Our Inner Garden

We do not inhabit our bodies alone.

Within the digestive tract lives an immense community of microorganisms collectively known as the gut microbiome.

They participate in digestion, metabolism, immune function and communication between gut and brain. Research is also continuing to explore the relationship between the microbiome and the way hormones, including oestrogens, are metabolised.

It is tempting to think of the gut as machinery.

Perhaps ecosystem is closer.

An inner garden.

Different organisms flourish under different conditions. The terrain changes with age, diet, medication, illness, environment and many other aspects of life.

There is no single perfect microbiome to achieve.

And there is no need to turn tending it into another elaborate wellness protocol.

Diversity is a useful place to begin.

Different plants bring different fibres and compounds into the gut. Fermented foods suit some people. Movement, hydration and sleep belong to the wider terrain too.

These are ordinary things.

Perhaps that is why they can be overlooked in favour of supplements, powders and promises of transformation.

But ecosystems are rarely restored by one heroic intervention.

They respond to conditions.

So rather than asking endlessly what we should remove, cleanse or control, there is another question available:

What am I feeding?

Not simply today, but repeatedly.

The body contains its own living landscape.

Like any garden, it changes.

Like any garden, it asks for tending rather than perfection.