Page 46 - EatingWell Special Edition Superfoods 2019

THE WILD WORLD

WITHIN

Scientist Jeff Leach is studying gut microbes that have the potential

to improve our weight, mood, allergies, heart and more.

BY GRETEL H. SCHUELLER

desert
ne
fi
B arefoot and coated in around the with Leach requires new rules of etiquette. Actu-
hops
dust,
Leach
Jeff
ally, it requires rethinking a whole slew of “rules.”
Leach
his
and
you
Once
get
to

talking
fire, adjusting logs. The fire’s roaring
re-

glow provides the only light as the search colleagues around the world, you quickly
sun sinks behind the Chisos Moun- realize it’s not just about changing dinner-table
tains and the desert air cools. etiquette—we may be changing how we talk about
It’s dinnertime here in Terlingua, the tiny health entirely. It all centers on the trillions of
town in southwest Texas that Leach sometimes bacteria living in our gut.
calls home. We’ve just finished piercing roughly We are more microbe than human. We each
chopped pieces of leek, onion, beef, green peppers carry an estimated four to 10 times more bacte-
and garlic onto metal skewers, and Leach works rial cells than human cells. If you could mush all
at balancing them over the fire. Juices sizzle, and the bacteria together, they’d be the size of a bas-
the roasting aroma makes my mouth water. ketball and weigh about 3 pounds.
“Have you ever held a colon in your hands?” The invisible world of bacteria that live on and
he asks. Whoa… in us is called the microbiome; the gut micro-
Talk of belly bacteria, stool samples, bowel move- biome is the term for the diverse collection liv-
ments or your colon isn’t supposed to be part of po- ing along our intestinal tract, where the bulk of
lite (or appetizing) dinner conversation. But eating our tiny partners make their home.

42 E A T I N G W E L L