Is the Gut Microbiome a Network

Last year, we discovered something that changed our understanding of personal health. Our team at biotic health ingredient developer Clever Fruit became puzzled by some research results. Here’s what happened!

A research study in Italy measured the impact of adding fruit to a Mediterranean (Med) diet. The researchers discovered the added fruit provides a significant health kicker.

The results were both obvious, as expected, and shocking because the impact was far greater than the input.

That made us wonder if the #microbiome was acting as a network and that network laws and principles were in effect.

Then this spring a research team in Paris made this statement as part of publishing the latest and most ambitious evidence that the microbiome acted under network rules. ?

“The gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem whose members develop local interactions to form coherent functional communities “.

University of Paris Study – April 2024 Gut microbiome co-abundance networks varies with age, sex, smoking status, and body mass index

The academic research world has been pondering the body’s microbiome, particularly its connected characteristics for many years. Previous studies have shown the body seems to respond to disease in a network fashion. This includes a 2020 study in the Netherlands that highlighted the possibility.

However, the scientific method requires acceptable measurements to produce evidence of proof. ?The Paris research team for the first time used a method called Tara Co-abundance. ?And they summarize that “they (microbiome) exploit the same class of resources or work together as a coherent functional group.”

That is impressive evidence on a topic that most scientists have always agreed is likely true. But until proven, the scientist can’t, or won’t, deploy it. But you can.

What does it mean that our gut microbiome operates as a network? What possibilities evolve? A few opportunities become immediately apparent.

1.???? Networks are much more powerful. If the network effect is invoked; networks can become immensely more powerful than the sum of the original inputs. If our health were a network, if we each had a ‘health network’, it would change much of what we know about optimum health.

?2.???? If our immunity operated using network math, we could eliminate ‘the how to manage’ mystery. In particular, people could more easily plan to manage their health.

3.???? Networks have energy, direction, momentum, and sequences. Understanding how different foods impact our health, could lead to new understandings of using diet to affect our health network.

?4.???? Network math suggests networks can be spiked, jolted you might say, in a specified direction. If we understand the network relationships, we could build products to provide boosts, spike the network, and potentially, alter health outcomes.

Of particular interest to Clever is the body’s production of #phenolics. Phenolics are what the body creates from food and animal compounds we call antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, or antimicrobial.

In a typical meal, the body creates broad arrays of phenolics from the available food compounds and adds this to our microbiome. Fruit is one of the most accessible and rich resources of food compounds that convert to phenolics. In the study, the addition of fruit to the Med diet provided participants with an extra daily load of phenolics.

The Med diet is noted for its balance and healthy nutrients and should on its own provide a human with a strong healthy microbiome. Adding a small amount of fruit should be helpful. However, the type of results in the Italian study suggest that some type of network math is at play. That something like a network effect is occurring.

The possibility of a health network effect occurring is exciting. The possibility of us being able to manage a health network effect for ourselves is liberating.

You meet people enjoying these benefits all the time. You will think they glow, they are vibrant, engaged, and energized. That health is available for everyone.

At Clever, that’s our mission. To build products full of powerful phenolic so you can spike your network and move toward your health network effect. And to help people to understand how to use a food-as-medicine. Not to heal, but rather to prevent illness from ever occurring.

We ferment fruit and that #fermentation creates phenolics. Choose a better superfruit, design a fermentation microbe (yeast, bacteria, enzymes) combination and you can produce a unique and specific set of phenolics.

Clever modulates gut microbiome by developing fermented biotic ingredients. If you are a consumer manufacturer of #functional food, #nutraceuticals, or #pharmaceuticals, we should be talking.

Stay tuned for a new white paper we expect to publish soon.

In the meantime, think of the last person you met who looked incredibly good. What words would you use to describe them? Add to the comment section and see what others have come up with!