A new study says that we take our microbiome wherever we go, from house to house, from hotel to hotel. Our personal microbiome can even be used to identify us, like fingerprints or DNA.

However, maybe the most important news in today’s Houston Chronicle (repeated in many other news sources) article about is a quotation from Dr. Lisa Helbling Chadwick of the National Institutes of Health. Although she was not involved with the study, she says that the results are important because it evaluated healthy people (sounds like Dr. Weston A. Price’s research, doesn’t it?) and begins to show “what’s normal in a regular home.” But here is the quotation I found so amazing:

Instead of relying on killing bugs to stop the spread of infection, maybe we need to cultivate better bugs. [emphasis added]

Wow! She proposes we “cultivate better bugs”! Mainstream health and government organizations (the FDA with its “kill step” for example) have consistently been recommending, even mandating, killing all bacteria. For decades, the medical industry has way overprescribed antibiotics that kill all bacteria, not just bad bacteria, and have recommended heavy use of sanitizers and sterilizers. Are these organizations finally waking up to the importance of encouraging healthy bacteria?

Although, if they admit the need at all, the medical industry will probably respond by recommending probiotic pills, they are not the best way to ensure a healthy personal microbiome.  A better way is to include beneficial bacteria in your diet by eating fermented vegetables and fruits, sourdough bread, cultured cheeses, kefir, yogurt, and other similarly prepared traditional foods.  All traditional cultures included fermented foods in their diets, even back to neolithic times. [source]  In fact, almost all foods can be fermented–vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, beans, grains, and beverages.  The jars in the photo are homemade lacto-fermented mango chutney.

Here’s how important our diet is to our microbiome: Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s research team tested fermented vegetables and found that “one serving of vegetables was equal to an entire bottle of a high potency probiotic! So clearly, you’re far better off using fermented foods.” [source]

For more information about healthy bacteria and fermented foods:

Fermented Foods Contain 100 TIMES More Probiotics than a Supplement
Gut and Psychology Syndrome