Category Archives: Diet And Food

Workout routines to be done at home are useful, especially currently. Express.co.uk has an exclusive video, created with Seema Parmar. She's a fitness coach and personal trainer at Psycle London and Sweat it London, as well as an ambassador for Sweaty Betty.

Seema is partnering with Express.co.uk to provide a few home moves Britons can do using a cushion, if they don't have a block of a yoga block, and a chair, sofa or stool.

She revealed there would be five exercise in total, doing 45 seconds on and 15 seconds off, performed as a circuit.

Once you have completed the circuit you are going take a minute of recovery and and then repeat the whole circuit twice more, making three circuits in total.

The first exercise on the list is a side lunge, using the cushion to slide the foot across the floor.

READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo fitness secret: Juventus star's home workout for toned physique revealed

Seema said: "You are going to bring your back foot on top, either on your toes or resting on your foot, whatever's easier.

"You're going to drive that back knee down towards the ground.

"Tuck your tailbone under, strengthen through that core and drive down and squeeze up."

She added: "Bend the back knee, so you are not overloading the front knee."

Do 45 minutes on one leg, then change sides and do the same thing with the other leg out in front of you.

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Workout: At home exercise routine to burn calories with a cushion and sofa - Express

As a progressive home cook and working professional chef, having as many vehicles in the pantry to help incorporate full-spectrum cannabis into the daily diet has become another mission of mine. The chamomile cannabis vinegar used in this pickled egg recipe is one such example.

When eating eggs, I choose only pasture-raised farm eggs from happy hensthey are richer in vitamin A, vitamin E and omega 3s. Over many years of living on a farm and raising chickens, I strongly believe when the chickens are allowed to roam free on the range and eat insects and plants around the barnyard and farm, they produce a more nutrient-dense egg versus the commercially produced conventional eggs that are standard on grocery store shelves.

Personally, my favorite are brown eggs from Rhode Island reds and blue-green eggs laid by Araucanas and Ameraucanas. Remember that the color of an eggshell doesn't mean that one is healthier than the otherthe different colors and shades are from the many different chicken breeds out there. Both brown, white and even blue-green eggs are all equally as healthy.

For pickling, I quickly choose turmeric. It is a close relative of ginger and a great source of curcumin, which is a known anti-inflammatory. It also has the ability to keep blood sugar levels steady, and it is used to help treat type 2 diabetes. The warm floral chamomile cannabis vinegar used to pickle the eggs will impart slight nuances of honey, cider apples and chamomile. Both chamomile and cannabis contain the terpene bisabolol, which is known to have antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-irritant and analgesic properties.

Considering all those health benefits, these pickled, pasture-raised farm eggs will definitely help with an overall healthy diet that includes full-spectrum cannabis. They are a great addition to any tabletop, anytime of year.

Chamomile + Turmeric Pickled Lil Devils

Total THC/CBD: Depends on products used.

1.In a saucepan over medium heat, add the first 13 ingredients and simmer until sugar is dissolved, 5 or 6 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool for 15 minutes and add the limonene. Mix well. Add this mixture and the peeled eggs to a plastic container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

2.Remove eggs from pickling liquid and pat dry. Cut in half and remove yolks, and place in a stainless steel bowl. Add remaining stuffing ingredients to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

3.Fill each egg half with your desired amount of stuffing.

4.To make the ham powder, place ham steak on a lined sheet pan. Bake in 200 degree oven for 3 to 4 hours, checking occasionally. The idea is to dry the ham steak out without browning or burning. When the ham steak is sufficiently dry, remove from the oven and set on the counter to cool. Break the ham steak into little pieces to check moisture level. If sufficiently dry, place in a coffee grinder and grind to a fine powder. Place the powder in a small mixing bowl and add enough salt to keep it dry, 1 teaspoon or more. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

5.Sprinkle the top of each egg with ham powder and chopped chives.

Chef Sebastian Carosi is a farm-raised, Portland culinary professional with more than 25 years in the restaurant and hospitality industry who has been cooking with cannabis since the mid-'90s. He shares most of his terpene-fortified recipes on Instagram.

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Chef up 4/20 With These Weed-Infused Deviled Eggs - Willamette Week

May Xiao spends most of her time in her dorm room. When she leaves, which she only does to get food or take out her trash, she is surrounded by an empty, quiet Hill.

On Mattie Greens floor in Rieber Hall, only around four students remain, Green said.

Hasan Masud doesnt see many people either, other than the occasional meetup to stand in line to get food together, 6 feet apart.

Its lonely, said Xiao, a resident assistant for Rieber Hall and a second-year ecology, behavior and evolution student. All my friends are not here anymore.

Xiao, Green and Masud are part of the minority of students who opted to remain in residence halls. More than 80% canceled their housing contracts and left after classes moved online for spring quarter.

Many operations have been limited on the Hill in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and student life has changed as a result.

Among the changes, dining options have been limited to De Neve Residential Restaurant and Rendezvous, with Feast at Rieber to replace Rendezvous next week. All meals are takeout, and residents are instructed to stand 6 feet apart in line with a mask on as they wait for their food.

Rieber Hall has the only operating front desk on the Hill. However, the swipe system has remained the same, and vending machines still work.

Xiao said food options are lacking, especially for her vegetarian diet.

Theres no way to keep a healthy diet on the Hill right now, its been really bad, Xiao said. Im vegetarian and its really hard to get vegetables.

Green, a third-year mechanical engineering student, has had to supplement her diet with groceries while living on the Hill.

When I came back to the Hill and I tried to get food, I had a feeling of anxiety because there were just no vegetables anywhere, Green said. Before, I didnt really buy any food from the grocery store except for snacks, but I had to get myself some fresh produce that Ive been eating.

Lines for the grocery stores in Westwood are much longer than usual, and students must wear masks to enter.

When we went to Trader Joes, there was a huge line all across the parking lot, Xiao said. Theres no way we wanted to go in that line.

Many bathrooms on the Hill have been shut down as well. Five bathrooms were left open in all of Rieber Hall out of the total 25, Xiao said, making most residents have to take an elevator trip to use the bathroom. Rieber Hall bathrooms were left uncleaned for two days during spring break as well. UCLA Residential Life professional staff said housekeeping operations had been understaffed during that week in a recent Zoom town hall.

I had two residents complaining about the bathrooms not having been cleaned, Xiao said. Although they moved the bathrooms to one floor per building, it still takes them a long time to move throughout the Hill.

There has also been an increased amount of people experiencing homelessness staying on the Hill, with university police having received double the amount of calls to escort nonstudents off the Hill compared to last month, according to UCPD.

Xiao, as a Hill employee, encountered one woman experiencing homelessness who spent two days in the Rieber Hall 3 South lounge before being escorted off campus by UCPD. This was the second time she had been escorted off the hill in a week, Xiao said.

I saw her for like two days just sitting in the lounge. I was curious and asked if she is a resident but she said shes homeless because of the pandemic and had nowhere to go and that she wanted me to keep her as a secret, Xiao said. I feel so sorry about this but I had to report it and call my supervisor.

UCLA Housing has been working on consolidating residents into fewer buildings so that residents are not as spread out, with the goal of giving each resident their own room. Residents in De Neve residence halls were transferred completely to Sunset Village over the weekend.

This was done to make space for possible hospital overflow from patients as well as housing for doctors, according to ResLife professional staff in the Zoom town hall meeting.

Masud, a Dykstra Hall RA and fourth-year applied mathematics student, said that he and his residents were given notice Thursday that they had to be moved out by Sunday.

There was a lot of complication, Masud said. As an international student of four years, I have all my stuff with me, so it was a harrowing process to pack up. I almost got moved into a room that someone was already living in.

Masud said that residents now have single rooms and single or shared bathrooms after the move, which he thinks is beneficial for safety and made the move worth it.

UCLA Housing plans to continue consolidating all residents into Sunset Village, Rieber Terrace, Rieber Vista and Hedrick Summit in the following weekends.

Xiao and Masud, like many other international students, had little choice but to stay on the Hill.

Xiao is an international student from China and said that her reasons for staying are complex. Although she has the option to go home, flights are limited, and she would face a mandatory two-week quarantine once she returned.

A lot of new cases in China are found to be people coming back from foreign countries, Xiao said. I guess thats why a lot of us are scared to go home and part of the reason why a lot are staying.

Other residents have different reasons for choosing to stay. Green said that she returned to the Hill to better focus on her studies and have her own space.

I didnt feel like I could be in a school mindset at home, Green said. My family is six people, which is a lot for a house. I needed my own space, and I wanted to be closer to my friends.

Student employment on the Hill has also been affected by the pandemic. Many RAs have resigned and moved home, and other students in ResLife positions have been given the option to either work remotely or receive three weeks of paid administrative leave.

Some RAs are frustrated with swiftly changing protocols, Masud said.

We just keep getting these update emails that are confusing, contradict themselves and go back on things, Masud said. I think were asking questions that they still dont know the answers to, and thats why we dont have the information. Its not like theyre withholding information, its that they genuinely do not know. I think we can give them the benefit of the doubt. This is a situation that no one has ever had to deal with.

Masuds advice for everyone still on the Hill like him is to be understanding in this time of unprecedented circumstances.

Its easy to get frustrated, but just understand that everyone is trying to deal with it, Masud said. We just have to get on with it and try and do our best.

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Still on the Hill, students face loneliness and lack of vegetables - Daily Bruin

EDEN HAZARD admits he is finding it hard to resist pigging out on buns during isolation.

The Real Madrid forward is working with an online physio to strengthen the ankle that has ruled him out of 17 games this season.

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But the Belgian - who was blasted for being overweight after sealing his 150million move from Chelsea last summer - did not hide the fact he is also battling the urge to snack on buns at home.

He told RTBF: "It's complicated for me. I'm trying not to eat a lot.

"I'm trying not to go into the pantry to eat a lot of buns, but it's not easy."

The 28-year-old has managed just one goal in his 15 appearances this season, and missed the start of the season with a hamstring problem.

Hazard had returned to the squad briefly in February before missing another three games with a second ankle fracture picked up against Levante.

But despite football coming to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic, the winger continues his road to recovery through home therapy.

Hazard added: "I'm working with the physio online.

"He can't come here anymore because he fell ill and has to stay at home.

"We started ten days ago, but he sends me videos from home.

"I'm working to strengthen my ankle and I'm doing what I can from home."

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Eden Hazard admits he is struggling with diet and weight with Real Madrid star tempted to pig out on buns at - The Sun

Adam Shell, Special to USA TODAY Published 6:01 a.m. ET April 15, 2020 | Updated 8:01 a.m. ET April 15, 2020

Debt is a financial drag. But digging out from a blizzard of bills requires a plan no matter whats happening in your life. The good news isthe money you owe doesnt have to be paid back overnight.

One debt-reduction strategy worth considering is the debt-snowball method made popular by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey.

How does it work? You pay off debt in order of smallest to largest, no matter what the interest rateowed on the cards.

So, if you have a Visa with a $150 balance, a Mastercard with a $285 balance and a Home Depot with $415, youll tackle the lower-balance Visa debt first. Just pay the minimum payment on the other cards until the Visas paid in full.

Its a good strategy for the type of person that wants to see some type of progress, says Daniel Milan, managing partner at Cornerstone Financial Services.

When you knock out your smallest bill, then move on to the card with the next biggest balance. The idea is just as a snowball rolled down a hill gains momentum, so will your bill-paying.

One debt-reduction strategy worth considering is the debt-snowball method made popular by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey.(Photo: AP)

If youre in debt now, or fear you will be, youre not alone.

U.S. household debt, including money owed on mortgages, was $14.15 trillion at the end of 2019, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Money owed on plastic was $930 billion. Last year, the average American household carried a credit card balance of $6,194, according to credit bureau Experian.

Staying cool amid debt woes is key. Executing the debt snowball plan has five key benefits:

1. Its motivational

Just like success on the job or the golf coursecan incentivize you to keep improving, so can paying off a bill even a tiny one using the debt snowball approach.

(It) gives you motivation, and motivation is the secret sauce, Ramsey explains on his web site. When you pay off that smallest debt first, you get a taste of victory. And that feeling of success is the momentum you need to tackle the next debt with vengeance.

2. Provides psychological boost

Winning boosts morale. Even knocking out a small bill is good for the psyche, says Chrisanna Elser, a financial planner and founder of personal finance site ThefinU.

Elser says the debt snowball approach is the most accepted (debt-reduction) method by psychologists because it rewards you for terminating one debt at a time in its entirety. The idea is that the little wins will keep you focused on your goal of reducing debt.

3. Delivers quicker results

Paying off a small debt likely will take less time than if you target a bigger debt, or one that carries a high interest rate.

The snowball method is like the Keto diet, Elser says, referring to the low-carb, high-fat diet that trims fat fast. The reward center of the brain sees quick results in debt reduction, so youre more likely to stick with the program.

4. Creates accountability

Ignoring debt isnt a plan. Warming up to the debt-snowball approach is a way to stay focused on the task at hand. And to lower your odds of falling off the debt-paydown wagon, says Elser.

The importance is in the execution and accountability, she says. Much like posing a picture of a bikini on the fridge to prevent binge eating, posting your debt repayment schedule in a commonly viewed place, like the laptop you use for Amazon binges, is very helpful.

5. Begets behavior change

Paying off any debt, even a small one, will get you out of a rut.

Those in heaps of debt typically are depressed about it and feel there is no way forward, says Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group. By starting with small balances, the individual begins to feel the rewards of debt reduction, (and) is behaviorally more motivated to keep trying to payoff money they owe.

Whats the key to success?

Sticking to the plan, says Bryson Roof, investment advisor at Roof Advisory Group, a division of Fort Pitt Capital Group. And that means, if at possible, try not to take on fresh debt.

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5 reasons why the snowball strategy for paying off credit cards works - USA TODAY

One thing I know a lot of us are being challenged with right now in the midst of all these quarantines is how to stay in shape, and how to control what you're eating and drinking. It's even more of a challenge with our gyms being shut down, and spending more time at home close to the refrigerator.

I've always worked out, but I also like to joke that, as acombat veteran,I suffer from Post Deployment Celebration Disorder.I end up eating or drinking too much, especially after getting home from a deployment. Thankfully, I've figured out how to shed that post deployment weight gain, and how to keep it off- so I thought I would just share a few things that seem to be working for me in the middle of these quarantines (although I gotta admit it is definitely more of a struggle for all of us in this quarantine).

That's just a few things that have been working for me. What's been working for you? Any apps you'd recommend? Shoot me a note aaron(at)montanatalks.com

And, if you just need a good laugh (and missed my previous post)...check out Tim Montana's "Quarantine" song with Black Rifle Coffee's Mat Best:

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How I'm Staying in Shape from Home Here in Montana - newstalk955.com

Kelly was obsessed with junk food and cola (Picture: Triangle News)

A mum who was obsessed with food and drank five litres of cola a day has lost more than a third of her body weight after doctors told her diet or die.

Kelly McCracken reached a size 28 and weighed 20 stone after getting hooked on drinking Coke and eating junk food for most meals.

She spent most of her time in bed and was eventually hospitalised with diabetes and high blood pressure because of her unhealthy lifestyle.

There, the doctor told Kelly that she wouldnt make it to Christmas unless she lost weight.

So Kelly embarked on a healthier lifestyle, since losing seven stone in ten months.

Kelly, of Hull, said: My little boy used to go to school and tell his teacher he was scared Mummy might not pick him up because she might die.

He knew his mummy was bigger than the other mummies. I found out at a parents evening and I just broke down.

The truth was I was obsessed with food and couldnt stop. I even thought I was happy but I obviously wasnt

We used to go out as a family to all you can eat restaurants and I would tell myself I have had enough now for the day but by the time I got home I would be eating crisps.

Kellys weight spiralled after giving birth to Curtis her sixth child.

She says she never realised how big she had become because she only looked at her face in the mirror.

I look at photos now and cant believe I was that big, Kelly said.

I was comfortable with family life and just oblivious to what I was doing to my body.

She says her partner of 22 years, Steven Hall, 51, had to become her carer, even though he has a full-time job as an accountant.

He had to help her get dressed and bathe her as she was too big to do it herself.

Kellys daily diet consisted of a 12 inch vegetarian pizza and fries, cakes, two family-sized chocolate boxes of mini Daim bars and boxes of celebrations or heroes along with crisp sandwiches.

She says she could barely walk and would often have conversations with Steven about changing her life.

But I was obsessed with food and loved it so much, she said. I kept telling him I would start tomorrow but tomorrow never came.

He used to say I was the queen of excuses because I always had one.

I would have sausage and chips for tea with the kids as normal but when Steven came home from work I would pretend I hadnt and would get a pizza takeaway.

One Friday night in March last year Kelly went to bed early after telling Steven she felt ill.

Her eyesight had been blurry all week and her whole body was shaking.

Kelly woke up in the early hours in a panic with chest pains before an ambulance was called.

She was rushed to the Hull Royal Infirmary and it took lying in a hospital bed to make Kelly realise something needed to change.

The mum-of-six said: The doctor told me I would die and would not make it to Christmas if I didnt do something about my weight.

I felt sick and was terrified I wouldnt see my boy grow up. I vowed to diet and I havent touched coke or junk food since.

It was the wake up call I needed.

I was lying in the hospital bed and I made Steven sign me up online to Weight Watchers and that was the day my life changed.

Kelly started attending her weekly WW classes, recording her daily diet in a food diary, and going on little walks.

Before:

After:

After losing three stone, Kellys partner bought her a little sausage dog called Frankfurter to keep her motivated and get her out for a walk twice a day.

On 25 January Kelly reached her target weight of 13 stone and seven pounds. Shes now a size 14 and feels so much better, despite finding ditching takeaways a challenge.

She no longer drinks any fizzy drinks, just sticking to water, and avoids junk food.

It has all been worth it, she said I can finally be a mum to my boy. He deserves having his mummy able to move around with him.

Life is so different I feel like I have a new one. I can wear clothes that would never have fit before and I have become a gym bunny.

I go four times a week and do legs, the treadmill, exercise bikes, resistance band training and tyres and it is really helping.

I even go to the shops and buy clothes I want rather than ones I can find that fit.

I dont recognise myself when I look in the mirror and I feel independent again.

But the magical thing about this journey is my son now puts his arms around me for a hug and says Look how thin you are mummy.

I was too big for him to fit his arms around me before.

Im now always on the school run and have no shame about the way I look.

Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.

MORE: Coronavirus seemed a million miles away, until it took my mum

MORE: Doctors get married at work as colleagues set up makeshift wedding in hospital

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Mum who drank five litres of cola a day loses more than a third of body weight - Metro.co.uk

GEMMA Collins says she's "working on her summer body" by plugging the controversial weight loss injections.

The reality star, 38, plugged the 250 injections - which claims to suppress the appetite and helps the body turn stored fat into energy - on Instagram.

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After uploading a video of her riding a bike up a hill, Gemma then filmed herself opening the packet.

She wrote: "So working on my summer body while in isolation and this really helps me. There are a lot of take offs of this pen.

"This is what you get when you order off SkinnyJab. It does help. It really does help. Yeah, cannot wait to be out of lockdown in a nice summer dress in summer."

Gemma has previously said the injections "changed her life" after losing two stone using them.

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The star told her followers in February: "Everyone has been asking 'how the hell have you lost weight, GC?'.

"Well, it's all all down to Skinny Jabs and the amazing team there.

"They have transformed my whole life with regards to dieting."

Insisting her fans can help transform their bodies and lose weight just like she did, the Diva on Lockdown star added: "It's something you can do too.

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"It's so fantastic. Summer's not going to be too far away and you can lose two stone just like me."

The official website states that SkinnyJab "removes hunger from the equation", also reassuring that the suppressant used in the the plan regulates blood glucose levels that allows the body to turn stored fat into energy.

It boasts that the plan is suitable for anyone aged between 18 and 76 and the first programme last three weeks, costing 250.

Repeat jabs are 135 a pop and last two to four weeks.

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Dr Sarah Jarvis, clinical director at patient.info, told The Sun Online: "It should only be used by people who are obese, or who are significantly overweight and also have other medical conditions.

"In studies, the average amount of weight lost by people taking this drug for weight loss was about 4-6kg over a year, and about 4.6kg over 3 years.

"Some people will lose more, some people less. But it clearly is not a miracle cure there really is no side-effect free miracle solution for obesity.

"This injection should only be used under close medical supervision, in addition to effective diet and lifestyle changes.

"Like any other licensed drug, it has side effects among the most common are feeling sick or being sick and diarrhoea."

More here:
Gemma Collins says shes working on her summer body by promoting controversial weight loss injections - The Sun

WACO, TX Freedom Nutrition in Waco had their grand opening just two months ago. Little did they know getting their business off the grown will be harder than anticipated.

As they opened their doors, COVID-19 hit Central Texas and their planned business model took a turn. Although they could close up shop, they're choosing to push through.

"If we close the doors now that's a failure for us. So for us right now it's just focusing on solutions, not getting caught up in all the negativity," owner, Caleb Klous said.

Freedom Nutrition is a place where you can eat healthy while satisfying their sweet tooth. Selling protein-packed, nutrient-dense shakes. Flavors range from fruity to chocolaty and everything in between.

"We can actually help you dial in control your weight, your health, your immunity," Klous said.

Jena McCann is an avid shake drinker. She used to not eat very healthy, wasn't happy with her weight and just had no energy throughout the day.

Thanks to Freedom Nutrition shakes she's been able to get to a goal she's happy with.

"I got down to 115 pounds and now I'm working on gaining muscle because my butt went away when all the fat went away and it's just a consistent journey," McCann said.

She works as a supervisor at Freedom Nutrition and now she's helping others get to their goals as well. Offering wellness evaluations, they work to find a diet that is best for you.

"We look at your daily diet as an overview, we look at your metabolism analysis. We also do body composition tracking and then we customize a personal nutrition plan," Klous said.

As we are stuck inside, it's easy to grab that sweet treat and McCann says eating healthy is more important now than ever.

"You don't want to give up on it just because we're bored dealing with the quarantine 15," McCann said.

The shakes are designed to keep you full and avoid cravings.

"Our large shake is going to keep you full for a about three hours and it's going to taste like ice cream," Klous said.

Freedom Nutrition is open Monday Through Saturday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information visit their Facebook page.

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We're Open Freedom nutrition struggles as they just opened their doors before the pandemic hit - KXXV News Channel 25

Microbes Gone Missing

In the early 20th century, biologists began to uncover fascinating relationships between complex organisms and their microbes: in tubeworms that had no mouth, anus or gut; in termites that fed on tough, woody plants; in cows whose grassy diet significantly lacked protein. Such observations generated excitement and prompted follow-up experiments. In those years, the absence of microbial helpers in an animal wasnt considered particularly surprising or interesting, and it often received little more than a passing nod in the literature. Even when it was thought to merit more than that as in a 1978 report in Science that tiny wood-eating crustaceans, unlike termites, had no stable population of gut bacteria it ended up flying under the radar.

And so expectations quietly began to shift to a new norm, that every animal had a relationship with bacteria without which it would perish. A few voices protested this oversimplification: As early as 1953, Paul Buchner, one of the founders of symbiosis research, wrote with exasperation about the notion that obligate, fixed and functional symbioses were universal. Again and again there have been authors who insist that endosymbiosis is an elementary principle of all organisms, he seethed. But counterexamples drowned in the flood of studies on the importance of host-microbe symbioses, especially those that drew connections between human health and our own microbiome.

The human microbiome has completely driven a lot of our thinking about how microbes work, said Tobin Hammer, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Texas, Austin. And we often project from ourselves outwards.

But the human example is not a good model for whats going on in a diverse range of species, from caterpillars and butterflies to sawflies and shrimp, to some birds and bats (and perhaps even some pandas). In these animals, the microbes are sparser, more transient or unpredictable and they dont necessarily contribute much, if anything, to their host. The story is more complex, said Sarah Hird, an evolutionary biologist and microbial ecologist at the University of Connecticut, more fuzzy.

A transient, almost nonexistent relationship with bacteria was what Sanders saw in his tropical ants. He brought his samples back to his lab (then at Harvard University, although he is now at Cornell), where he sequenced the insects bacterial DNA and quantified how many microbes were present. The ant species with dense, specialized microbiomes had approximately 10,000 times more bacteria in their guts than Sanders found in the many other species he had captured. Put another way, Sanders said, if the ants were scaled to human size, some would carry a pound of microbes within them (similar to what humans harbor), others a mere coffee beans worth. Its really a profound difference.

That difference, reported in Integrative & Comparative Biology in 2017, seemed to be associated with diet: Strictly herbivorous tree-dwelling ants were more likely to have an abundant microbiome, perhaps to make up for their protein-deficient diet; omnivorous and carnivorous ground-dwelling ants consumed more balanced meals and had negligible amounts of bacteria in their gut. Still, this pattern was inconsistent. Some of the herbivorous ants also lacked a microbiome. And the ants that did have one didnt seem to have widespread, predictable associations with particular species of bacteria (although some sets of microbes were common to individual genera of the insects). That result marked a clear departure from mammalian microbiomes like our own, which tend to be very specific to their hosts.

The reasons why would become clearer as case studies of other organisms started to trickle in.

At around the same time that Sanders was examining ants in Peru, Hammer was in Costa Rica on an independent search for a microbiome in caterpillars. (What better insect to have obligate relationships with bacteria than these cows of the insect world? Sanders commented.) But try as he might, Hammer couldnt find much bacterial DNA in the gut and fecal samples he collected. Something really weird was going on, he said.

When, after months of frustrating lab work, he realized that the animals might simply not have a stable microbiome, it was a shift in thinking for me that was not expected at all. He and his colleagues ultimately found that, like so many of Sanders ants, caterpillars had much, much lower quantities of microbes than was considered the norm. Moreover, those microbes were simply a subset of the ones found in the animals plant diet which supports the idea that theyre transiently passing through and some of them are getting digested, essentially, Hammer said. Theyre not establishing stable populations within the gut.

To determine whether those transient bacteria benefited the caterpillars, the researchers eliminated them with antibiotics. In other insects and animals, such a treatment tends to stunt development or kill the host outright. But it had no effect whatsoever on Hammers caterpillars.

Deepa Agashe, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the National Center for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India, saw something similar in insects that her team collected from several locations near the greenery of their campus. The microbes they found in dragonflies and butterflies strongly correlated with the insects diets rather than with a particular insect species or developmental stage. The vast majority of the dragonflies bacterial communities seemed to have come together by chance. Most of the bacteria were just there because they got there, Agashe said. The insects do not seem to be selecting for particular species of bacteria or a particular kind of bacteria.

Repeated experiments that disrupted the butterflies microbial populations yielded no effect on the hosts growth or development. Neither did reintroducing the bacteria to their guts. Really, Agashe said, they dont seem to care about their microbes at all even though the butterflies feed on toxic plants and seem like perfect candidates for a full-fledged, functional microbiome that could detoxify their meals.

Like Hammer and Sanders, initially we were scratching our heads, Agashe said. It was a surprising result, and actually it took us a while to wrap our heads around it.

But maybe it shouldnt be so surprising. As the scientists realized, when microbiomes are present, theyre often found in specific tissues and they involve specific bacteria that influence specific traits at specific times. The bobtail squid, for example, has a symbiosis thats limited to one species of luminous bacteria, which is sequestered in a single light-producing organ while the squids gut and skin remain microbe-free. Adult honeybees have important relationships with their bacteria, but the larvae dont.

So its not such a leap to think there could be animals that dont have such relationships at all, or that have relationships that play by different rules. I think theres now an increasing realization that theres this whole spectrum of kinds of associations that you might find, Agashe said.

Hammer agreed. Were just getting a glimpse at the tip of the iceberg, he said.

Read the rest here:
Why Is the Microbiome Important in Some Animals but Not Others? - Quanta Magazine