I got interested in research into the microbiome during my
experience researching my last book called Cooked.
And as part of that research I explored the whole subject of fermentation.
The book is a series of accounts of the different transformations of
nature into meals and culture that we perform.
And, one of the most important of those is, is fermenting food and
beverages and and, and baking bread and things like that.
So I began learning a lot about microbiology which is
central to whether you're baking a loaf of bread or making sauerkraut.
And there is a a very interesting ecological succession that goes on,
and so I go acquainted some microbes for
the first time and began to get over my, inherited bias against microbes.
I mean, I was brought up in a house where germs were considered the enemy, and,
and I certainly had all my, many courses of antibiotics along the way and, and
we were told always to wash our hands, and fear any food that was left out,
and milk that had soured, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So, in the course of researching fermentation and learning how to do it, I,
I started changing my relationship to bacteria.
Started regarding them on, on somewhat friendlier terms.
And [COUGH] and then I started learning about the,
the relationship between the bacteria we ingest and the bacteria in our own bodies.
And that we are inhabited by trillions of these, of these little organisms.
And they represent about 90% of the the cells in your body.
And that there is a very important relationship going on
between the bacteria out there and bacteria in here.
And, and that’s when I, got the idea of,
of writing something, about microbiome in particular.
Just around that time, I was contacted just completely serendipitous
by Jeff Leach who's involved with the human microbiome project.
And he was looking for someone who might be willing to
try one of the early protocols and be sampled and and
have his results put up on your website and things like that.
And my assistant pulled Jeff's email out of a giant pile of,
of public emails that I get and said, you now,
this sounds like, up your alley, and, and, and similar to what you're working on.
So, I, I got in touch with Jeff, he organized a call with Rob Knight,
and I learned about the project, and immediately wanted to participate.
And that was the beginning of that journey of exploration.
I think the American-Gut project is important because it's a,
it's an opportunity for lots of people to fairly cheaply get their,
their gut bacteria and other bacteria sequence and learn something about it, and
not only that compare it to a large sample of the public.
And you can actually look at where you stand vs-a-vie other people and
what, what, what microbes are predominant in you.
And how those might correlate with your lifestyle and your diet and
all that kind of thing.
So it's very different than just going to the doctor and getting a a sample done.
You're participating in, also in citizen science.
I mean you're contributing to a database that hopefully will have some use.
I mean the more people who, who participate, the more with,
with say particular conditions or you know, people with diabetes, or
people who are overweight, or underweight and, and correlations will emerge.
It's a, it's a form of populist epidemiology in the making.
And so I think it has a lot of value for the individual participating in
that you get this snapshot and hopefully it'll have value for the science as well.