The Nature Of Things – It Takes Guts

Following on from my previous post, this presentation delves even deeper into a world that is constantly revealing new evidence that what we eat is not just food for us but also millions of microbes that, if ignored, can affect our health in ways we never imagined. We meet scientists who are applying what they’ve learned in the laboratory to our everyday lives, and even experimenting on themselves with some intriguing methods (involving a turkey baster!).

Enhanced with great graphic animations, the documentary reveals how we have come to damage our microbiome, and offers possible ways to restore what has now become known as our “inner rain forest” an appropriate analogy considering what we are also doing to the planets rain forests.

It describes how exciting new research has revealed a missing piece in the obesity puzzle and that there is an entire ecosystem in (and on) our bodies that dictate many aspects of our health.

Some of these organisms are pathogens that lead to disease but many are actually our biggest allies, but by viewing them as our enemy, we have unwittingly damaged our bodies and because of our modern, highly processed Western diet and sometimes unnecessary use of antibiotics, some of these bacteria that once thrived in our body are near extinction leading to an obesity rate that is out of control and chronic ill health beyond expectation.

Tim Spector (who features in The Nature Of Things), Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, Director of the TwinsUK Registry, Kings College London, presents “Gut microbiome” at the Swiss Re Institute’s “Food for thought: The science and politics of nutrition” conference on 14 – 15 June 2018 in Rüschlikon.