Food change

For the first few billion years the earth was just a barren rock.

Then microbes appeared, they broke down the rocks and made soil which led to plants flourishing.

Next came animals that ate the plants which were full of microbes so some microbes ended up in the guts of these animals

These microbes digested the animal’s food, manufacturing the spectrum of complex chemicals the animals needed and, most significantly regulating appetite, sending out specific hormones to make the animals hungry for that food when they were low in a particular food and yet other hormones so they would stop eating when full.

Microbes make life possible

We need the microbes to power the intelligent control system which regulates our bodies.

Without these microbes we don’t live a long and healthy life we overeat and get fat and sick.

Our modern food system is a highly sophisticated industrialised chemical process relying on synthetic fertilisers and toxic sprays which have eliminated the microbes.

This has led to the modern epidemic of chronic diseases which is causing so much personal suffering for the population and so much cost to the Governments in charge of our health system.

Obesity affects much of the population.

Diabetes is the fastest growing of all diseases with over eight million people a year having a limb amputated.

Heart attacks are the most common cause of death.

Dementia must be one of the most heartbreaking conditions.

All these stem from not having the beneficial microbes in our gut that regulate our appetite.

Solution - breed microbes at home

But we can solve this problem.

Microbes breed in organic waste which makes breeding microbes easy and naturally move into plants. But they also die very quickly which means they must be grown and eaten shortly after picking, in practise - as most people now live in apartments or have little garden, this means in special breeding containers at home.

This is cheaper than buying aged plants from a supermarket but it does mean a change in behaviour, like having a breeding container on your balcony if you live in an apartment.

Microbes have a short life.

We already have the technology of breeding beneficial microbes. Gbiota basket-boxes breed beneficial microbes in organic waste under controlled conditions to grow the plants which contain the beneficial microbes.

This is straightforward but we need to create a social change where people grow that critical part of their diet - gut brain-food - at home rather than relying on the centralised industrial chemical food system.

For that, we need a food social movement.

The community has to be educated about the importance of our gut microbes and shown that they can grow these microbes at home, even if they have no garden or growing skills.

Local gut-brain food industry

We need to create a new industry where people can buy everything they need - the soil, boxes, seeds etc from a local supplier and if needed, get the critical support from a suitably qualified dietitian who understand how the gut microbes act as the control system for our appetite.

How do we create this societal change? We need to create a team of people with a range of skills who understand the benefits to the community of the gut microbes in regulating our bodies.

We need a team because no one person can have all the skills needed, these skills include a spectrum of knowledge, not just the obvious skills of diet, of how gut microbes control our appetite, but a knowledge of how communities work, internet marketing, communication and business skills.

If you feel that you could be interested in becoming part of this team then I suggest you have a look at the many articles on my website gbiota.com then contact me directly here.

 

Managing change

Colin Austin 17 March 2025 Published under the Creative Commons system so may be reproduced without further permission, just acknowledgement of source.

The third mega-change

If you think the world is going through a difficult period you are right. We are going through our third mega-change and managing this change is not going to be easy.

But we can learn from looking at the two previous mega changes.

Mega change no 1 - Fire and cooking

The biggest change was the use of fire for cooking over a million years ago.

The results were dramatic - more nutrients led to bigger brains and smaller guts.

Fire changed us humans creating a new, very different creature.

Humans became the dominant creature and changed the planet forever. No fire and we would have remained an insignificant ape.

Mega change no 2 - Agriculture

The next biggest change was the development of agriculture which had some surprising side effects. It led to us living in close proximity in cities where infection could easily spread.

Natural selection meant that those with a stronger immune system survived better - so again humans changed. We became smaller than our hunter-gatherer ancestors but with a stronger immune system.

This led to the age of colonisation, the history books may talk about significant battles won by the colonisers but in truth, these were just a formality, the people of the colonised countries had been decimated by the introduced diseases.

The world changed yet again.

These changes were not planned by some evil master brain, we can leave that to some Netflix video and were only well understood after the event.

Mega change number 3 - Technology and Industrialisation

We are now in the midst of a third change which is neither planned nor understood - it stems from the new technologies we have developed.

The simplest, and easiest to understand is climate change which is leading to a steady but progressive change to our planet and also has led to a strong activist movement.

Related and even more significant is the industrialised food system.

Let me explain why this is so dramatic.

How life started

For the first few billion years the earth was just a barren rock, nothing, no Netflix, Facebook, nothing not even TikTok.

Then one day microbes appeared, probably from an asteroid that crashed into Earth.

These microbes were hungry so they broke down the rocks and made soil which led to plants flourishing.

Next came animals that ate the plants which were full of microbes so some microbes ended up in the guts of these animals where again it was nice and warm with plenty of food so they flourished.

Evolution leads to the most amazing results. It was in the interest of the microbes to keep the animals alive as long as possible.

So they adopted the role of digesting the animal’s food, manufacturing the spectrum of complex chemicals the animals needed and, most significantly regulating appetite, sending out specific hormones to make the animals hungry for that food when they were low in a particular food and yet other hormones so we would stop eating when full.

We are only just beginning to appreciate the sophistication of this system which is the deal of the millennium.

Microbes make life possible

It is just a fact that life on this planet is only possible because of the microbes.

Without the microbes, our planet would still be a dead rock with no soil to grow plants to feed the animals.

But having food is not enough, we need the microbes to power the intelligent control system which regulates our bodies.

 

Humans goof

But there was one funny animal that decided to stop feeding the microbes.

That animal was of course us and that is why instead of living a long and healthy life we overeat and get fat and sick.

Why did we stop feeding the microbes?

This was not because of some evil person worthy of being the central character of a Netflix film. It was because we did not understand the sophistication and benefits of this natural intelligent control system and it was a lot cheaper and more convenient to use synthetic chemicals to grow our food rather than rely on the natural process of microbes making nutrients bio-available.

This was among the biggest goofs that humans have made and has led to the modern epidemic of chronic diseases which is causing so much personal suffering for the population and so much cost to the Governments in charge of our health system.

Fixing the goof

So how do we fix this goof? We need two things, the technology and a change of attitude.

The technology is easy. Microbes are a randy lot and are happy to breed in organic waste which makes breeding microbes easy. But they also die very quickly which means they must be grown and eaten shortly after picking, in practise - as most people now live in apartments or have little garden, this means in special breeding pots at home.

It is still cheaper than buying aged plants from a supermarket but it does mean a change in behaviour, having a pot on your balcony rather than going to the supermarket.

This does take a bit of training for the non-gardener so the right microbes are bred. They also need to be able to buy their pots and particularly soil from a local grower.

But these are simple problems to resolve.

Creating social change

The overriding problem is how to create the change by creating a social movement.

Just as climate change requires climate activists food requires food activists.

The motivation is there, in most developed countries over half the population are overweight.

Diabetes is the fastest growing of all diseases with over eight million people a year having a limb amputated.

Heart attacks are the most common cause of death.

Dementia must be one of the most heartbreaking conditions.

 

Two ways to look at food

Visit a dietitian and you will get a clear picture. Highly processed foods full of fats and sugars are not healthy and you should be incorporating plants grown in living soil, full of nutrients and beneficial microbes and eaten fresh into your diet.

The amount of research being undertaken in research labs across the globe into food and our gut biome is staggering. Thousands of peer-reviewed papers are published every year and they conform to a common theme.

You will learn the importance of microbes and how they regulate our appetite so we naturally want to eat the right sort of food in the right amount.

We know what sorts of food we should be eating.

Now walk out of the office and enter the commercial world we live in.

The supermarkets are full of highly processed foods supported by multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns claiming how healthy they are.

The fresh fruit and vegetable myth

You may not be convinced so you go to the fruit and vegetable aisles expecting to find healthy products. You see row upon row of identical and almost perfect-looking produce.

How wonderful you may think - just what I am looking for - healthy fruit and vegetables, my search is over.

But wait a minute, how did they manage to grow such magnificent-looking produce? By a highly sophisticated industrialised chemical process relying on synthetic fertilisers and toxic sprays which have eliminated the microbes you have been told are essential for health.

And worse - any beneficial microbes will have died in the time from when the plants were harvested to when they are eaten.

Microbes have a short life.

The great divergence

There is a clear divergence between what the science-based community are telling us we should eat and what the commercial mega corporations are offering.

The deficiencies in the current food system are seen as an opportunity for another industry, the supplement industry to create good profits by providing pills.

But pills are not the solution, we need to fix the problem at the source and eat healthy food.

‘Real food not pills’ is a good motto.

Gbiota role

Gbiota is not trying to duplicate the massive research effort which is being carried out in respected research institutions across the globe. We are taking that as a given.

We are facing the challenge of how the community as a whole can access the food which is accepted as healthy.

When I say the community as a whole I mean the whole community. There are many dedicated home growers who are using organic style approaches to produce food which is genuinely healthy. No arguments here.

But the reality is that the majority of the population now live in apartments or houses with very small gardens. They don’t have the area, time or the skills of the dedicated organic home grower so they need an alternative to access the healthy food they need.

The first part of the problem, the technical part has been solved by the development of the Gbiota boxes which breed the beneficial microbes in organic waste to grow the plants which contain the beneficial microbes.

This is straightforward.

The difficult part is to create the social change where people grow that critical part of their diet - gut brain-food - at home.

For that, we need a food social movement.

How to create the food social movement

The pressure is there but how do we make it happen? How do we create this social movement?

This problem is made worse by the misinformation and disinformation which now dominate the web and the marketing power of the food and drug industries.

One person, (particularly if he is 85 like me) is not going to be able to do this, it needs a team of about a dozen people with a range of skills, not just technical but marketing and communications and an understanding of how communities work to form a team.

My immediate aim is to build this inner sanctum of a dozen or so people, committed to the ‘food for health’ cause.

 

Local gut-brain food industry

Once we have this inner sanctum in place we can move onto the next stage - creating a local gut-brain food industry.

The bulk of the population cannot do everything from scratch - they need to be able to go and buy the soil, boxes, seeds, and everything they need from a local supplier.

It has to be local as microbes have a short life.

Going Viral

In the current age of disinformation, people may have become sceptical about what they are told but they believe what they see.

When they see so many wobbly tums and bums at the shopping centre and while there are other people who are fit and healthy from eating a different diet they will change their views and see the need for change.

Death of the Deniers

We can learn from that other and closely linked need for change, climate. For decades climate deniers who benefit directly from the current system have been able to create doubt so they could block the needed action.

But when people experienced for themselves the increase in floods, droughts and storms they began to question what they were being told and now the bulk of the population has accepted the need for change.

The deniers, often in positions of extreme power are still able to block the change.

In my younger days, I fought a similar reluctance to change from deniers. I accepted that it was impossible to change their attitude but then I was young and knew they would die and be replaced by younger people who were more accepting of change.

It will happen with climate change and it will happen with food change.

Younger people have this odd habit of growing up into older people in a position of power.

The future of our species lies with the fresh minds of the young and they will create the change and our species will not just survive but thrive.

At my age, I will not be around to see it but I am happy to have been part of the process of change that enables our species to thrive.

Invitation

If you feel that you could be interested in joining this inner sanctum then I suggest you have a look at the many articles on my web gbiota.com then contact me directly here.

The community needs you. There may be a lot of selfish pricks in the world but our future lies with those who are not selfish pricks. Labelling them woke greenies won’t stop them.

 

 

Prevention Super Clinics

Colin Austin 12 March 2025 Published under the Creative Commons system so may be reproduced without further permission, just acknowledgement of source.

Fighting the chronic disease epidemic

Across the globe, we are facing an epidemic of chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia.

Whether we approve or not what happens in the real world is that people just carry on with their normal life until their health deteriorates to the point where they need to go to a doctor who tries to cure them.

This is at great personal burden to the individual and financial cost to our health system. Chronic diseases inflict the most damage to community health and are a major financial cost.

Prevention is better than cure.

Prevention depends on understanding the root causes of the epidemic.

Changes in our food production system

One of the best videos explaining the changes in our food system is by David Trood of The Weedy Garden

Organics is an unfortunate name as the underlying principle is how all food has been grown for over a billion years, until we changed it.

A complex array of soil creatures, microbes and fungi break down the rocks to make them bio-available for plants and then animals that eat the plants.

These microbes end in our gut, they communicate with their neighbours to create real intelligence and work with our head brain to form the intelligent control system which regulates our bodies, particularly our appetite by creating the hormones which make us feel full or hungry.

Watch video here https://www.gbiota.com/2025/03/14/hormones/

The hormones work at the subconscious level and are extremely powerful.

Our sub-conscious brain is what enables us to do amazing things like catch balls and ride a bike.

We may try and control what and how much we eat by going on a diet but this is at the conscious level and is typically only effective for a period of time, our hormones almost always win.

The change in our food system to relying on inert fertilisers has resulted in a loss of the beneficial microbes that form our gut-brain and is the underlying force behind the epidemic of chronic diseases.

This is why we need to change our gut biota - by diet - to combat the epidemic.

Our intelligent control system

At the core of all chronic diseases is the wrong fat in the wrong place. Our gut has trillions of cells which communicate with their neighbours to create genuine intelligence which then forms part of the intelligent control system which regulates our bodies.

If our intelligent control senses deficiencies in our bodies it will send out hormones to make us hungry so we overeat, and alternatively, when it thinks we are satisfied, it will send out other hormones so we feel full and stop eating.

This is a very powerful system operating at the sub-conscious level; we have no control over it and attempts to override this in our conscious brain are rarely successful long term.

We have to work with, rather than against, our intelligent control system.

Prevention super clinics

I am suggesting setting up a network of prevention super clinics.

Prevention super clinics would be run by a qualified dietitian, following the existing protocols but integrating a much wider range of services.

They would certainly have close working relations with a suitably trained grower to breed the beneficial microbes in soil containing both organic and mineral waste using the appropriate protocols.

This soil is referred to as Wickimix and can be sold directly to keen gardeners but is more likely to be incorporated into growing baskets for wider use.

These baskets, with growing plants, may be bulk delivered to a place where the clients may visit regularly such as a gymnasium or health food cafe or store.

It needs to be recognised that the life span of the beneficial microbes is short so the plants need to be consumed shortly after picking.

While these may be separate businesses they need to follow protocols, and the dietitian has both and integrating and supervising roles.

Making organic style food widely available

I think there is no debate that organic food, rich in nutrients and microbes, is beneficial for health however, it tends to be expensive and the microbes only have a short life after picking.

The Gbiota basket/box system means that people, even if they live in an apartment, can have organically grown plants growing in their home at minimum cost ready to harvest.

Personal anguish and money.

Before you reject the idea that this is adding an extra expense to the system, this would save a great deal of personal anguish and money.

The basic cause of chronic disease is deficiencies in our diet, specifically beneficial gut microbes and trace minerals.

With the appropriate protocols, you can breed beneficial gut microbes in organic waste at a relatively trivial cost.

Growers can have a truckload of volcanic rock dust, a waste product from quarries, delivered to their door at about $10 per tonne. This contains all the trace elements needed, it just needs the soil microbes to make it bio-available in our food, which costs a fraction of buying pills and contains a wider and better-balanced spectrum.

Further information

My website gbiota.com contains many articles and videos on food and health. there is a special section for health professionals accessed from the home page and you can contact me directly at colin@gbiota.com

 

 

Integration

Surely the aim for any community is for its members to live a long and healthy life.

Yet we are not doing that well with over half the population suffering from some form of chronic disease, maybe just a bit podgy, maybe in fear of having a limb amputated from diabetes or worse of all dementia, sitting in a chair, covered with blanket to hide that you have just peed your pants and wondering who those pesky kids are who keep on calling you granddad.

But the frustration is we know exactly how to fight this epidemic, if you take 5 minutes out of the whirlwind of modern life and look at all the expertise that is available then we have all the knowledge needed, but everyone is just too busy beavering away they never have time to lift their head and look at what all the other beavers are up to.

It is not that we are not cooperative, the two features that have led to humans becoming the dominant creature on Earth are that we are both intelligent and cooperative.

It is just that we all have different skills and our current system and work pressures make it difficult to communicate with a fellow human with a different skill set to you.

I know this too well. I look at my granddaughter’s skills on their mobile phones. Their fingers and thumbs are just a blur of high speed activity making me look like some monster from the pre-dinosaur age.

Yet ask them to help clean out a blocked gutter and their interest and skill level is well into the negative, yet to me, it is just a routine part of the chore of being a householder.

So how are we going to coordinate all the skills necessary to battle the epidemic of chronic disease?

The motivation is there, no one wants to be fat or have a leg chopped off from diabetes and it costs trillions of dollars to the world economy.

And believe me the skills are there, I don’t have a job description so I spend my time in anyway I want and that is chatting with Mr Google and following up on the leads to chat further twith the specialist in all the relevant fields. I have also been recognised as one of Australia’s leading innovators and conduct experiments that no sensible grant agency would even consider - but good ideas come from doing things that seem daft and learning from the failures.

So what is the next step? It is no good just talking about the integration of skill sets, we have to show that it really works and to do that we need to set up pilot operations. One is good but three or more would be so much better particularly if they are in different parts of the world, this is a global issue.

So how do we set up these pilot projects? A must-have is a coordinator, someone with the skill set to bring a range of different skill sets and people with very different backgrounds to work together.

What is the required profile for a coordinator? They must have a conviction of the importance of fighting the epidemic of chronic disease and they must be comfortable with working with a variety of people from researchers, growers and maybe highly stressed members of the public facing some pretty horrible predictions.

Do they need any specific qualifications? I am not sure they do, I think motivation that this is a highly socially important project is the key but if I had to pick a particular skill it would be a dietitian.

And who are the other members of the group?

There must be members of the public who are motivated about their health and they must be willing to learn about how we all have an intelligent control system, a combination of our gut and head brains which regulate what we want to eat and also control what happens to the food that we eat, burned for energy, rebuild our body parts, stored as fat or out at pooh.

We need organisations who are prepared to carry out this education. The lead organisation here would be the Government Health Departments which are carrying the cost of the epidemic.

This is not as simple as it seems as there is a well-recognised time gap from the leading edge of research to when this knowledge becomes the norm. In the medical field, which has requirements for caution, this time gap can be twenty years.

For these projects, we must apply the latest thinking.

We need growers who are going to breed the beneficial microbes in the soil which will eventually become part of our gut biota. There are many regenerative growers with a good knowledge of soil biology who can readily acquire the specific skills of breeding the beneficial microbes.

The growers need a supply of organic waste for breeding the microbes. Local Governments have a key role to play here.

So what is the next step? First step is to have a look at the section for health professionals on my web gbiota.com then if you feel you would like to be part of these pilot projects (note the plural) email me indicating whether you see yourself in the coordinator or participant roles.

 

 

 

I have created this section for health professionals.

This may seem a little odd as I have no medical qualifications apart from being married to a medical doctor, who became diabetic, her foot turned black and our medical advisers were talking about amputation, but we changed her diet and she still has both feet.

But I am not a drongo, I am an engineer I was selected by the Institute of Engineers as one of Australia’s leading innovators for my pioneering work in Computer Aided Engineering.

I, like many of my fellow engineers, may lack the sophistication in articulation of many professions but I don’t rank too badly in understanding how things work.

I was what is often called a code cutter, I wrote software and that included intelligent or self-learning software for intelligent control - which works by monitoring what needs to be controlled, making changes, observing the effect of these changes to develop an understanding of how that system works which eventually leads to very effective control of that system.

Even though I am an engineer I can read, which I do with great intensity, trying to understand how food affects the health of our bodies and recognise the sophistication of professionals in that area.

I see an almost universal belief among health professionals that modern ultra-processed foods are harmful to health while diets centred on plants are beneficial.

Yet, despite this overwhelming evidence the consumption of ultra-processed food increases but plants-based food does not, or at best marginally.

As an engineer with expertise in control theory, I ask myself why?

It is not that people are not informed, they know full well that this ultra-processed food is harmful to their health and plant-based foods are beneficial but the majority of people continue to eat an ever-increasing amount of ultra-processed foods.

Why do people do things that are bad for them knowing full well that they will cause harm? And being an engineer what can we do about it?

Humans are notorious for doing things that are harmful to other humans and themselves so I thought I would ask Mr. Google if he had any ideas.

As usual, I was surprised.

I anticipated to be told that humans were the most destructive creatures to their own species, after all just watch the news and it is dominated by humans using their great skills in technology for the sophisticated killing of other humans.

We humans can be a violent species, with stories of war, murder and terrorism frequently hitting the headlines. Yet the record went to those cute and cuddly Meerkats who put our bloodthirsty tendencies to shame with 20 per cent of the cute critters being slaughtered by their own species.

Animals unquestionably kill members of their species, all the time. Male lions slaughter all the cubs when they join a new pride; rival ant colonies of the same species fight bloody wars; chimpanzees have been shown to kill each other at similar per capita rates to humans.

Hippopotamuses, Hamsters, Crab spiders, Cane toads, Praying mantis, Black widow spiders, Polar bears and many snakes are going to have to improve their game to win a Nobel Peace prize.

This may all be interesting but it does not answer the question why the bulk of people eat food that is bad for them, while knowing it is bad for them. That is why understanding how our intelligent control system works is so important and what this website is about.

I have created this section for health professionals.

It consists of a number of posts and videos that I have previously created and are relevant to health professionals.

You are welcome to contact me here happy to chat.

You can start with the video gut-brain matters

Then posts

Superclinics

Integrations trials

Health Span or Epidemic

Change for the Better

Intelligence

Taste Hunger and Health Span

Gut Health

Health Myth

Fake Food

Health challenge

Your choice - how to change your set point

 

 

Creating Change for the Better

Happy Birthday

This is a decidedly different post. I have just had my eighty-fifth birthday. Very nice party - but a time for reflection.

I was thirty-five when I formed Moldflow pioneering my career in computer-aided engineering. This involved a lot of paradigm busting, brushing away old ways of thinking and replacing them with the new ways that computer simulation enabled.

But this was a battle to change thinking between engineers and I am an engineer so I was fighting on my home turf.

Tough Battle

This was a tough battle, and although I am still fit and healthy you don’t have to be a brilliant mathematician to see that eighty-five is a lot bigger than thirty-five.

Gbiota, at its core, is still about paradigm shifting but the scale of the battle is just so much bigger. Chronic diseases are the biggest health problem across the globe.

Being overweight is everywhere, don’t bother about statistics just go to the local shopping centre.

Diabetes is the most rapidly expanding disease with eight million people a year suffering from a limb amputation, heart attacks are the most common cause of death and at eighty-five dementia is a real threat - sitting in a wheelchair, peeing your pants and wondering who those pesky kids are who keep calling you grand-dad.

If you are one of that diminishing minority that thinks human suffering matters this is an immense challenge.

If you are one of that rapidly expanding majority that thinks the only thing that matters is money then the global health costs are measured in the multi-trillions.

The battle over paradigms

Again the battle is over paradigms.

The old way of thinking is that chronic diseases are a medical issue which will be solved by medical technology.

The new way of thinking is that chronic diseases may appear to be a medical problem but they will be solved by food technology.

Wrong fat in the wrong place

It is simple. The underlying cause of chronic diseases is the wrong fat in the wrong place and that, quite correctly, stems from overeating.

But we overeat because we are not feeding the intelligent control system which regulates our appetite.

The microbes in our gut communicate with their neighbours to create swarm or group intelligence which, together with our head brain, regulates our appetite.

It does this by manufacturing hormones which make us crave specific types of food which we have learned about from our accumulated experience of eating food over our lifetime. That information is stored in our head brain which works at the subconscious level - we have no conscious control over what our sub-conscious brain does.

Food not pills

Our modern food system does not feed our gut-brain so it generates hormones to make us hungry.

We may be able to override our hunger cravings for a while but they will always win in the end. That is why telling people to eat less and exercise more does not work long term.

The solution is to feed our gut-brain which includes enhancing the microbes which live in our gut and drive the process.

We know exactly how to do that - breed beneficial microbes in soil which includes both organic waste and a spectrum of minerals, which is the food for the microbes.

Three snags

But there are three big snags.

The first snag is that it is incredibly inexpensive. Yes, you read that right, inexpensive. Breeding beneficial microbes can be done for next to nothing by collecting organic waste and incorporating this into a special soil and growing plants in this soil.

So why is ‘inexpensive’ the problem?

Because of snag number two which is that it must be done right to breed the beneficial microbes and not the harmful microbes which are equally keen to breed.

This is a catch-22. Because there is no expensive product to sell there is no money to promote and teach people how to feed their gut-brain.

Companies selling drugs like Ozemic, which costs about a thousand dollars a month have plenty of money to promote their expensive pills.

Snag number three is that we live in an age of disinformation. The web is saturated with very effective, manipulative advertising so that no one (or at least no one with a basic thinking capacity) believes anything they see on the web.

But I do know that people will listen to and follow real people (no Avatars thanks) they trust.

Don’t sit in the corner and rock

Now before we sit in the corner and rock, or hit the bottle or whatever is your method of coping - there is a solution.

In theory, it is simple but in practice not so easy.

We have to form a small group, not the entire population of eight billion people - so how many? This small group needs to change their gut biota to show what happens.

Eating gut-brain food and showing that this really does curb appetite and avoids food cravings is hard evidence.

Forming a lead group

How many people should be in this group?

Robin Dunbar may have the answer. He suggested that the maximum number of people we can effectively communicate with is 150.

But there is a little twist to the story which I discovered when I gave a talk to the local organic growers association. They were not that motivated by my talk, which was a little frustrating until I looked at the audience of about fifty people.

They looked a similar age to me (eg old) but they all looked fit and healthy and were certainly very different to the people I see at the shopping centre.

We have to work with the people that need help.

Diabetics

We need to focus on a group that needs help, and there is no group that needs help more than diabetics. The standard procedure as soon as someone is diagnosed as diabetic is to start medication of some, sort, typically Metformin.

If that may be proved essential later but the first action should be diet. But it is no good just telling people if their hormones are telling them differently so the first action should be to change the way their gut works so they want to change their diet.

The magnificent dozen

So my thinking is that we should aim for a small core group of about a dozen people. They may not need help themselves but can be leaders of a group again of about a dozen, who are at risk of suffering from a chronic disease.

How do we find these dozen people to act as group leaders? I have no idea but I do believe in the power of ‘group think’ so if you have an idea how to create this group of group leaders please, let me know.

Colin