dr justin sonnenburg is associate professor of microbiology and immunology at stanford medicine where he runs the sonnenburg lab and has spent years researching the extinction happening inside our guts as the pandemic raises awareness about wellness and immunity he speaks to manju v about the importance of fixing our intestinesin your book the good gut which you coauthored with wife erica you have written that one of the reasons for the poor state of our gut ecosystems is the modernday obsession with hygiene now that the pandemic has led to even more sanitized environments how will it impact our healthit is clear that the industrialized lifestyle has to this point drastically changed gut microbiome composition we dont know specifically what aspects of our lifestyle are the most important contributors to this change but diet antibiotics and sanitation are all likely key factorswhat the changed gut microbiota means for our health is unclear but we know gut microbes are capable of impacting our immune system and metabolism it is conceivable though just a hypothesis at this point that increased sanitation will further change our industrialized microbiota increase inflammatory state and make us either more prone to inflammatory diseases or more likely to have a severe response to viral infection but most important during this pandemic is to not let our guard down with respect to hygiene but rather to think of ways we can safely compensate for increasingly sanitized existenceexposure to microbes in our environment can be achieved safely for example by eating fermented foods such as yogurt kimchi or kombucha we have recently performed a human dietary intervention with christopher gardners group showing that fermented foods can both increase the diversity of microbes in your gut and decrease inflammatory statuslikely both positive changes for our health people can also seek microbial exposure by venturing out into nature owning a dog or gardening in your yard to improve gut health do you recommend any particular foodsthe complex carbohydrates in dietary fiber are the primary nutrients that feed our gut microbiota a diet rich in legumes whole grains vegetables and nuts provides complex carbohydrates to help maintain a diverse microbial community that produces metabolites such as shortchain fatty acids these metabolites are known to regulate the immune system and metabolism in beneficial ways if you do not eat sufficient fiber the gut microbiota is starved and begins to eat the mucus lining of your gut and the result can be inflammation how has your research influenced your diet what foods feature regularly in your familys breakfast lunch and dinner studying the gut microbiota has drastically changed how we eat we pack our diet with plantbased fiberrich foods and fermented foods and focus on healthy plant fats and keep sugar to a minimum almonds avocados chia seeds kale kombucha hummus yogurt black beans kimchi whole grain sourdough bread lentils berries dark chocolate olive oil my sister has lived in mumbai for the past 20 years and her family has taught us many