The Gbiota project

Summary

The aim of the Gbiota club is to share expertise on how to grow food which will make us healthy. Anyone can participate in the Gbiota club from people who just want to grow a few healthy vegetable to commercial growers.

The Gbiota system is a way of growing food in a highly biologically active soil which aims to improve our gut biology and provide the phytonutrients and trace minerals which are essential for health. It is being developed by Colin Austin - pioneer of the Wicking Bed system.

Gbiota beds are a simple way for an experienced amateur gardener to grow their own food but they are also economic for commercial production.

In a relatively short period of time human deaths - and much more important how healthy we are before we die - has totally changed. Currently the most common cause of death is chronic or non-infectious diseases (such as heart attacks, diabetes, strokes etc.) and now account for a staggering 88% of deaths.

For previous generations average age at death has been steadily increasing - now it is not only reducing but we are less healthy in our later years.

Why are we becoming less healthy?

Modern foods are less nutrients and loaded with sugars, salts, fats and fast acting carbohydrates which leads to a less diverse and unhealthy gut biome.

Our gut biome has evolved a highly sophisticated system to control our appetite - it is virtually impossible to override the hormones coming from our guts. It is no good simply telling people to eat less - the key is to change our gut biome so we no longer crave junk food.

Citizen research and action

The Gut biota project is more than citizen research - it is citizen action.

Some people doubt that citizen research can provide useful outcomes - how can it be that a bunch of people can compete with the highly trained professional researchers with their high tech equipment like electron microscopes and DNA sequences machines. Of course they cannot - but the point is not to be competitive but complementary.

The internet gives citizens access to the latest research from the professionals and can integrate this vast pool of understanding in a top down way to not just provide answers to practical problems but initiate action for the benefit of all citizens.

gbm1

The first step is to have a clear understanding of what the real world problem is. In a relatively short period of time human deaths - and much more important how healthy we are before we die - has totally changed. The illustration shows that infectious diseases used to be the most common cause of death (53%) - now this has dropped to just 3% and currently the most common cause of death is chronic or non-infectious diseases (such as heart attacks, diabetes, strokes etc.) which now account for a staggering 88% of deaths.

For previous generations average age at death has been steadily increasing - now it is not only reducing but we are less healthy in our later years.

Why are we becoming less healthy?

Sad to say it is misapplication of technology - this is why citizen action is important.

There are three basic reasons.

The first is the reduction in nutrition of modern foods. This is easy to discuss because nutrient content has been subject to wide study from many different researchers so there is a high level of confidence.

Not only is there less nutrients but modern food is loaded with sugars, salts, fats and fast acting carbohydrates.

The second reason is that the modern food leads to a less diverse and unhealthy gut biome. We know how important the gut biome is from the success of faecal transplants where obesity - a precursor for poor health - can be reversed.

The third reason comes from the way our gut biome has evolved. Our gut biome has evolved a highly sophisticated system to control our appetite - it is virtually impossible to override the hormones coming from our guts telling us to eat more (or less). However our gut biome evolved in a time where our food was low in energy but high in nutrients so there was no reason for our guts to evolve the mechanism to tell us what sorts of nutrients we are short of - we just get a message to eat more.

So whether we like it or not we end up over eating the high energy low nutrient modern foods.

Food not pills

Commercial pre and pro biotic pills do not appear to be particularly effective in practise and are certainly not cheap. Eating the right sort of food is both effective and does not cost the earth.

We know that the right food can change gut biology - again this has been proven by numerous global studies - Africans eating a traditional diet have a healthier gut biome than Westerners eating a modern diet.

The number one aim of the Gbiota system is to improve the gut biome simply by diet. It can also rectify some of the deficiencies of a modern diet by adding minerals and phytonutrients but the core issue is to improve our gut biology. Whether we like it or not our gut biome is an intelligent system - a gut brain - which by managing our hormones ultimately controls what and how much we eat.

We need to incorporate into our diet foods which have the needed biology so they acts as a probiotics but also preferentially feeds the beneficial biology so they out-compete the harmful biology.

Supplementary food

We only need to incorporate a proportion of biologically active food into our diet.

Food gives us pleasure from hormones which have evolved over millennia. This is essential as we need food for both energy and to refurbish out bodies. Traditional foods were low in energy but high in refurbishment so our hormonal system - which controls our hunger - meant we ate a balanced diet.

We have now mastered the industrial production of grasses - wheat, rice, corn, oats (and many more) that are incredibly productive and high in energy. We now produce more than enough energy food to feed our exploding population but the balance has been upset. We eat food with a high energy and low in refurbishment, and biology - this has resulted in a major health epidemic obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and the other chronic diseases.

After years of increasing life span it is now face a shorter - and certainly less healthy - life span. We simply need to restore the balance by increasing the refurbishment and biology proportion in our diet. A healthy gut biology is critical as it controls our appetite. A mechanical approach to diet has not proven effective - we need to improve our gut biology which controls our appetite.

The Gbiota system is a way of growing food in a highly biologically active soil which aims to improve our gut biology and also provide the phytonutrients and trace minerals which are essential for health.

Gbiota beds are a simple way for an experienced amateur gardener to grow their own food but they also provide a way that commercial growers can provide the volume of refurbishment food needed to reverse the global health epidemic resulting from an unbalanced diet.

There are many growers who are dedicated to growing healthy food in a sustainable way but find it difficult to compete in the modern factory farming and super market distribution system. Yet if we are to combat diabetes and chronic diseases we need the contribution of these commercial growers and we need to make it profitable for them.

The three stages of the Gbiota project

The first stage is to from a group or club of keen gardeners with an interest in health to set up their own Gbiota beds, ask them to contribute their ideas on how the Gbiota beds can be improved and pool their expertise to refine the system and independently evaluate the effect on their gut biology and health.

The second stage is for member of the club to spread the word about the benefits of the Gbiota system to their friends encouraging them to either grow their own Gbiota food for themselves.

The third stage is to encourage commercial growers to adopt the Gbiota system to provide biologically active food for those people who do not want to become growers themselves. Growers will only adopt the Gbiota system if there is both a demand and a way they can differentiate their products.

Bottom up (push) and top down (pull) technologies

How is it that with all our sophisticated modern technologies is it that we have ended up eating food which is making us die younger and particularly be less healthy as we age? You have to admit it is totally amazing.

The answer lies in my previous article http://www.waterright.com.au/PreventingDiabetes.pdf
where I talked about the process of innovation (starting at page 26)

The simple fact is that modern sophisticated technology is highly reductionist or specialised with a failure to look at the big picture which is inherent in the top down or pull technologies.

I have searched the web - high and low - to find out all I can about the path that biology takes from the soil to our guts.

I can find thousands of articles on soil biology and an even greater number on gut biology but where are the articles that look at the overall process from soil to gut?

There is one YouTube video which I recommend to anyone interested and that is by David K Montgomery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHy9Cf9IDGA

David looks at how an amateur gardener can improve health by changing gut biology and is an inspiring video (and book). I should also thank David as many of the illustrations I have used are taken from his YouTube talk.

But I wonder how many people would go to the lengths he has gone to in making his biologically active soil?

Inmy next article I describe the Gbiota system I have been developing which is certainly suitable for a home gardener but could be used to produce food which will improve health and gut biology on a commercial scale and at a reasonable cost.

At this moment I am not putting this information into the public domain - I have formed the Gbiota club so members of the club can test the system - make sure it really works for them and hopefully improve the system. Technology works best when a group of people work together cooperatively to refine and test it.

When the group as a whole is confident that the system really works as intended then the group can promote the system to the public at large so everyone can benefit from the improved health. I actually want to promote to as many people as possible but the web is so full of health claims which are totally garbage that I want to make sure the system is properly tested and works for many people.

Anyone can participate in the Gbiota club - they just need to recognise that the information needs to be kept confidential for the time being but they need to share their learning experiences with all members of the club.

Those of you who have already decided to join the Gbiota club should receive a copy of Making a Gbiota Bed shortly. But I am human and make mistakes.

So if you have not received you copy or want to join the club you need to email me at colinaustin@bigpond.com