Changes in your diet not only affect you physically, physiologically inside, but also mentally,

how will you think psychologically? How will you feel? But you'll never know just how good you can feel

until you put it to the test and try eating healthier. Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host,

Dr. Michael Greger. Today we look at that surprising first utility of fecal transplants.

Did you know they can be used to treat clinical conditions like ulcerative colitis, depression,

bipolar disorder, and alcoholism? Here's the story. Plant-based foods in the microbiome and the

preservation of health and prevention of disease. We have evidence that high fiber plant-based diets

can prevent many different common diseases, maybe through the effect that these diets have on the

composition and metabolic activity of our microbiome, the bacteria in our gut, good gut bugs in our

colon, eat the plant residues and spit out health promoting and cancer suppressing metabolites.

Like fiber is metabolized to short-chain fatty acids which have profound anti-inflammatory anti-cancer

properties and we have special fiber feeding microbes that chew through the plant cell walls

and release all the anti-inflammatory antioxidant anti-cancer goodies inside. So how many old

plant foods do we have to eat? All the evidence points to a physiological need for about 50 grams of

fiber a day which is what is contained in the traditional African diet and is associated with the

prevention of common Western chronic diseases. This is up to twice the recommended minimum and three

times the current intake in the United States. How can you prove the microbiome is involved though?

Fecal transplantation stool transplants one man's trash another man's treasure.

Currently donor-fecal microbiota transplantation is the optimum therapeutic approach for recurrent

clostridium difficile infection. CDIF is today considered the most common hospital acquired

cause of diarrhea. It's a life-threatening infection that can rear its ugly head when your good gut

bugs have been wiped out by antibiotics. So to get rid of it all we need are more good gut bugs

...