There are over 600 species of bacteria in your digestive system. What is even more remarkable is that they make up 10% of our body weight and because these bacterial cells are much smaller than our own cells they make up 90% of the total cell count of our bodies.
And these 600 species of bacteria all play a role in metabolism by processing nutrients and food components (such as fiber) that we, as humans, cannot process with our limited set of genes. The metabolism of our friendly bacteria produces a range of important chemicals in our body that regulate many key biological processes that I hope to discuss in the coming months.
But another key role is the protective layer that these beneficial bacterial play in building up a mucus (snot-like) layer and preventing allergens and infection agents such as bad bacteria and viruses from getting to the human cells in the digestive tract.