probiotic puzzles/Re: bacteria now!

[Guest guest]

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> > there's good bacteria in things we eat. some of it i know we put

there,

> > such as kefir. some of it we don't - such as lactobacillus. the

question

> > is, where does it come from? is it all environmental? is there

good

> > bacteria in meat, for example? if so, was it there already, or is

it

> > environmental?

> >

> > -katja

> >

>

> Meat I don't think would have anything in it you would want to have

culture into large populations in your intestines.

> It is an animals immune systems job to keep out foreign life forms

form the bodies tissues.

> Bacteria and spores are common in the air we breath.

>

> Bruce

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Realizing that fermented foods are very traditional, but actually

very recent in human evolution (fermented cabbages, dairy, etc

apparently only emerging in the past few thousand years), I have

often wondered what the true probiotics of human food traditions

are. It is one of those difficult conundrums of 2 million

year " traditions " (like eating meat) vs " since the last ice

age " " traditions " (like fermented dairy, any grain-food

traditions). I don't have any confident knowledge about this

probiotic puzzle, but one of my theories is that commonly eating raw

meat and would've kept a supply of bacteria in the diet. Maybe there

is a decent supply of LAB in raw meat? Another possibility is that

people got enough bacteria from incidental sources like air or water,

or maybe on the surface of fruits of veggies, eaten raw and

unwashed? Another possibility is that it might take very little

externally supplied good bacteria to have good digestive health, and

that the more concentrated probiotic foods of recent human history

are compensations for departures from optimal diets resulting from

the adaptation of new ingredients and methods of processing. So

maybe people during most of human history simply didn't need much

probiotic help? Of course, it's also possible they commonly

suffered from awful digestive problems and died young, etc. We

probably just don't know. I'm just articulating possibilities here;

I have little basis for believing any of them. If anyone is more

knowledgeable on this topic, please share, because it has been

nagging at me for a long time! The history of probiotics and

instestinal health over the full course of our species' existence

would make a great research topic for a phd student in some

appropriate field like medicine, anthropology, nutrition, etc. If

there was a good book on this topic I'd read it tomorrow.

Mike

SE Pennsylvania

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. --Alan Kay