{"id":163481,"date":"2025-11-28T01:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T01:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/163481\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T01:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T01:58:12","slug":"i-was-interested-in-finding-ways-to-prevent-chronic-disease-through-healthy-gut-microbiomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/163481\/","title":{"rendered":"I was interested in finding ways to prevent chronic disease through healthy gut microbiomes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n            Jens Walter, professor of ecology, food, and the microbiome at UCC and the APC Microbiome Ireland<br class=\"HardReturn\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been a microbiologist for 25 years, and I\u2019ve always been interested in probiotics and prebiotics \u2014 the stuff you see in the health section of a supermarket [such as oral supplements].<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cProbiotics have been around for a long time, but the problem is they weren\u2019t achieving much in terms of preventing chronic disease. I was interested in finding ways to do that by creating healthy gut microbiomes. I needed to see what the natural microbiome looked like before it was disrupted by modern life and what could be done to restore it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMy go-to was Papua New Guinea because, as a child, I\u2019d been fascinated by TV documentaries about the remote tribes that lived there, cut off from the modern world until the 1930s. I wanted to see if there was a correlation between the low incidence of chronic disease in their population and their diet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIn 2008, I sent a random email to a research centre in Papua New Guinea, asking if they could send me some poo samples. Amazingly, they said they would.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe had to get ethical approval to carry out a clinical trial, which took a few years. We found that rural Papua New Guineans have more diverse microbiomes than their western counterparts, with lower levels of inflammation-causing bacteria.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4876263_6_articleinlinemobile_CMK18112020_20Prof_20Jens_20Walter_065_20croped_20square.jpg\" alt=\"Jens Walter, professor of ecology, food, and the microbiome at UCC and the APC Microbiome Ireland\" title=\"Jens Walter, professor of ecology, food, and the microbiome at UCC and the APC Microbiome Ireland\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Jens Walter, professor of ecology, food, and the microbiome at UCC and the APC Microbiome Ireland<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cOn foot of this research and further analysis at the APC, our team created the NiMeTM diet (non-industrialised microbiome restore) diet, based on recipes inspired by the eating habits of a non-industrialised society. We had used the recipes in a clinical trial and noted improvements such as decreased bad cholesterol, reduced blood sugar, and reduced C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation and heart disease. This research was published in the scientific journal  Cell this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cAnyone can download the recipes for free at thenimediet.com. We\u2019ve also teamed up with GourmetFuel, a company which delivers our meals nationwide. For me, this is a game-changer because our meals are grounded in rigorous science.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMy research has completely changed the way I eat. I basically ruined my metabolism in my 20s and in my 30s as a workaholic professor living on takeaways. Now I cook for my family, and my kids know everything about healthy eating, even though they, and sometimes I, cheat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jens Walter, professor of ecology, food, and the microbiome at UCC and the APC Microbiome Ireland \u201cI\u2019ve been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24255,61,60,80],"class_list":["post-163481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-working-life","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}