One Health Concept: the driving force for future health markets and consumer behaviour change
Have you ever heard of the One Health Concept?
Well, you’re in luck! You can get ahead of food trends and sustainability fads by learning what even some health professionals have yet to hear about.
It’s a newish concept, but with oldish ideas…
It’s a triangle of the relation between plant & soil health, environmental health, and human health.
Aside from getting the too high level and sounding more like “blah, blah, blah” :) let’s take a look at some interesting observations noted by a collection of researchers and professors that attended this year’s ASN (American Society for Nutrition) annual symposium:
A summary from Dr Joel Dore, Research Director at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, INRAE (learn about him here).
A common thread in people with chronic conditions is dysbiosis.
Dysbiosis is an imbalance of microbial strains in the human gut (and microflora but we’ll focus on the “gut”).
In fact, it’s projected that by 2025 one out of every four people will be living with a chronic condition.
The general idea is that weakening of the GI system leads to breaks in the cell barriers that lead to inflammation that leads to oxidative stress which results in lower microbiota “richness” (aka diversity).
One school of thought is to shift from antibiotics to a probiotics approach to diversify helpful microbial strains in our bodies that in turn metabolize the nutrients we need and balance the presence of less beneficial bacteria. Ultimately keeping us healthier and better able to cope with external stresses.
AKA: “manage the system, not the species”.
So what’s this mean for you? One hypothesis considers that improving the diversity of plant fibers may promote diversification of the microbial food chain and improve gene richness.
“Gene what?” you must be saying. Yes, I’m talking plant genetics. No worries we won’t go too deep with it.
As we’ve seen over and over, diversity seems to win in nature and our gut microbiome is no different.
Consider this, the human genome has between 20,000–25,000 genes. The human microbiome carries approx. 600,000 microbial genes. So, to think only our genes matter is getting pretty silly.
Then you go, “okay, so you’re saying, now I not only have to worry about my personal gene health but also hundreds of thousands of microbe genes too?!”
Ah, well, somewhat but more so from a food quality standpoint.
See, 50 trillion bacteria interact with humans. Where do these come from? How do they not only exist with us but create an entire ecosystem that our bodies are dependent on?
Our birth method has a lot to do with, as does being breastfed, our skin-to-skin exposure, and environmental exposure as soon as we’re born.
As we grow, the same applies but more as “character-building” compared to what we start out with. So, as an adult, aside from your environmental exposure it’s mostly what you consume.
That is food, liquids, medicine/drugs, pathogens, etc.*
So how do you make sure the microbial population on your food is “good”?
Well, now we’re getting to the good part, the part few people know about, including medical professionals!
How about that, you’re about to learn the latest research knowledge bombs and you can start making some intelligent moves in protecting your long-term health, potentially even preventing future conditions.
See, there’s something about plants that we eat that Dr. Heribert Hurt (you find some of his work here) addresses: did you know the seeds inherit their microbiome from their mother plant as well?
Not too far off from how humans develop their microbiome.
For example, 1 gram of soil has approx. one trillion microbial cells. And also like humans having fecal transplants for successful dysbiosis treatment, plants can have soil transplants for successful microbial recovery.
Now that you know two major pieces of the story:
- About human gut health’s importance for managing or preventing long-term health and avoiding chronic conditions
- Plants and humans have some bizarre similarities in health correlating to microbial population diversity and balance.
Here comes the final piece: herbicide and other plant treatments can affect an enzyme that exists in plants (not humans or animals) causing specific microbial strains to diminish or increase during growth and exposure.
As I’m sure you can guess, the strains being diminished also happen to be beneficial microbial strains. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have much to talk about here.
So, as the soil health is damaged, the microbes that foster plant growth and a plant’s ability to produce the polyphenols are reduced which can result in nutrient density deficiencies in our food supply.
The polyphenols are what our body digests for a variety of metabolic needs but especially in managing oxidative stress. Guess how humans are able to absorb these polyphenols?
They are absorbed when the beneficial microbial populations in our gut digest them and a byproduct of the process is something called a metabolite.
You’re probably wondering what that all means…I’ll answer that with a question: have you heard of Roundup Ready agricultural crops that are resilient to the pesticide glyphosate?
Well, guess what, 54% of the core gut human microbial population is sensitive to glyphosate.
So, while direct exposure seems harmless, it’s actually directly affecting our gut microbiome. A great technical loophole that has led to some extremely aggressive positions on the herbicide’s use. Since most people don’t understand microbiology or how the body works — misinformation is rampant.
Good news, now you’re no longer ignorant and know more than maybe 99% of the population on his topic :) You’re welcome.
To summarize: plants are only as nutrient-dense as the soil, air, and water quality allows.
In addition to the environmental influence on plant health, the microbial strains present with plants are influenced by how they are raised (this goes for livestock and anything else we eat by the way).
What microbial strains are present in the food we consume will indirectly affect our gut microbiome and the microbial strains we contain.
The microbial strains we contain determine our metabolic efficiency, immunity, and nutrient absorption capability.
This is now known as the “one health concept”.
You now know more than that person claiming their yoghurt cured them of agita.
Good job.
We’ve only just started exploring the chemical and physical components of food.
If we know this much already you can guess how our food quality, supply chain, and methodology will change rapidly as more people become educated in how their environment directly influences their health in a way only proactive and intentional design can fix.
If you want to learn more about the invisible influences on your health and how you can proactively manage your food quality you can check out a pretty neat health coaching platform, Health Atlas Guide, where you can book a consult or a one-on-one session to improve your health knowledge and discover new health practices to lead a life of wellness.
