A Bite-Sized Look Into Our Gut Microbiome

Going beyond yogurt — how what we eat everyday may have a greater impact on our gut microbiome.

Our gut microbiome is influenced by many things — not just yogurt or probiotics (Photo by me).

Who would have thought that 2020 would be the year where a teeny, tiny, invisible microorganism would take the world by storm? While a certain virus is threatening health infrastructure and populations at a global level, other invisible colonies are working hard to keep our environment, health and wellbeing in balance.

Microorganisms exist in a world where there is power in their numbers. For example, microorganisms existing in our own body outweigh our own human cells 10:1, over 100 trillion bacteria reside solely in our gut and make up an estimated 1–3% of our total body mass.

Microbes have also existed for billions of years, colonizing our planet long before the human race. Therefore, the ecosystem we are evolving to have with these teeny tiny organisms is — relatively speaking — only recently becoming uncovered.

Microorganisms existing in our own body outweighs our own human cells 10:1

What is our microbiome?

Different communities of microbes populate different areas of our body, not just in our gut. For example, a certain bacteria found on our skin produces toxins to combat harmful…