Having read the previous two blogs I hope you now agree that the colon and its contents – friendly bacteria, are important. The next question is: how do I keep my colon and its contents healthy? And the answer is to keep them well fed! But as before, our knowledge is very sparse. As pointed out previously there are many species of bacteria in the colon. This diversity is known from DNA analysis of samples of poo. But the many types of bacteria live normally in a situation with little oxygen (anaerobes), and are difficult to culture and identify outside of their normal home, the colon, so we do not know what food each needs specifically in order to survive.

But do not despair! As this association with our friendly bacteria has evolved over many millennia during our hunter-gatherer history, we can make the assumption that they will still thrive on what they needed in the past. And if we feed them a variety of colon foods, there should be something for everyone! The secret to keeping your colon healthy is to ensure the bacteria are healthy by providing them with a wide variety of substances which we would otherwise term ‘indigestible’. Modern diets are highly digestible as they consist of good quality proteins, carbohydrates and fats. We tend to avoid what could be called ‘roughage’. Recent research has suggested we need to eat fibre in order to ‘keep regular’, but a healthy colon diet is much more than that.

What you need to find is a store that sells bulk foods, usually organic. You can buy small amounts of a wide range of colon foods and mix them at home. Here is what you could use:

Barley -rolled; Oat bran; Brown rice -flakes or puffs; Amaranth – puffs; Millet – puffs; Sorghum – puffs; Linseed – ground; Pumpkin seeds (Pepitos); Buckwheat (see *); Almonds, whole (see *); Wheat seeds (see *); Walnuts; Hazelnuts; Peanuts# Kelp powder (small amount).

*Buckwheat, almonds and wheat roasted on a plate in a microwave add flavour and crunchiness to the mixture. # Avoid peanuts if allergic to them.

A few spoonfuls of this mixture can be eaten at breakfast with fresh or cooked fruits in summer and added to porridge in winter. Dried apricots, prunes, figs, etc are also valuable.

In addition, it would pay to change your behaviour when eating fresh fruits and include the skins and cores of apples and pears, and the skins of kiwi fruit.