Bruce German

Description: Bruce German is a distinguished professor in the food science and technology department and the director of the Foods for Health Institute at UC Davis. Dr. German uses human breast milk as his model to research the ever important question of how to improve human health via nutrition. He also has a passion for precision health, with aims to deliver personalized medicine based on an individual's genetics, biomarkers, and other lifestyle factors. In this episode we focus on babies' gut microbiome, and how we no longer have critical bacteria that play a pivotal role in establishing lifelong health. Additionally, we explore the future of nutrition and potential avenues for revolutionary changes to our food systems.

Websites: Bruce German, Foods for Health Institute

Publications:

Google Scholar

Human Milk Oligosaccharide Compositions Illustrate Global Variations in Early Nutrition

Translating Neonatal Microbiome Science Into Commercial Innovation

Resources:

Food Periodic Table

Press:

The Bacteria Babies Need

Breast Feeding the Microbiome

Companies:

Infinant Health

BCD Bioscience: Better Carbohydrate Design

Digestiva: Solving Protein Digestion

Matrubials: Developing milk-inspired therapies for infectious diseases

Show Notes:

[01:15] His background and how he got into nutrition

[05:50] Does a baby’s health impact the rest of their life? 

[07:15] Why is milk a superfood?

[08:45] How does human breast milk compare to other mammals? 

[14:05] The one critical bacteria that babies no longer have (bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis) 

[17:30] Have you seen how B. infantis impacts long term health?

[26:00] How long should mothers breastfeed? 

[27:55] Does formula match breast milk?

[28:30] Do we fully understand why we lost B. infantis and how it was transferred to infants?

[31:50] Why is being inflamed so dangerous for human health?  

[37:40] How is diet impacting our microbiome and how does that impact inflammation?

[43:10] Could you speak on the beneficial role of fats in our diet? 

[45:50] Could you break down the different kinds of cholesterol and its impact on health?

[50:45] What role do large corporations play in influencing the food industry?

[1:00:00] How do we move away from a product based food system to a knowledge based food system?

[1:04:00] Where do you see the future of health technology going?

[1:09:15] How he started a company based on academic research.

[1:14:00] How do you manage your time across teaching, researching and starting companies?

[1:16:00] What is your parting advice on how students should approach college?