Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

Inside each of us lives a bustling community of microbes.

Tiny organisms that outnumber our human cells.

They're there from the very moment we're born, shaping our immune system and

influencing our long-term health. The science of the microbiome is evolving rapidly, but one

thing is clear. We need to take care of these microbes so that they can take care of us.

Today, I'm joined by Dr. Suzanne Dipkota and Tim Specter to explore how our gut bacteria

protect us from diseases and what we can do

to strengthen this vital partnership.

The education of our immune system by a microbe starts from the moment we're born.

Looking at the early life microbiome, the first year of

life tells you a lot about the interactions with the immune system and the gut microbiome.

There's a lot of research now on this really critical window where a baby is born, essentially

sterile, no microbes, until they get, you know, the first

bugs from their mother.

And immune cells, as more bacteria start to colonize the gut, so do more immune cells start

to develop in the intestines as well.

And what's really interesting is there's this weaning period, weaning meaning when you go from

breast or formula onto your native diet or table foods or adult diet. And that introduction of

food, you had this rapid expansion of immune cells in the infant. And a lot of that is attributed

to the more diverse foods you eat, the more diverse microbes that colonize the gut. And a lot of that is attributed to the more diverse foods you eat, the more

diverse microbes that colonize the gut. And so there's this beautiful evolutionary conserved

...