Gut Reaction
The medical community has long professed the numerous risk factors associated with an unhealthy diet. The foods we eat can play a primary role in determining our vulnerability towards many potentially life-threatening conditions including obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes.
But current nutritional research studies are examining the links between diet and chronic disease from a promising new perspective: the interactions between the bacteria in food and our gut.
According to the revealing insights presented in the new documentary Gut Reaction, the key to disease prevention may lie in how we chose to nourish the bacteria that resides in our intestines. For many years, science regarded bacteria in much the same way as the public at large. Bacteria were viewed as nasty and threatening parasitic life forms that must be avoided and protected against at all costs. Just a few short years ago, however, modern technologies allowed us a peek into the inner workings of the microbial world like never before.
Through extensive study which remains ongoing, we've come to understand the many benefits associated with the bacteria which exists within our bodies. This "good" bacteria regulates our immune system and determines our defenses against potentially harmful bacteria from the outside world. In so doing, it also maintains a crucial role in the areas of mental and physical wellness.
Gut Reaction shows us how nature works to acclimate us to the presence of beneficial bacteria from the very beginning stages of life. Through the process of vaginal childbirth, the newborn is awash in the healthy bacteria of their mother, and this creates a sanctuary from which they can build defenses against harmful environmental elements. Researchers now believe that the alarming rise in cesarean births has denied many infants of this security, and increased incidents of asthma, allergies and other chronic conditions have been the result. This dynamic carries on into adulthood and is often reflected by the foreign and unhealthy bacteria that dwell in many of the foods we eat.
Could our bacteria be the ultimate barometer for measuring our risks for the world's most catastrophic diseases? Gut Reaction captures the promises of this exciting new realm of nutritional research, and suggests a fresh approach to the ailments that limit our longevity as a species.
Another great documentary on microbiata I just watch is called The Gut: Our Second Brain. It shows the gut has the intelligence of a dog, and a dog is pretty smart. It communicates with the upper brain continuously. In addition, the microbiata is considered intelligent, another brain, which weighs about 4-5 lbs. in a human adult.
I just finished watching Bacterial World: Microbes That Rule Our World - twice. I hope Gut Reaction is as valuable. Fascinating that we can take the microbiata from a fat mouse, and inject It into a skinny mouse - and the skinny mouse rapidly gains weight. Eventually it reverts, however. Perhaps the skinny mouse microbiata reorganizes and conquers the newly introduced microbiata. Lots of other intriguing data. But I am just learning about this so I have little comparative knowledge.
I radically changed my diet a few years ago, and now it is solely based on probiotic, living foods. Kefir made from raw milk and raw honey. Lots of living, beneficial bacteria - and the body feels more lively, like it is growing younger. So, I'm going with it.
This was just another contribution of people radically changing their diet in one direction or another to substantiate another theory put forward by yet another group of theorists with scientific beliefs. It trumps 'super size me' and 'that sugar film' simply by virtual reality graphs and the names of some gut flora. The biggest give away to ignorance was having someone with Ibs to eat onion. Really? The worst fodmaps offender known to humans!
The take away message is to eat better food but question the sanity of the 'professional' presenter with no insight into Ibs or fodmaps making a silly show about diet.
Very elaborate presentation for a basic message.
@ST. Fox can you name some of those documentaries? I'm trying to find some.
In other words: you are what you eat. garbage in—garbage out. if you eat like ****, then you're gonna look & feel like ****, eventually.
I don't think the food industry is doing enough to create gut healthy foods for the typical lazy American.
Eating well is all fine and good, but overcoming culture is the real problem.
Be wary. Certain drug companies will try to obstruct this research being put into practice. Fecal transplantation obviously works. Some drug companies will take issue with that.
Getting ready to watch this. Sincerely hope some mention is made of the insecticide spliced into the DNA of genetically modified "food" and how that poison kills off intestinal bacteria.
this is an ok doc - but it really is NOT cutting edge information. Everything in this documentary has been what I though was common knowledge for years... Its okay for people new to health, but to be honest there are sooo many better, more scholarly films on this topic.
I am sorry but there are no 'good' and 'bad' bacteria. Nature is not moralistic. What we choose to call bacteria are created when they are needed, either to remove that which is incompatible with the body or to aid in other processes.
Bacteria are scavengers. This really is basic biology. There are no 'germs'. Germs were invented by a chemist (Louis Pasteur) who plagiarised others' work for his own ends.
"What we choose to call bacteria are created when they are needed, either to remove that which is incompatible with the body or to aid in other processes."
I don't understand that sentence, are you saying the body creates bacterias?
Okay, while I understand your point—it is mute. Labeling of "good" and "bad" is not defined as moralistic views of the bacteria.. The bacteria do not have cognitive function. He is exemplifying the fact that bacteria can do "good" or "bad" things to our body. I think you are taking his context to an unintended level. He is most likely, not a biologist, and does not intend to moralize bacteria...
And to be as facetious as possible, there are germs... They are part of a plant, mainly wheat :P.
Sincerely,
Friendly Biologist/MPH
Are you saying there are no such things as Pathogens that cause disease? That Germ Theory is incorrect?
This could be a life-changing documentary. It's extremely informative and well done. It may have even inspired me to forgo the Betty Crocker cake mix and frosting on sale dirt cheap this weekend even though I do love a bargain. It makes me glad I do eat a fair bit of fibre and will be more careful to continue to. And maybe a little less sugar on some of that fibre (oatmeal) in the future.
Ha, well I am glad this doc made you forgo more processed foods, BUT I do think it is common sense that there are an exponential amount of biological and physiological factors impacted NEGATIVELY by the shift in food culture, especially in the United States. Hence, the incredible, unrelenting rise in chronic diseases and obesity.