Dr. Zach Bush landed on my radar sometime last year and is one of the most interesting and game changing voices in lifestyle medicine. Zach Bush, MD,  is a triple board certified physician who specializes in internal medicine, endocrinology, and hospice care.

Here are some major takeaways from a recent interview he had with John Robbins from The 2020 Food Revolution Summit:

• Glyphosate, the main herbicide (biocide) found in Monsanto’s Roundup is carcinogenic, and is also patented as an antibiotic. Glyphosate is mainly used for GMO crops, and can be found in over 85% of the products sold in the supermarket, as well as in 75% of air and rain samples. Holy crap!
  

   

• Glyphosate has not only been linked with cancer, but it also destroys our microbiome which negatively impacts our health in countless ways. Dr. Bush explains that when patients who are non-Celiac but still have typical gluten sensitive symptoms (bloating, poor digestion, irregular bowel movements, diarrhea and constipation cycles, brain fog, and other gut issues), are put on gluten free diets, over 85% still report symptoms. So, even though gluten keeps being blamed for the whole gluten sensitivity phenomenon and everything else, the deeper story is that glyphosate is the likely trigger for that population phenomenon to have occurred in the first place. And by eliminating gluten, we are only dealing with one of the many exposures that we’re going to have to glyphosate. As a result, Dr. Bush believes that 85% of the people who are suffering with gut issues that have been attributed to gluten sensitivity, are really showing that they’re sensitive to glyphosate. And so even if we decrease gluten, we might have fewer symptoms, but we’re still getting glyphosate in much of our food system.
  

   

• According to Dr. Bush, the United States needs to come to terms with the fact that it doesn’t have a gluten problem, it has a glyphosate problem. If we get rid of glyphosate, not only can we tolerate gluten better, we’re gonna tolerate the vast array of dietary sensitivities and allergies that now afflict our children. Our children are sensitive to just about every food they put in their body, because the leak across their gut is so profound.
  

   

• Nature as the Best Probiotic: Probiotics are a part of the problem. The big studies coming out now on probiotics after antibiotic exposure are really terrifying as they have discovered that probiotics are causing just as much suppression as the antibiotic in our ability to diversify the bowel flora. And so we are selling $40 billion a year in probiotics around the world, and now we find out that we were  chasing after the wind, and planting a monoculture of bacteria in our guts, which smothers our chances of a healthy and diverse microbiome (probiotics only contain a few strains of bacteria, when there are tens of thousands of different bacteria that all need to work in concert with each other in a healthy functioning gut). Planting a monoculture of corn and soybeans across the entire US by planting just a few species overtakes the entire terrain with just those few species. As a result, our bodies are unable to recover the diversity that we would see in a healthy gut or ecosystem.
  

   

• Dr. Bush’s clinic is very strict in taking everybody off probiotics and to get them back out into nature. And the more time people spend outdoors, the faster they regain their microbiome. He adds that “it’s very cool that Mother Nature would have planned our bodies to be kind of these receptive Petri dishes for Mother Nature. So if we go out and breathe, our sinuses and our respiratory tracts are immediately embedded with microbes that then diversify that upper respiratory tract that then have an influence on the complexity and biodiversity of our upper GI tract, which then influences our colon. And so by breathing our ecosystem, we can really get engaged in nature.”
  

   

• Dr. Bush recommends the following fermented foods for gut health: Miso soup, kimchi, sauerruben (fermented turnip which is supposed to be delicious), sauerkraut, and tempeh. Basically, all fermented foods are a huge win for the gut. His clinic is entirely plant based

According to John Robbins, “When it comes to a healthy and diverse microbiome, a Whole Foods plant based diet really does shine, and one of the reasons is the large amounts of fiber that are found in whole plant foods. Now some people think that steak is a good source of fiber, because it has gristle. But that isn’t fiber, and in fact no animal food, no meat, no dairy product or egg, contains any fiber whatsoever.”

Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31442459
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6517882/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/
https://stanmed.stanford.edu/2016spring/gut-bust.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5044953/
https://www.foodrevolutionsummit.org
https://www.ecowatch.com/monsantos-roundup-found-in-75-of-air-and-rain-samples-1881869607.html
Click here to learn more about how glyphosate is linked to severe depression and cognitive decline.