My Gut Microbiome on a 100% Foraged Diet

Well, hello dear friends. I'm here with Mo Wilde from the Wild Biome project and [music] I am so excited for you all to get to know Mo and her work in >> [music] >> wild foods and in what it does to our microbiome. So, hello Mo. >> Hello Robin. >> I would love for you just to tell us about the Wild Biome project and [music] what motivates you with it and what you're, you know, wanting to learn and share with the world. >> Yeah, sure. Well, I'm over here in Scotland in [music] the UK. Well, in short, it's a citizen science project [music] which is just tracking what's happening what to your body when you eat wild food. It's tracking [music] how much people are eating, what impact that might have on the environment, what implications that has for food biosecurity. Going from 2020 to 2021, November to November, myself and my friend Matthew did a like you're doing now, a year on wild foods. And um we took lots of gut tests throughout it. And at the end of it, we ended up with more questions than when we started. A lot of things were just not easy to understand at all. I approached lots of people and universities who are studying this to try and get a a little bit more detail and understanding of what might be going on. You know, the sort of response came back, well, you know, you're just two people doing it. That doesn't really constitute science. You kind of need a bigger group. So, in 2023, I managed to get a bigger group together. >> [music] >> And this was from people who are members of the Association of Foragers here, which is people teaching. [music] So, they would know the species, they'd be able to go out and get their own food and everything. And so, we did a short project [music] with 12 people just doing it for 1 month and 12 people doing it for 3 months. And we saw big changes. Um huge improvements in blood pressure, improvements in blood sugar control, um improvements in, you know, obesity, >> [music] >> um inflammation, you know, all the things that we're worried about now on Western diets. And we saw some very big changes in the microbiome, but again, it it wasn't really long enough. And um they just had a before and an end test to see what was hugely going on. So, in 2025, we did it again. And this time we had 102 people start and about, I think it was either 94 or 96 finish. [music] We have all the blood data and the recording, the um you know, the statistics data. We don't yet have all of the gut um microbiome data for that because um you know, once you start to scale up to that many people doing something, the whole thing becomes hugely expensive. So, we use these special DNA RNA shield um vials to collect the stool samples, and at the moment they're all frozen [music] waiting funding. So, um I'm probably one of the few people you know that has a freezer dedicated just to poo samples. And [music] in the new year, we'll be doing some crowdfunding to get them get them out of the freezer and into the lab. And there was also really interesting paper that came out in the Netherlands >> [music] >> um in 2025 as well, where they tracked um just one person, but they [music] tracked their gut microbiome from before and then all the way through as well. >> I know you're waiting on some of the results from 2025. Have you seen results of what eating a completely wild diet does to the microbiome? >> In general, what's happening is that you're not necessarily seeing an increase in diversity. That doesn't necessarily change, but what you're seeing is far greater mobility with the species [music] that you have got. It's difficult to sort of um tell sometimes because, you know, you can have two people. We've had very often couples doing it for [music] the exact same diet. And within a couple, you can have very, very different individual bacterial movements. But what you start to see is the fact that um groups of bacteria that have certain functions tend to respond in a certain way. Even if you've got one that falls off, the group that does that same function will will will move in the in the place as well. For instance, we had one couple where they ate exactly the same thing basically before, during, and after. They lived and worked together. And one had a good score at the beginning, which just improved, >> [music] >> you know, a a somewhat um on the wild food diet. The other one had a huge increase. But that may have been put down to not having wine, which one of them did and one of them didn't. It also made us a little bit more circumspect about what these testing groups called good and bad bacteria. Because in some cases, all the people whose blood sugars improved had an increase in so-called bad bacteria. And yet those bacteria obviously had something to do with better [music] sugar control. And then we had one participant who was told [music] that they had no good bacteria in their gut at all. And yet was one of the healthiest participants, but they were born and brought up in a different European country. And they didn't have any of the so-called good bacteria at the beginning or the end. So, you have to also look at um you know, when scientists are coming to conclusions about things >> [music] >> about, you know, what is their reference group? How many different people from, you know, how many different ethnic groups or um income groups does it represent? Most of the people who do testing, they're not offering free testing. So, the people that are being tested are those people who can afford to do that sort of testing. >> [music] >> And very often, they will already be people who can afford to eat in a certain way, but may not actually be foods that are accessible to other people in the population as well. So, I mean, it's still very new science, isn't it? >> Yes, very. So, [music] I am now on a 315 of the year of foraging, so I'm about 10 and 1/2 months in, and [music] I did my microbiome tests with a company called Tiny Health, as you know, 3 months before I began, and during that [music] time, I was eating a fair bit of forged food for those 3 months because I was preparing for the year. Then, I did the the day the year started, so I was eating a fair bit of forged food. Then, I did 3 months in, and then I did 6 months in, about. >> [music] >> And I have not actually reviewed the results. I have not taken the time to do that yet. You've looked at them, and I would love to hear your thoughts. >> I suppose the first thing to say that was sort of interesting is that there was a bit of movement with your baseline, so between your baseline and your day one. It could reflect the fact you'd started to add in some wild food, but we do know that there [music] there's going to be some sort of shift anyway. The thing that really sort of stood out was that you had this big Akkermansia bloom. It started off at 0.01, and it ended up as 9.899. So, it's nearly 10% of your gut was suddenly dominated by [music] this, you know, Akkermansia. Um and it then fell down again by, you know, by um day 173, it had really sort of like fallen down again to about 0.025. You know, so it's seen this sort of great big bloom, and then it's sort of fall down. >> [music] >> And I was sort of really interested in that, because that's exactly really what happened with us. Um we saw this big bloom in Akkermansia. It didn't come straight away at the beginning, >> [music] >> but that sort of came, you know, it as we got towards the, you know, the middle of it. And also in the nature paper >> [music] >> that they did when they followed somebody in the Netherlands for a month. Um again, they found right at the end of his 4-week period, there was this sudden bloom in Akkermansia. >> And is this considered to be a beneficial um bacteria, or what's its general role? >> Well, its general role is to degrade intestinal mucus. So, the rise could affect um far more polyphenols from plant compounds. It could also be to do with fasting intervals, like how long you were going with or without food, and weight loss, or, you know, less [music] um carbs available. But, it's probably more to do, I suspect it's probably more to do with a sort of ecological succession. You know, almost like, you know, your gut starts to get remodeled, as opposed to it being, you know, specifically to do with one food or another. You know, the fact that, >> [music] >> you know, that this has sort of started to become a small trend may say that okay, you know, your body sort of adapts to eating of some wild food >> [music] >> as it would just in changes of diet for a little bit at the beginning and then suddenly it realizes what's going on and there's this sort of bloom as it starts to remodel your whole, you know, gut microbiome. >> So, the species stays relatively the same, but the percentage >> [music] >> is what changes in what you've seen. >> Yeah, um they they move and they can move quite dramatically when they're given the, you know, the opportunity. >> Okay. Any other >> [music] >> significant, um notices between those four tests? >> Yeah, I mean one of the other things that we saw was that, um there's groups of bacteria that basically [music] process carbs. Um but particularly ones that break down like pectins and xylans and cellulose. So, the sort of, um a sort of tougher, richer sort of wild plant foods, really. And, um you know, in your in your gut, you know, we could see that, um there was this sort of, um increase in a group that did this. Although, there's one species called Blautia, which in your case sort of actually, >> [music] >> you know, fell off quite substantially. But, the others were doing that job, you know, and what we've seen both in the in the Rampelli paper from the Netherlands and in ours as well is that sometimes, >> [music] >> um even if one or two bacteria sort of fall out, the the group that they belong to and what they're processing nevertheless increases. >> Two questions on the microbiome. Any concerns? Like [music] seeing my microbiome results, did any concerns come into your mind? >> No, Um I mean, I think if you were looking at on your own for the first time, you might think, "Ooh, gosh, you know, some of those things have dropped off. You know, that's a little bit alarming." I mean, there was actually one drop off that is actually because tiny changed the way that they recorded that. But in in terms of the sort of trends of how things move, >> [music] >> um I wasn't sort of surprised or alarmed by that at all. Between you and us, you know, what we're seeing is that microbiome changes [music] is non-linear. And it's seasonal or substrate dependent. And that dramatic changes can occur in individual organisms without necessarily a parallel increase in global diversity. >> My diet has map has widely varied. If it's winter and I'm eating mostly preserved foods versus, >> [music] >> you know, spring where now all of a sudden I have this incredible abundance of fresh greens. And sometimes I'm eating much more meat. Sometimes I'm eating much more vegetables. So my diet does vary [music] substantially. And on that also note, I've traveled to numerous >> [music] >> biomes of this country, Florida, the the Pacific Northwest, the desert [music] of California. And so I have brought my my microbiome into many biomes. And so of course, you would you could see some some [music] potential shifts from that as well. Is there any thing you'd like to share as far as take-home messages for people who are interested in the microbiome and interested in wild foods? >> Well, I think with the microbiome, it's like, you know, the the science is young and fascinating. We've still got a lot to learn. >> [music] >> In terms of the wild foods, um I don't know about you, but I always feel amazing when I'm eating wild food. And even though I'm organizing these very complex projects, on the first day my body literally you know, I can feel joy in my body as it goes, "Ah, we're doing this again." You know, it's great. You just see such health changes. There's >> [music] >> you know, as well as seeing blood pressure come down and um you know, blood sugar stabilize. I mean, from day one when people are wearing these, you know, the continuous glucose monitors. What's also um yet to be unpacked is that we're seeing improvements in sleep, the reversal of things like hay fever, um asthma, um you know, some people have had, you know, inflammatory autoimmune conditions have sort of gone into respite with them. >> So, it sounds like generally people who have been immersed in the Wild Biome Project have [music] seen wonderful health uh improvements overall has generally been the case. >> Yeah, I do think so. I mean, it is tough, you know, particularly if you're if you don't have a tribe, you know, it [music] can be tough. And um and particularly if you're trying to balance it with modern life. >> Mhm. >> Um but I think it's still valuable to even just add a few wild [music] things. >> Mhm. >> Even just adding nettle can make a difference in a mouse gut microbiome. You know, if you are what you eat, what happens when what you eat is wild? >> So, for people that want to learn more about the Wild Biome Project, how do people find you? >> They can either go to my website where I've got um you know, some more things written in detail, which is monicawild.com. Or they can follow me on Instagram at Monica Wild and also at Wild Biome Project on Instagram. For the whole month of September, there's going to be lots of people posting up what they're eating every day. And it's a really fun, vibrant community. [music] >> Wonderful. Well, thank you, Mo, for your service to the earth, to the people, to the plants and the animals, and I'm very uh much looking forward to continuing to track the Wild Biome Pro- project and see what we learn through this citizen science. >> And thank you, and good luck with your next 50 days, isn't it you've got to go? >> [music] >> 50 days. >> um you know, and thank you for for everything that you're done doing as well, Robin. >> Very welcome. >> Okay, so let's [music] check out some of the trends here. This is kind of what things have looked over time. The green are beneficial, variable are what we consider microbes that at low levels will act as beneficial species, and then once they're elevated, they can kind of start to act in an unfriendly manner, similar to a disruptive. The good thing is you don't have a lot of disruptive microbes, and then you know, you can see these unknown have pretty [music] much um kind of bounced around, but they're at the about the highest amount right now. And if you look at a comparison with you know, some of the other um customers who test with us, you can see that in general [music] unknown is around 15%, so you're picking up a lot of unique [music] species. >> What's my unknown at? >> 47%, almost half of your microbiome. >> Wow, okay, so that's a very significant difference between the average person who uses Tiny Health. >> And then if we look down here, we can see a lot of these are really helpful with digesting complex carbs and [music] fiber. Do you see this bifidobacterium here? This is kind of like one of our keystone species, is really helpful for supporting our inflammatory response, our immune response, but also keeping the gut really acidic to deter unfriendly or even overabundant species from thriving. And then at the same time, this is a microbe that's present all the way from birth through to adulthood. When we're babies, it helps to digest complex sugars in milk, and then once we start solids, it helps to break down those >> [music] >> complex carbohydrates and um starches. Since you started in 2024, this one has been at 0% and one thing it really thrives on is um like resistant starches, complex sugars, and um also polyphenol-rich foods. Berries, tree nuts, seeds, spices, [music] pomegranate, cranberry. >> I saw oxalate degradation. >> Yeah, Bifidobacterium plays a role here as well. You were doing really good. Did you have a drop-off in your fermented food intake around this time in January? >> There was a lacking of fermented foods sometime in that range. >> That makes sense because Lactobacillus strains that are rich in fermented foods, and then of course that Bifidobacterium that's low, both help to degrade oxalates. The one that I would look into is this Blastocystis. This is a parasite that's common in rural areas or contaminated water or food sources. >> So, this is saying that I have high levels and this most likely [music] coordinates with having some parasites. >> Yes, um it's detecting some DNA in your stool. It responds pretty well to garlic and ginger, as well as oil of oregano. So, if you're able to source any oregano, I would probably incorporate that since you're already doing a lot of the garlic. >> [music] >> Well, I see that I'm below the median in gut microbiome score. That's kind of a surprise, right? I would have thought eating a 100% wild diet that my gut microbiome would potentially be up in the upper percentile, but rather I'm below median. So, what that means is that of all people tested [music] by Tiny Health in particular, I'm below the median. >> Yeah, amongst our data set. And so, I would say the biggest movers [music] for the metrics that would, you know, help support your score would be optimizing Bifidobacterium and also digestive function [music] or capacity for, you know, helping to break down some of those complex sugars and fibers. >> That's all interesting. Nothing really surprising. It all matches up with what I'm eating and I'll be interested to do this >> [music] >> test in about 50 days and see the difference then. >> All right. Well, good luck with everything on your journey. >> Here is the dashboard for [music] the Tiny Health platform, which I am using for testing my microbiome and I'm going to just share some of this in order to share the transparency of what I have learned from my gut microbiome test so far. Two things that I would like to say first are one, this last test [music] that was done is in the middle of the year and right now I'm in the closing part of the year. So, this information is inconclusive at this point and I'll be most interested >> [music] >> to see the information once I complete the year and we will have an update we'll have updated information at that point. Secondly, I have not fully reviewed this information nor come to fully understand this information. >> [music] >> So, at this point I'm really just sharing what information I have here available rather than any summaries of what I have come to believe. That said, I have a few thoughts that I am going to share. First of all, here we are on the home page of [music] the website and this shares my gut microbiome score. And the first thing that we do see is that my gut microbiome score at 76 is below the median >> [music] >> of all the people who take the gut microbiome tests through this particular provider, >> [music] >> Tiny Health. And I am surprised by that. I thought that I would have a very high gut microbiome score. That said, one thing that's important to keep in mind is that my gut microbiome is likely quite different from the average person taking [music] these tests because very few people are eating a substantial amount of wild food. So, it is quite possible that these tests are not testing for some things, >> [music] >> and that could skew this information or make this information not fully applicable to me. One other note is that it's likely that people who are taking this test are people with money, and so it is a particular demographic in the first place that would provide this information. That said, still, I was surprised to see my gut microbiome score, according to this provider, being below the median. The other big note that you saw earlier in the video is that I have bacteria, >> [music] >> and the average person who takes their test only has 15% unknown bacteria. So, what does that mean? I'm not sure. Does that mean that I have a lot of bacteria that are not found in the typical [music] microbiome from a domesticated diet? Possibly. And so, would that mean that those 47% unknown, many of them may be beneficial bacteria, and thus my score would actually be higher if they knew which those bacteria were? Quite possibly. Or, it could go the other way as well. So, we aren't sure of that at all. Continuing on, there's this section of metrics. Looking at the metrics, I'm just going to scroll down on so that you can see it. And this is more for those who are genuinely interested in my personal gut microbiome through this year of foraging. Again, this being only up to the halfway point. So, I'm going to scroll down this so that you're able to see it. And so, first of all, this is gut barrier and inflammation that we're looking at >> [music] >> here. And then, we're looking now at what they label as beneficial functions. This concludes complex sugar digestion capacity, vitamin production capacity, indole-3-propionic acid capacity, and more. And then, moving on to disruptive functions. And now, here we are with the section they title diversity and resilience. I see here it says I have 522 species. Now, my microbiome age, this is an interesting one that I haven't looked too much into yet, but it's saying that I have the microbiome of of comparatively to people who are 70 years old in test. So, that's not sounding ideal at all in that way. This is showing that I have a struggling microbiome. And you know, I wouldn't be completely surprised around that. Although, I am eating a fully wild diet, there have been periods where I have not been getting the exact diet that I needed, also lacking on sleep and self-care, which can definitely play a substantial role. And I have had decent amount of stomach aches, [music] which is something that I've experienced through much of my life. I often have had challenges with my digestion outside of the year of foraging by any means >> [music] >> and that's something I've experienced for a long time. So, interesting note there, disruptive microbiome section. This is the what I think is called C. diff for short that is on [music] the higher level of flag there. And then this note about parasites and infections, it does mention this Blastocystis which is under a top priority for me. It says often harmless parasites but may cause digestive symptoms in some. I did recently learn that up to half of US Americans do have parasites so whether they're on a forage diet or not, it's quite common. And then we have beneficial and common microbes, some information on that there and the one that they mentioned is I'm missing this Bifidobacterium which is very interesting. I do not know what that means and that's an interesting surprise. I would say that I have not gotten as much by any means ferments [music] as I would like and that has been a more challenging to pull off with the completely wild diet just as far as my time goes. So, that is the section of my results. Over here, this is the top three priorities that are listed. Interestingly enough, most of the things that they shared with me during the call that were listed as my top priorities are things that I have been getting a fair bit of. This mentioned, you know, pectin which my diet has been pretty high in pectin for a substantial motion portion of the time. I do not recall what this indole-3-propionic acid capacity is. Then there's the disruptive microbes being one of the top threes. That's the third priority. Second priority is pectin and the first priority is this indole-3 which recommends Here's a little bit of information about this. And then lastly, what I have here are what they shared as the notes from the call. And that includes raw garlic, which I do have wild raw garlic. I do not have ginger. I could harvest echinacea. >> [music] >> Uh instead of oregano, I do have monarda or bee balm, which is high in oregano. Uh I am taking a decent amount of fermented foods every day right now. I am eating a diet that is quite across the rainbow. But it is hard to consistently get everything that I would like through foraging. I do eat quite a bit of polyphenols with a lot of brightly colored fruits, not the ones that would be listed here because they don't include many wild foods. Uh I do not have tryptophan in my diet very much. And then [music] I do have some inulin, but that's something that I could increase quite a bit, especially with the wild sunchoke and chicory as well. [music] And eating more dandelion greens. The FOS, I do eat a fair bit of wild onions and pears will be coming into season. We have numerous wild pear trees or feral pear trees around here. GOS, that is something that is harder to get with the wild diet for me at this point. [music] Omega-3 fatty acids, I am getting generally plenty of that with my salmon and white [music] Interesting they say opt for leaner cuts of meat because I generally do not get enough fat, I would say. >> [music] >> That's one of the things I don't get enough of. And liver is something that I could possibly get from a deer or from whitefish. So, [music] many of these things are things that I have the possibility to do. Eating more bitters before meals for digestion is something that I could improve and increase as well. So, there you have it. There is the summary of my gut microbiome and if you go to robingreenfield.org/microbiome, you can scroll down to the section that has each of my four results which we have downloaded as a PDF and put onto [music] the website so that you're able to access each one of these and [music] take a look at them as you desire. Most of this information that has much of this information that is on the website, [music] you will be able to access right here on these four different PDFs. >> [music] >> My last test will be on October 8th, 2026. That is the end of the year. Right now is about day 317 of the year. So, I have little under 50 days left. [music] So, there you have it, dear friends. There is information about my gut microbiome. For those of you who find this interesting, I'm glad to be on this journey with you. This is not the most important thing by any means of this year of foraging, but it is something of quite interest and our gut microbiome is so incredibly important. As I shared up here, we now know that a human being is not an individual entity, but rather a culture of thousands of species of bacteria and yeast as well as viruses. We cannot survive without this interconnected culture of species. We are this culture as much as that goes against our individualist mental framework. >> [music] >> This year, I am foraging 100% of my food and medicine and tracking my gut microbiome changes throughout with great interest [music] as I am in great interest of this culture of life that I am a part of, [music] that is me and that I am. >> [music] [music]