Growing food to feed your gut brain is about using modern technology for what really matters – extending our healthy years, not just our lifespan.
From James Watt’s steam engine through to artificial intelligence and quantum computing, technology has reshaped how we live. Yet when it comes to food and health, these advances have often been misused. Instead of working for the benefit of communities, they too often enrich a handful of mega-corporations while our health span – the years we live in good health – declines.
At the start of the last century, most people died from infectious disease. Thanks to powerful combinations of technology, medical science and hygiene, we reduced deaths from infection to only a small fraction of total mortality. That is how technology should work – improving lives on a large scale.
But look more closely. Today, many people are not living active, healthy lives into their eighties and nineties. Instead, they face chronic conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, dementia and, fastest-growing of all, diabetes. Every eight seconds, somewhere in the world, a person loses a limb to diabetes – a modern phenomenon directly linked to how we use technology in our food system.
The core problem is simple: our high-tech food system does not properly feed our gut brain – the intelligent control system that keeps us lean, energised and resilient.
Our Intelligent Gut–Brain Control System
We have an intelligent control system formed by the interaction of our gut brain and head brain. Together they regulate our bodies. This system:
- Controls appetite and where and how we store fat.
- Coordinates the replacement of cells and tissues as they wear and age.
- Trains and supports our immune system to defend against disease.
When this gut–brain system is well fed and supported, it keeps us healthy. When it is starved of the right signals from real food and living microbes, we gain fat in the wrong places, feel unwell and become vulnerable to chronic disease.
The reason so many people get fat and sick is that our industrial food system simply does not feed the gut brain. It delivers energy, additives and shelf life – but not the living biology that our internal control system depends on.
Growing Plants as Natural Prebiotics and Probiotics
Right now, we already have the technology to change this. We can grow plants that act as both prebiotics and probiotics by breeding beneficial microbes in the soil and managing conditions so the “good guys” outbreed and control the harmful microbes.
This is what Gbiota technology is about: practical methods anyone can use to grow plants that support gut biology. It can be done at scale and at minimal cost. So why is this not the norm?
The answer is straightforward. Very few people know about it, and it is not in the financial interests of the mega-corporations that dominate our highly centralised food system. They rely on long supply chains and extended shelf life. In contrast, plants grown as pre- and probiotics need to be eaten soon after picking, while their beneficial microbes are still alive – which calls for local, decentralised food systems.
So what can we do about that?
- Option 1: Accept that limb amputations from diabetes every eight seconds are just a feature of modern life.
- Option 2: Recognise that we live not in an information age, but in a misinformation age – and actively push back with real facts and real food.
The only serious choice is Option 2. We need to build a community movement that gives people clear, trustworthy information and shows them how to act on it.
We counter the misinformation age not with slogans, but with living plants grown to feed our gut microbes and real-world proof of the health benefits.
Independent Research and Community Action
I have spent years writing about these topics on my website www.gbiota.com. The next step is rigorous, independent research that measures the impact of gut-food plants on real people in real communities.
I am currently fundraising to support a PhD project at the University of Queensland to:
- Conduct laboratory research on plants specifically grown as prebiotics and probiotics.
- Run community-based trials where people shift to diets that include these plants.
- Measure outcomes such as blood sugar levels to see the benefits quickly and objectively.
This work needs to be independent – free from the influence of large commercial interests – so that results are credible and focused on community health rather than profit.
I do not have billions of dollars for a global advertising campaign. What I do have – and what you have – is the ability to share reliable information person-to-person. You can help simply by telling your friends, both in your local community and online, about gut food, gut microbes and Gbiota-style growing.
We may live in the misinformation age, but people still listen to those they trust. When they see neighbours, friends or family members growing and eating microbe-rich plants and enjoying better health, that is more persuasive than any marketing campaign.
The path forward is clear: grow food that feeds your gut brain, prove the benefits in everyday life, and share those stories through trusted community networks.
