Humans Living in Cities Are Slowly Losing Their Ability to Digest Plants

Western, industrialized diets are seriously lacking in fiber, and it may be fundamentally changing the way our guts digest tough plant matter.

Even though fruit and vegetables are a key part of the human diet, scientists are just beginning to understand how our bodies break down the most abundant organic compound on Earth: cellulose, the tough material that lines the cell walls of plants.

Now, a new study by an international team of researchers has discovered previously unknown microbes hiding in the human gut that are capable of breaking down cellulose.

For decades, it was assumed that cellulose could not be broken down by the human body like it could be in the guts of cows, horses, sheep, or other mammals. Only in 2003 did scientists discover human gut bacteria that could digest these fibers, after all.
The recent study relied on the genes of that same bacterium to search for others like it. The exhaustive analysis used fecal samples to test the gut microbiome of humans from different times and regions. The findings suggest we have more in common with farm animals than we once thought.

Our guts, as it turns out, possess several species of cellulose-munching microbes that have evaded our notice until now. One species is strongly associated with ungulate mammals that chew cud, another with primates, and another with humans.

All three belong to the genus Ruminococcus – known to already have representatives in healthy (and unhealthy) human guts – and possess genes involved in the digestion of cellulose.

In fecal samples from hunter-gatherers, rural populations, and ancient humans living between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago, the three types of microbe were abundant.

Yet in populations from modern, industrialized societies, the same gut microbes were "conspicuously rare".

"These findings collectively imply a decline of these species in the human gut, likely influenced by the shift toward westernized lifestyles," write the study authors, led by microbiologist Sarah Moraïs from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

It's possible, the researchers explain, that if Ruminococcus microbes are deprived of plant fiber, their numbers in the gut decrease. The fear is that these missing species are somehow contributing to poor metabolic health among modern, urbanized people.

That possibility still needs to be investigated, but the authors of the current study think there "may be potential for intentional reintroduction or enrichment of these species in the human gut" through dietary supplements or specialized probiotics.

Today, some studies suggest that current fiber intake guidelines are too low in industrialized societies, and that human health may be suffering as a result.

Initial research shows that cellulose supplements, like plant fibers, can result in multiple and varied health benefits, including changes in gut microbes, immune responses, and gene expression.

But this avenue of research as a whole is "rather unexplored". While the associations appear promising, the underlying mechanisms are largely a mystery.

The current study is an important step forward, as it brings to light previously unknown gut bacteria that may be important players in the health of the human gut, historically.

The evolutionary analysis "strongly suggests" that the human-associated strain of Ruminococcus bacteria was originally transferred to us from the gut of ruminants, possibly during domestication.

Living with animals, therefore, may have improved our ability to digest plants. Since taking up shop in our guts, these Ruminococcus microbes have made the human body their own.

Compared to Ruminococcus species in the guts of other mammals and non-human primates, the ones in us appear to have adapted to their new ecosystem and acquired genes from neighboring gut microbes.

After thousands of years, however, this feat of 'colonization' may be under threat. In some parts of the world, the human gut may no longer provide a suitable home for these microbes.

What this is doing to our health is currently unknown.

The study was published in Science.


https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/other/humans-living-in-cities-are-slowly-losing...

so the answer is to take pills - what a modern approach

Spot

Our diets are full of over processed foods.

I take 1 probiotic capsule a day to try and maintain better gut health .....

If the human gut is evolving minus gut bacteria that can dissolve/digest cellulose then what good would it be taking "cellulose" capsules????

I would have thought a capsule containing these Ruminococcus microbes to reinstate the ability to digest cellulose would be what's required ... not cellulose capsules???

Gnads wrote on Apr 15^th, 2024 at 9:51am:



Gut health is essential.
Probiodics are no good without prebiodics.

Been on carnivore for well over 6mths now.
I recommend everyone try it.

Everything you've been brainwashed with over the years is all ways of keeping you prescribed to modern medicine treaents.
"here, take a pill for that problem" instead of "what's causing that problem?

when you go against mother nature, you lose
but only 100 % of the time.

aquascoot wrote on Apr 15^th, 2024 at 5:02am:



Why? To virtue signal?

You're most inconsistent in regards to the effectiveness of this "strategy".

At this point, i'm inclined to think you utterly misunderstand both the concept and how to apply the accusation of it in argument.

But then again, it's you. It wouldn't be a day ending in 'y' if you didn't contradict yourself. Hard not to ... when you spout as much horseshit as you.

a lot of those "pills' are really a scam.

the desired bacteria are anerobes (ie killed by oxygen)
so you need a first class freeze drying facility to actually make the bugs viable in the gut  and as mothra says you need to feed the bugs fibre (carrots, celery and cucumber etc)or they die

some foods are helpful

proper natural yoghurt
pickled foods and suaekrautt
kamboocha tea
miso
kimchi


the bowel is essential for mental health as well as physical health

As all our common food is grown from genetic modify seeds it’s a uphill battle.

Wheat is now so different  to 30 years ago our bodies struggled to understand what it is.

Our backyards are now townhouses, big yards and home gardens a time of past Australia.

Everything comes from the supermarket and it’s all been “enhanced” for profit not suitably.

Real bread, not the supermarket crap in plastic bags is the ideal food for gut bacteria. Sourdough ryebread excellent.

Supermarket bread is baked within an hour of of yeast, flour and water being mixed. No taste, no guts (it is all air) little benefit to the body.) Small seeds (sesame, poppy etc) on the bread fight gut cancer.

Rye bread doesn’t rise: it does have gluten but not the same as wheat and barley. The bread is dense and delicious.

aquascoot wrote on Apr 15^th, 2024 at 5:02am:


Pointless. Our DNA is evolving to require processed carbs and meat, full of antibiotics and various antiseptics. If you don't eat this muck, you'll probably die.

Enjoy!

Dirty Paki Khunt wrote on Apr 19^th, 2024 at 2:15pm:


Ah so that's what you get up to in Thailand, fecal therapy.

freediver wrote on Apr 19^th, 2024 at 9:46am:

*vomits

Yuk!

mothra wrote on Apr 19^th, 2024 at 6:30am:


No.

Everyone should be aware that fibre is an essential part of your diet.

You could have shortened that long winded article and  just said .... that cellulose/fibre is essential to good gut health.

Daves2017 wrote on Apr 19^th, 2024 at 9:12am:


GM or not our grains & vegetables are still plant material and is cellulose/fibre.

You do realise that plant hybridisation began with the very first grains ever used i.e wheat, rice, oats, corn, barley, sorghum, rye, millet etc.
via selective plant breeding?

And most GM of grain/ cereal crops is done using other plant material?

e.g. Triticale -

Quote:

Gnads wrote on Apr 20^th, 2024 at 9:38am:


Interesting post and points.

I can understand the commercial reality in better crops = bigger sales but if we look at nature, in this example dog breading.
The breading of pure breads often leads to sick and disabled animals inbred .

The more humans try and “ improve “ nature the more we seem to destroy it?

We're losing our ability to process a lot of things....

Gnads wrote on Apr 20^th, 2024 at 5:28pm:


I recommend baked, otherwise you might have trouble digesting them.

Gnads wrote on Apr 20^th, 2024 at 5:28pm:


Any

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2161831322013114#:~:text=In%20the%20linear%20dose%E2%80%93response,judged%20from%20low%20to%20moderate.

How many plants did the Eskimos eat?

Did they evolve by eating whatever they had, would anemic vegans cope with Eskimo diet?

lee wrote on Apr 20^th, 2024 at 7:33pm:



I can't begin to imagine the batshit crazy rabbit holes you've jumped down.

mothra wrote on Apr 21^st, 2024 at 6:43am:



Is that on a par with all over the place like - a mad womans shyte?

Asking in deference to your wealth of knowledge in that department.