Thursday, February 27, 2014

Self Inflicted Research

In Search of the Perfect Gut Microbiome with a Tribe of Tanzanian Hunter-Gatherers
Leach already investigated the effects of different diets on his microbiome—a collective term for the community of microorganisms that lives in your body—throughout 2013 by mapping his Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes levels (the two main bacterial phyla in the human gut) whilst changing the amounts of meat and fibre he ate. In 2014, he aims to bring his research to new and interesting heights with some really drastic research methods. The aim: to find the healthiest gut microbiome.
Throughout this year, Leach will undertake some radical diet and lifestyle changes to really knock his microbiome off kilter. He plans to explore the impact on his body of drinking binges and smoking copious amounts of weed, all while following certain diets. He will go on a raw food diet, a juicing diet, a vegan diet, an Atkins-type diet, a Mediterranean diet, a Paleo diet, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers diets … the list goes on, like a conversation you might hear if you hang around Whole Foods long enough. 
I doubt he makes it through more than a few without getting pretty sick.  Or crazy.  That's just not healthy.
And I'd bet some real money the optimal microbiome of dark skinned Africans is not optimal for pale European descendants. Those Neanderthals donated a few metabolic genes along the way.