How to build a healthy gut using the latest microbiome science | Dr Suzanne Devkota
The Proof with Simon HillShow Notes
In this episode I sit down again with microbiome researcher Dr Suzanne Devkota to explore what a healthy microbiome really is and how we can support it. We unpack diversity, early life programming, fibre and microbiota accessible carbohydrates (MACs), plus the genuine role of probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics.
Suzanne also shares cutting edge research on short chain fatty acids, Akkermansia, inflammatory bowel disease, visceral fat and colon cancer, and helps separate solid science from the noise you see online.
What We Cover
What the microbiome is and how it differs along the digestive tract
Why diversity is a key marker of gut health and how chronic disease and diet affect it
Early life influences on the microbiome, from birth mode to first foods
The realities of stool testing, different methods, and how to interpret results with care
Probiotics versus prebiotics versus postbiotics, when each may or may not be useful
MAC rich foods, short chain fatty acids and why butyrate is so important for gut barrier integrity
The Akkermansia story, mucus, leaky gut and why focusing on one bug is misleading
New data on IBD, gut leakiness, bacteria in fat tissue and links to fibrosis and metabolism
I hope this conversation gives you a clearer, more grounded view of gut health and helps you focus on practical, sustainable steps that genuinely support your microbiome.
You can learn more from Dr Suzanne Devkota by following her on Instagram, or by visiting the Cedars-Sinai Human Microbiome Research Institute and the Devkota Lab.
Intro (00:00:00)
The Microbiome Conversation (00:01:16)
How Diversity Shapes Your Gut’s Health and Resilience (00:04:40)
The First Three Years That Shape a Lifetime (00:08:09)
What Microbiome Tests Can and Can’t Tell You (00:11:05)
Probiotics, Prebiotics, Postbiotics (00:18:05)
The Quiet Power of Short-Chain Fatty Acids (00:34:47)
The Fiber Controversy and What People Get Wrong (00:47:58)
How Daily Habits Quietly Reshape Your Microbiome (00:49:28)
Antibiotics, Resetting, and Rebuilding Your Gut (00:52:07)
How Early-Life Factors Imprint Your Gut for Decades (00:56:57)
Why Chronic Inflammation and IBD Connect Back to the Microbiome (01:03:14)
What We’re Learning About Colon Cancer and the Gut (01:16:13)
The Future of Microbiome Science and Personalized Gut Care (01:27:45)
This episode is brought to you by:
38TERA
Consider 38TERA's DMN prebiotic supplement a daily multivitamin for your gut. Formulated by yours truly and gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz. Use code THEPROOF for a discount at checkout.
Function Health
Take charge of your health with advanced blood testing and personalised insights. Function Health offers a practical way to track key health markers such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and more. Learn more and join at functionhealth.com/simonhill for a $25 credit toward your membership. Only available to those living in the United States.
Eight Sleep
Upgrade your sleep with the Pod 5 Ultra by Eight Sleep. Clinically validated to deliver up to 1 extra hour of quality sleep per night through temperature control and biometric tracking. Use code THEPROOF for $400 off at eightsleep.com/theproof. Try it risk-free for 30 days, with worldwide shipping.
Momentous
My go-to supplement brand for protein and creatine is Momentous. Use code THEPROOF for up to 35% off your first order at livemomentous.com.
Simon Hill, MSc, BSc (Hons)
Creator of theproof.com
Host of The Proof with Simon Hill
Author of The Proof is in the Plants
Subscribe & Connect:
YouTube
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Instagram: @simonhill
Twitter: @theproof
Facebook: The Proof with Simon Hill
More from The Proof with Simon Hill
Practising registered dietitian and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, Dr Nicola Guess, returns to the show to discuss a new study whose findings were interpreted in quite different ways the week it came out. Dr Samuel Klein’s group at Washington University assigned people with prediabetes to one of three diets, carefully controlled their weight loss, and found that the arm labelled ketogenic reduced liver fat by 67%.
This is Christopher Gardner's eighth appearance on the show. Christopher is a nutrition scientist at Stanford, director of the Stanford Nutrition Studies Research Group, and the author of a new book, Food Sense: What to Eat and Why. He has run more than 20 human diet trials over three decades.
A few weeks ago I published my own heart scans, and one number travelled further than the rest: a 48% drop in plaque over 16 and a half months. The question underneath that video was the obvious one. How? This episode is the answer, and it is also the part I could easily have left out.
Howard Luks is an orthopaedic surgeon with almost 30 years of experience, and a good deal of his week is spent telling people they do not need an operation. We work through the joints that bring most people into a clinic, knees, shoulders, Achilles tendons and ankles, and separate what a scan is actually telling you from what it is being used to justify.
This is part two of my conversation with Dr Federica Amati, Head Nutritionist at ZOE and author of the Sunday Times bestseller Every Body Should Know This. In part one we covered preconception, fertility, and pregnancy nutrition. Here we follow the first 1,000 days through to the end: birth, breastfeeding, weaning, and the environmental exposures behind all of it.