Catalyst: Gut Revolution

Catalyst has created two episodes exploring what happens to your health when you transform the bacteria living in your gut. Episode one will be broadcasted next week Tuesday 8:30pm.

Also worth mentioning is the latest research and discussions in international scientific communities. Mark McAfee, the president of the Raw Milk Institute, is part of a team who continue to learn more about the latest research and work with a variety of scientific communities. Mark has just returned from the annual IMGC conference (International Milk Genomics Consortium) which he has been attending for the last six years. In 2015 he and his wife Blaine attended the IMGC conference in Sydney and Mark was also the guest speaker at our Learn how to Lobby event. It will be truely fascinating if some of these latest insights are explored in the two Catalyst episodes.

 

Insights from the 14th annual IMGC Conference

The 14th annual IMGC (International Milk Genomics Consortium) conference was held in Quebec Canada. During the consortium conference researchers from universities from around the world presented their studies and projects. Mark McAfee listed some of the interesting take away points shared during Q&A periods. Here are two interesting quotes from the recent RAWMI Ripple newsletter: 

"Biodiversity is Essential to a healthy GUT MICROBIOME!

Dr. Bruce German, PhD at University of California, Davis, the founder of the International Milk Genomics Consortium (IMGC), presented research and studies that confirm that we must “Re-Wild our Gut”. A sterile conventional modern diet leads to a very low level of diversity of gut bacteria. The reduction of gut bacteria diversity is associated with auto-immune diseases and metabolic diseases! Wild diverse populations of good bacteria are foundational to our immunity and our ability to stay healthy and prevent illness. We must bring back the diversity of bacteria that make up the populations that: has an influence on our complex human metabolism, create vitamins, provide local immunity through competition for nutrients and gut cell attachment cites against potentially bad bacteria, create enzymes, stimulate the production of antibodies, digest food, create protective intestinal biofilms that heal and seal up the leaking gut thereby reducing allergies and immune reactions and a million critical and essential things that we have not discovered yet. The strength of our health and our microbiome is related directly to the diversity of bacteria that make their home in our gut. The message was clear… we must consume less processed or unprocessed foods and expose ourselves to good sources of beneficial bacteria. When we become too clean, our bodies become an auto-immune mess."

"Innate Populations of beneficial bifidobacteria are dropping and pH is rising!

100 years ago, bifidobacteria populations found in infants and children’s intestines were very high and the associated pH was much lower. The high level of good bacteria with an acidic environment allowed for better protection from pathogens and better digestion of proteins etc. Recent studies show that babies, infants and children in 2017 have dramatically reduced levels of bifidobacteria and the gut pH is far less acidic. The fall of bifidobacteria populations and rise of pH is an example of a human evolutionary change that is trending to a bad place. This trend is driven by processed infant formula foods, unnatural C-section birthing, use of pasteurized infant formulas and antibiotic use and abuse. The pH of the stomach of newborns and infants is high in the 4 range. Adults are in the 1-2 very acidic range. This is exactly why babies thrive on raw breast milk that contains proteins and also associated enzymes (proteases). In the higher pH of the infant stomach additional enzymes are required for protein digestion and these are found in raw breast milk. These enzymes are missing in processed milk! This also goes for utilization of dairy fats. Raw dairy fat contains lipase enzymes that assist in the utilization of fat and these enzymes are missing in processed dairy and butter. (Dr. David Dallas Oregon State University USA)."

Saving our microbiomes or saving the status quo?

The latest discussions in scientific communities are very encouraging but unfortunately this is no good news for some of the industrial and intensive farming industries of Australia.

Science show we need to "rewild our gut" because the conventional modern diet of sterile foods lead to a very low level of diversity of gut bacteria. This lack of diversity is associated with auto-immune and metabolic diseases. Wild, diverse populations of good bacteria are essential to our immunity and ability to stay healthy.

In Australia we have seen a lot of evidence in recent years that our government seem to support only industrial agriculture with its 'get big or get out' culture. In the process small scale, ethical and sustainable agricultural communities are disadvantaged by red tape and unfair regulations. The latest information coming from scientific communities show why it is essential that this unfair preference be reconsidered. Unsustainably farmed food often

require anti-biotics, pesticides, sterilisation or pasteurisation which harm or disadvantage our microbiome. Sometimes the food do not have healthy ratios of Omega-3 fatty acids and other vital nutrients because the animals were not pasture-raised. Why are low-risk, small-scale, sustainable farmers unfairly disadvantaged? Australians want to be able to choose what they eat. The current food production approach in Australia is actually harming our health, creating a sickness industry and destroying choice.

According to a recent 7 News report 63% of Australian adults are now overweight or obese and it is 27% for children. Is it then safe to assume that most people’s gut are in dysbiosis? That a self-destructive process is harming their healthy gut lining creating disease? And probiotic pills are not a saving grace because how do you replace the loss of hundreds of essential, different gut bacterial species with them when they seldom contain more than five different species? It is impossible. 

Clean and Green? Really?

Australia likes to maintain the image that anti-biotic use in food industries are done responsibly, but is it really transparent throughout the food supply? There are articles questioning the secrecy surrounding anti-biotic use on Australian farms, raising concerns about the creation of antibiotic resistance and superbugs. Another article recently discussed the rampant and unacceptable abuse of anti-biotics at some Australian farmed salmon operations. 

In June Australia’s most comprehensive report on antibiotic resistance was released by Aura, finding that, in 2014, 10.7 million Australians were prescribed antimicrobials – 46% of the population. Australia is among the highest  

prescribers of antibiotics in the world according to this article. “On any given day in an Australian hospital in 2014, 38.4% of patients were being administered an antimicrobial,” the report found. “Of these, 24.3% were noncompliant with guidelines and 23% were considered inappropriate.”

The rampant annihilation of our microbiome in the name of 'restoring health' and 'feeding the world in the future' is a disgrace! What sort of government allows such a thing? A government that value business and making money above all else at the expense of life?

Make better choices please.

Posted on October 15, 2017 by ARMM Admin and filed under Health and Research and tagged raw milk articles raw milk research international milk genomics consortium raw milk institute re-wilding our gut anti-biotics sustainable dairy farming.