Imagine yourself in a garden with the gentle breeze moving the leaves of a large oak tree. You hear the rustling sound, you feel a sensation as the air brushes against your cheek and moves your hair, but you cannot see the breeze. Instead, it is the effects of it that you are experiencing. 

So, it is with the microbes in your gut. They are unseen, but these invisible players are key contributors to your well-being. In the past, medical researchers did not fully understand the effects that this ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and viruses had on health and disease; instead, most of the attention focused on pathogens or disease-causing bacteria. Now, it is well known that the microbiome or the collective organisms in the gut and their genes are integral to health. Think of them as an invisible laboratory or pharmacy in your body producing biochemical products that the body needs and uses for digestion, health maintenance, immune support and neurological function.  

The global research in this area is akin to frontier medicine with emerging associations extending to obesity, autism, auto-immune diseases, allergy and eczema, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and cardiovascular disease to name only a few. One fascinating example is the brain-gut axis and the evolving understanding of the link between the microbiome and neurotransmitters. Beyond the gut, there are specific microbiomes in the mouth and nasal passages, in the urogenital system, and on our skin.

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These microbiomes can be disrupted by many external and internal factors that impact positivity or negatively. Hence, the support of the microbiome is down to what you do and what you do not do. 

A plant-based, whole foods diet has a favourable effect. Appropriate sleep, exercise and managed stress all support the microbial colony. Excess alcohol, exposure to pollutants and household chemicals, plastics, poor sleep, ultra-processed food and sedentary life have a negative effect on both the number and diversity of the population.

Choosing foods that nurture and enhance this ecological laboratory is essential. While people seek a list of foods to eat, it is best to think natural. The message is: choose natural food and move away from manufactured food. 

One creative starting point could be to include foods that were found on the table in the home of Jesus of Nazareth. Or perhaps make a choice for whole foods by looking at the seven foods (species) of the Bible that God described to Moses in Deuteronomy 8:8 indicating God’s provision: “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranate, olives and honey.”

These foods from ancient times, are primarily plant based. The diet in both these examples has little meat, lots of fruit and food from nature, along with fish, figs, olives and olive oils, pomegranates, whole grains, barley and wheat, grapes, honey.

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Dr. Tim Spector a lead researcher at Zoe, a global health project for gut health, would favour these Biblical foods. He highly recommends a diet that includes 30 different fruits and vegetables a week, lots of fibre and fermented foods due to their contribution of antioxidants, fibre, probiotics and phytonutrients/polyphenols, all necessary for microbiome health. 

It was not known in the time of Jesus that whole foods contained antioxidants and an array of health promoting ingredients, but now science can explain the workings of body biochemistry and the food that supports or harms it. Unknowingly, trouble emerged in the form of an increase in chronic diseases when the Western diet added manufactured foods containing additives, chemicals, dyes and other ingredients that did not suit the microbial ecology within us. 

Dr. Mark Hyman takes the food industry to task in his 2026 book Food Fix Uncensored. In it he calls out the food industry for cover ups and refers to ultra-processed food as “edible substances,” not food with nutritious content.

Whether Jesus was eating at home in Nazareth or at a dinner hosted by Martha and Mary, He would have enjoyed the natural, whole foods typical to first-century tables. Such food is equally good for you to consume today and would satisfy Dr. Spector’s recommendations. All the emerging research recommends making food choices through the lens of eating for the microbiome, the unseen laboratory within. 

While this advice may be a challenge, ask yourself when reaching for a bag of chips or a Big Mac meal, would this be on the table in Nazareth? 

Even though you can’t see the microbiome, it is working for you. Therefore, do you have a food philosophy? Does it support the microbiome or deplete it? God in His wisdom designed the human body to be fed and supported by the bounty of food provided in nature.

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You can rely on the trustworthy health sites at Zoe.com and ISAPPscience.org.

(Donna Fagan’s website is foodandfaith.ca)