🌳 Climate positive self care · We plant a tree for every $5 you spend

The Soil Inside You: A Simple Guide to Gut Health

Any cook knows you can't understand a dish until you know what's in it. I learned that about my own stomach the hard way. This is the short version of what I wish someone had handed me.
— Chef Brian

Your gut is soil

Trillions of microbes live in your gut, most of them bacteria. In fact, you carry roughly as many bacterial cells as human cells.[1] Scientists call this community the microbiome. It helps you digest food, make certain vitamins, train your immune system and even send signals to your brain.[2]

Healthy soil works the same way. A single teaspoon holds more living organisms than there are people on Earth.[3] Those microbes help plants take up the minerals that end up on your plate. Living soil grows nutrient-dense food, and nutrient-dense food feeds a diverse gut.

Think of your gut like a rainforest rather than a lawn. A lawn with one kind of grass looks tidy but struggles with drought and pests. A rainforest, with thousands of species, bounces back from almost anything. The more diverse your gut community, the more resilient it tends to be.

What depletes both

  • Chemical-intensive farming. Heavy tilling, bare fields and overuse of synthetic inputs can harm soil life and drain soil of organic matter.
  • Ultra-processed food. Diets high in refined sugar and additives are linked to a less diverse gut microbiome.
  • Overuse of antibiotics. They can save lives, but each course also disrupts beneficial gut bacteria, and some species can take months to recover.[4] It's a bit like a wildfire: sometimes necessary, but the forest needs time and care to regrow.
  • Chronic stress and poor sleep. Both can shift the balance of microbes in your gut.[2]

6 simple daily habits

  1. Eat one fermented food a day. Sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, miso and kombucha are natural sources of live microbes. In a Stanford study, a diet rich in fermented foods increased microbiome diversity and lowered markers of inflammation.[5]
  2. Feed your microbes fiber. If probiotics are the seeds, prebiotic fiber is the compost. Onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, bananas and oats are all great sources.
  3. Eat the rainbow. Aim for 30 different plants a week (herbs, spices, nuts and seeds count). People who hit 30 or more had more diverse gut microbiomes than those eating 10 or fewer.[6]
  4. Cut back on sugar and processed food. Swap one packaged snack a day for real food.
  5. Sleep, move and breathe. Consistent sleep, daily movement and time outdoors all support a healthy microbiome. Calm your nervous system →
  6. Choose food from living soil. Buy organic or regenerative when you can, or grow some yourself. Even a windowsill of herbs counts.

Where our products fit

Food comes first. Our products are here to fill the gaps.

  • The Pantry: greens, probiotics, fibers and minerals, starting with The Ultimate Elixir, our daily greens.
  • Dig In: seeds, soil builders, fungi and books so you can grow food in living soil at home.

Every $5 you spend plants a tree. See our impact →

Go deeper

How Bacteria Rule Over Your Body – The Microbiome, a beautifully animated explainer from Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell.

The Gut Microbiome: The Soil Inside Us · Regenerative Agriculture · Permaculture · Soil Films & Documentaries

Sources

  1. Sender R, Fuchs S, Milo R. Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body. PLOS Biology, 2016.
  2. Cryan JF, et al. The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis. Physiological Reviews, 2019.
  3. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Healthy Soils Are Full of Life.
  4. Palleja A, et al. Recovery of gut microbiota of healthy adults following antibiotic exposure. Nature Microbiology, 2018.
  5. Wastyk HC, et al. Gut-microbiota-targeted diets modulate human immune status. Cell, 2021 (Stanford Medicine summary).
  6. McDonald D, et al. American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research. mSystems, 2018 (ScienceDaily summary).

This page is for general education and is not medical advice. Talk with your healthcare provider before starting a supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication or managing a health condition. *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.