How to Trick-or-Treat Your Gut

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Halloween might be a treat for your taste buds, but what about the trillions of microbes in your gut? Gastroenterologist Chris Damman joins host Rachel Feltman to explore how different candies affect your gut microbiome—and why moderation and whole foods matter even after a sugar binge. Recommended Reading “Halloween Candy Binges Can Overload Your Gut Microbiome—A Gut Doctor Explains How to Minimize Spooking Your Helpful Bacteria,” by Christopher Damman, in the Conversation. Published online October 23, 2024 E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check the show. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:34.4	For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.
1:42.8	Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday.
1:47.8	That's mostly because of the crisp autumn weather and the spooky vibes, but I certainly
1:52.4	don't mind an excuse to eat way, way more candy than usual.
1:56.6	But what does this annual sugar splurge mean for the microbes that live in our guts? The answer isn't
2:02.8	as scary as you might think. The trick is choosing your treats wisely. Today's guest is Chris Damon,
2:09.4	a clinical associate professor of gastroenterology and medicine at the University of Washington.
2:14.3	He's here to tell us how our candy consumption can help treat or trick the critters
	...

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