This post summarizes episodes 61 & 62 of The Huberman Lab
61: How to enhance your gut microbiome for brain and overall health
62: Dr. Justin Sonnenburg: How to build, maintain & repair gut health
Dr. Justin Sonnenburg is a professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Stanford University. Dr. Sonnenburg’s research focuses on how microbes in our gut impact our mental and physical health and how diet and your environment shape your gut microbiome
TLDR
Eat refrigerated, low sugar fermented foods like no-sugar yogurt, kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut to improve microbiome diversity and reduce inflammation. This seems to be even more important than fiber.
Still v.early days for gut health research. Lots of unknowns.
Consider ditching the probiotic
Practical
Good for your microbiome
Refrigerated, fermented foods: no-sugar yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, no sugar added kombucha (let’s goo)
The basics of good health also impact gut health (good sleep, hydration, socializing, nutrition, limiting stress)
Bad for your microbiome
Likely artificial sweetners (aspartame, sucralose). We don’t know much about plant-based ones like stevia.
Processed foods
Antibiotics
Think twice before taking a pill/capsule probiotic. Excessive probiotic consumption has been linked with things like brain fog. Some studies have seen gut diversity plummet even.
Theory
Hundreds, possibly thousands of studies (mostly animal models, some human) have shown that creating the right environment for microbiota to thrive really does enhance mood/well-being
The million-dollar question in the field: how to know if a gut is healthy. No current consumer tests are really meaningful right now.
We know gut health is hugely influential, but we still don’t know a ton about how to control or measure it.
Our understanding of gut health is still rather mysterious
Generally, a healthy microbiome is a microbiome that has a lot of diversity, but can also have too much of some microbiota.
Unclear if fasting is helpful or harmful
What’s healthy for one gut may not be the other
Most studies related to gut health have been in animal models
The first three years of life are a critical period. Whether we were breast or bottle-fed, had multiple caregivers, were around animals, had lots of antibiotics…these things can significantly impact our propensity to have a healthy gut.
Landmark Stanford study looking at high fiber vs high fermented foods on gut health
One group high fiber, one group lots of fermented foods, one control group
They thought the fiber group was going to be the big winner. They were wrong. High fiber was a mixed bag…helped some but was detrimental to others
The fermented foods group saw increases in microbiome diversity, and even more importantly, decreases in markers of inflammation