 Okay, so everybody, unless you live under a rock, know all about probiotics. Those are the friendly bacteria that you've heard about in your yogurt, in your kombucha, in your supplement. And so those are good bacteria. And more and more, we're learning and people are understanding about prebiotics. And we're going to talk about prebiotics because prebiotics are the food that good bacteria want to eat. And the wonderful part about prebiotics is even though they are foods that you eat, you personally can't digest them. And even if you could digest them, you couldn't use them. But your bacteria think that these foods are the best thing that ever happened to them. And the science is now expanded to realize that, okay, it's one thing to feed your good bacteria. Have them grow, have them reproduce, have them eat some of the calories that you eat and prevent those calories from being passed on to you. And so you could actually eat more foods that have prebiotics, even though they may have a lot of calories, but you'll never see those calories. Your bacteria, your probiotics, ate them for you. Now, what happens when bacteria eat these prebiotic fibers is the amazing, all what seems like pseudoscience a few years ago. They make compounds called postbiotics that are either primarily what are called short chain fatty acids and or gases or what are now called gaso messengers or gaso transmitters. And what's been learned over the last 10 years is that it's these postbiotics that are a sophisticated what's called trans-kingdom communication system from your gut microbiome. And that includes bacteria, that includes fungi, that includes viruses, that includes molds that actually make messages, literal text messages, that tell your cells information and actually tell your mitochondria what to do. It's, as I talk about in the book, probably one of the most exciting feats, the discovery of this language, the deciphering of this code. Many people compare it to the deciphering of the German code in World War II called the Enigma code and you may remember the movie about that. The deciphering of this code, of how the microbiome talks to and even controls this organism, us, is earth shattering in what it means. It basically means that what you give your microbiome and the types of bugs that live in your gut most likely controls your mood, your attitude, your possibility of developing memory loss or dementia, your heart, your heart disease, whether you have cholesterol that bothers you or not, whether your arteries dilate and are flexible or whether they're stiff as lead pipes, all of this has to do with the discovery of postbiotics. In fact, so important that a Nobel Prize was awarded in 1998 for the discovery of how one of these postbiotics, nitric oxide, actually works as a language, as a communication between the gut microbiome and everything that happens to you. So these are what are now called signaling molecules and signaling molecules literally tell DNA in you what compounds to make, whether to turn on, to turn off and more importantly it actually tells mitochondria whether to work hard, whether to throttle back the amount of energy they produce or whether to repair themselves, to protect themselves, or whether they're not getting the messages. So this is so exciting that a bunch of seemingly unimportant crap that exists inside your gut has such an effect on almost all things that are going to happen to you. And remember, Hippocrates 2500 years ago said all disease begins in the gut and he didn't know about postbiotics, he didn't know about trans-kingdom communication, but he knew already that all disease begins in the gut and he was absolutely right. So the exciting thing is you have control over the messages that are sent to you by your gut microbiome by giving them the things that they need to eat. So that brings us into a discussion about fiber. Everybody thinks they know about fiber, there's insoluble fiber, there's soluble fiber, but it goes a little bit deeper than that. What do those two terms mean? Soluble fiber means that it mixes with water. So if I put, let's use an example, inulin, which is a soluble fiber that comes from chicory roots. If you put inulin in a glass of water and stir around, presto change, oh it dissolves, you can't even see it. Let's talk about insoluble fiber like wheat bran. Let's take some wheat bran, throw it in a glass of water, stir it around, it's still sitting there. Your body, your microbiome thinks soluble fiber is its best food, its miracle grow to your microbiome. On the other hand, insoluble fiber like for instance wheat bran, since we're going to pick on it, can't be used by your microbiome and it actually is like eating razor blades and that wheat bran actually scratches the lining of your colon, irritates the lining of your colon and your body's pretty smart. It says, oh my gosh, you got to quit stabbing me and I'm going to get you out of here. Believe it or not, that's why insoluble fiber promotes bowel movements. It's not some miracle wonderful thing. It's actually irritating your bowel and your bowel is trying to get rid of it. On the other hand, soluble fiber is actually what your gut bugs want to eat and that soluble fiber allows them to make postbiotic. Now there's a very important short chain fatty acid called butyrate or butyric acid and what's exciting about butyrate is that butyrate is the number one favorite fuel of your mucosal cells in your gut, particularly your colon. They use butyrate to stay alive and there's very cool studies that people who eat a high butyrate promoting diet, a high soluble fiber diet have very low levels of colon cancer. Why? They're colon sellers are happy but the really cool thing is about 10% of all the butyrate your microbiome makes is absorbed and goes and talks to your mitochondria and butyrate can be used as a fuel for your mitochondria and perhaps more excitingly butyrate is one of the preferred fuels for your neurons in your brain. So imagine the idea that eating soluble fiber can actually feed your neurons via your gut microbiome making this postbiotic. Why wouldn't you do that? So that's the real excitement about why fiber is so important for you. It's not to move your bowels. It's actually to allow your microbiome to produce these compounds that through millennia have been directing your cells, your mitochondria, your neurons what to do and to protect themselves believe it or not. So that's the essence of why prebiotics are so important for you to make postbiotics. You're actually enabling an ancient language that has only recently been discovered and when that language was discovered I can tell you across the scientific field there were so many moments that you're learning about in the energy paradox that I mean it's just remarkable how much you depend on feeding your gut bacteria what they want. One last fun thing we talked about in the previous episode about time controlled feeding about limiting the amount of time you eat and people always wonder well how the heck am I ever going to make it to noon before I break my fast at break fast. I'm going to be so hungry. Well the trick is hunger believe it or not comes from your gut microbiome not getting what they want to eat and some incredibly elegant studies out of China have proven what's called the gut-centric theory of hunger. They took a bunch of volunteers and they had them on a water fast for either seven or 14 days so one or two weeks water only but they gave these individuals about a hundred calories of prebiotic fiber every day. Now remember you can't digest prebiotic fiber you can't absorb it it's not a fuel for you but it is the fuel for your gut microbiome guess what they found even though these people were on a week to a two week fast they had no hunger why because it was the gut microbiome that was being fed what they needed so they weren't sending signals to the brain to be hungry because they got what they wanted imagine what that does for the power of you avoiding hunger by taking a scoop of prebiotics in some water when you get up when it's nine o'clock and you're feeling that hunger pain and you're never going to make it to noon those prebiotics are free for you they don't count against you but it's exactly what your gut bugs want and you'll be shocked with how that cuts your hunger so that's the trick for today so postbiotics communication system between your gut microbiome your mitochondria your brain your hunger center postbiotics are made from prebiotic fiber that you eat and remember it's the soluble fibers that they're the most important part some of these soluble fibers we call resistant starches like for instance in a purple sweet potato that you've cooked thrown in the refrigerator and then reheated it's one of the best resistant starches there is anytime you cook a starch chill it and then reheat it you'll be much more resistant to digestion by us and more available to our gut bacteria to make postbiotics so we'll see you on the next episode because i'm dr gundry and i'm always looking out for you thanks so much for watching this episode but don't go anywhere i think you're going to love this next one so you could have all the bone broth in the world all the collagen powder in the world but you actually have to break that collagen down to be absorbed once it's absorbed there is no