From what I understand, the two largest type of bacteria in the human gut are lactobacillus and bifidobacteria. You can get lactobacillus from fermented foods, but I believe that the only natural source of bifidobacteria is breastmilk.
For the past few months, I have been consuming only plant-based lactobacillus bacteria, trying to mimic the type of bacteria a person could consume in a natural (Paleo) environment. However, the more I look into bifidobacteria, the more important it seems.
For many newborns, the gut gets populated with bifidobacteria through breastmilk. Breastmilk contains a very high concentration of bifidobacteria. Some formulas now try to mimic this, but it is unclear as to how effective they are.
However, if a child isn't breastfed, then how would they ever get bifidobacteria in their gut? Adding lactobacillus won't help. Adding prebiotics may help, but usually this increases the amount of bifidobacteria already in the gut. If the bifidobacteria is not there in the first place, then I'm not sure how much the prebiotics can help.
There are a couple of studies that focus on the importance of bifidobacteria. This older study looks at the relationship between breatfeeding and obesity. It finds that breastfeeding for 3 to 6 months leads to a 35% reduction in the odds a child will be obese upon beginning school.
This study that was just published looks more at bifidobacteria and obesity. It found that by giving mice bifidobacteria, it reduced food intake, body weight, and lipids.
Most likely in Paleo times, bifidobacteria in the gut was stable throughout the lifetime. It was implanted through breastfeeding and then remained there over the years. Today, you have a variety of novel elements which can reduce bifidobacteria: antibiotics, oral contraceptives, food additives, pollution, etc.
Therefore, even though it may be "unnatural" to supplement with bifidobacteria since it doesn't naturally occur in food, it may in fact improve health in the modern world.
The breastfeeding studies seem to show that the obesity advantage wears off over time. With the amount of antibiotics that the modern child recieves over the years, this does not really surprise me.
Really interesting. Thanks for sharing.
I am fascinated with the role of bacteria, disease and what we eat. The more I read about them the more I consider them “guardian angels”. And it begins to look as if loss of good bacteria are behind a lot of health issues. The most important time to be colonized properly is at birth and to be breast fed and some of us missed the boat entirely. I then spent most of my childhood on antibiotics because I always caught something. So probiotics can be important.
Diet can play a huge role. As far back as the 1930′s they were looking into manipulating the diet to improve intestinal bacteria. Dr. Sydney V. Haas wrote “Management of Celiacs” after his long career in 1951, about a diet that does this. Thirty years later, Elaine Gottshcall’s book “Breaking the Viscious Cycle” continued his work. Then Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride’s book “Gut and Pscycology Syndrome” looks into it as well. All point to the modern sugary/starchy diet making the situation worse. We evolved on a certain diet and our protective bacteria evolved on that diet too.