The Microbiome Solution by Robynne Chutkan - Book Review

Robynne Chutkan looks a lot like one of my closest friends, so I was predisposed to like her book, The Microbiome Solution.

She is a gastroenterologist, and her work has helped many people struggling with difficult health problems, especially those who have taken many courses of antibiotics for various infections and then find themselves getting sick more and more frequently. Clearly, depleting the most beneficial species in your microbiome with broad-spectrum bacteria-killing drugs leads to weakened immunity as there will not be a healthy microbial ecology to resist invaders and modulate immune response.

Other cases include patients with irritable bowel problems, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disorders, weight problems, eczema, fatigue, brain fog, and Crohn's. 

Chutkan's approach to the problem is the "Live Dirty, Eat Clean Plan" which she mentions so often that it starts to become irritating. What it eventually boils down to is that to be healthier, most people need to worry less about hygiene and killing their microbes (the "Live Dirty" part) and focus more on eating foods that will nurture a healthier internal ecosystem (the "Eat Clean" aspect). Such foods include fresh fibrous vegetables, legumes, fruits, seeds, and some whole grains.

The great thing is that Chutkan has helped a lot of people with this approach, although sometimes the healing takes a year or longer. For this, she is to be congratulated.

However, I take exception to some of Chutkan's dramatic statements that a person primarily eating eggs, meat and fish would be getting "no nutrition." While it might be true that most bacteria in the lower GI tract would not get a lot from such foods, a great deal of nutrition would be absorbed in the upper GI tract, providing much protein and amino acids for energy and growth. I also find the global assertions that common grains such as wheat and corn are bad, and that dairy is bad, for everyone, to be going too far while so much research remains to be done. If that were true, why do Bulgarian peasants eating a traditional diet of yogurt and bread live such long, healthy lives? Why are some Latin people so well-adjusted on a diet that includes corn as a major component? Clearly, some people can eat these things, beneficially.

What I hope for is that sooner rather than later, microbiome research will take into account ethno-genetic, cultural, and lifestyle factors as part of the equation, when researching what leads to either sickness or wellness. The leading scientists like to say that groups of humans have evolved with groups of microbes adapted to specific environments... now if only they would take these things into account by asking the right questions before categorizing human microbiome samples.