ReBiotika Science
SETTING THE STAGE
Your Body Is a Superorganism
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80%+
of the immune system housed in the gut
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90-95%
of the body's serotonin produced in the gut
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18-20 min
microbial generation time vs. 25 years for human cells
You probably already know the basics: the gut microbiome is important. But the full picture is more remarkable than most people realise.
Your gut houses over 80% of your immune system. It produces 90-95% of your body's serotonin. And the combined genetic repertoire of your microbial community exceeds the human genome by orders of magnitude.
Scientists now describe the human body as a "superorganism," or holobiont: not an isolated biological entity, but a functional unit where human cells and microbial communities work as one. Over millions of years of evolution, the body effectively outsourced critical life functions to these microbial partners. Digestion. Vitamin synthesis. Immune calibration. The reason is elegant: microbial generations turn over every 18-20 minutes, allowing them to adapt millions of times faster than human cells can (which take roughly 25 years per generation).
"We didn't just develop alongside microbes. We developed because of them."
What Modern Life Has Stripped Away
Modern food processing has systematically removed the microbial diversity humans co-evolved with. Pasteurisation, irradiation, preservatives, chlorinated water, and soil depletion have all played a role.
Fermented foods once made up an estimated 30-40% of the human diet. Today, most people consume close to zero. The result is dysbiosis: reduced microbial diversity, weakened barrier function, and downstream effects on digestion, immunity, energy, skin, and mood.
Research on traditional societies underscores just how far modern populations have drifted. Studies of communities like the Hadza in Tanzania and the Yanomami in Venezuela show they maintain significantly higher gut microbial diversity than Western populations, with bacterial groups that are virtually absent in industrialised guts.
Nobody is suggesting we go back to eating unwashed food. But we do need to recognise the biological gap modern life created, and find a way to close it.
30–40%
historically estimated proportion of the human diet that was once fermented foods
~0%
today, what most modern diets contain today