the good gut bacteria. Leach recommends:

  • Eat garlic and leeks. These are high in a prebiotic called inulin which feeds the good gut bacteria. Garlic also may kill some of the bad bacteria.
  • Eat more vegetables. Leach believes that they are the best source of fiber and that they should be eaten as whole as possible.
  • Boost your dietary fiber to as much as 50 gms daily in order to really change the gut microbiome. If you decide to do this, increase it gradually and boost your water intake.
  • Increase your intake of fermented foods like kimchi, miso, sauerkraut and yogurt.


An answer to improving and preventing autoimmune and other conditions might lie in dietary choices.