Guest Blog: An Update from the Pediatrician’s Office – Dr. Michelle Perro on Healing Kids via the Gut Microbiome

Dr. Michelle Perro is a holistic pediatrician with nearly 40 years’ experience in acute and integrative medicine, a member of the HHRA science advisory board, and co-author of the book “What’s Making our Children Sick.” She has worked for decades to restore wellness to children struggling with health and behavioral problems rooted in gut health. To learn more about how Michelle works with children and families to restore health, check out her interview on Episode 2 of Heartland Stories Radio .

Eaters Deserve More Complete Information About Nutrition and Health Impacts on Food Labels
Multiple lines of evidence point to consumer food choices as major contributors to diet-related disease, and poor health and fitness. In a peer-reviewed journal article published today, authors Chuck Benbrook and Robin Mesnage cite studies indicating that “Some 90% of the estimated USD 4.3 trillion in annual health care costs in the US is triggered or made worse by poor food quality and diet-related disease.” Benbrook is the founder and former executive director of the Heartland Health Research Alliance (HHRA). The authors recommend novel metrics on both the nutrient density of food, and how to more accurately and usefully characterize the degree of food processing and its impacts on public health. The article is open access in the journal Foods and entitled “Enhanced Labeling to Promote Consumption of Nutrient Dense Foods and Healthier Diets.” The core nutrient density metric is a ratio: the percent of daily nutrient needs satisfied by a serving of food relative to the percent of a 2000 calorie daily diet taken up by the serving of food. This single metric is unmatched in comprehensively reflecting the nutritional quality of food. A graphic option to convey the metric on packaging is presented in Figure 3 in the new paper: A novel graphic is presented in Figure 5 to which integrates both the nutrient density and food processing metrics and graphics in a single graphic, shown below. The impacts of ultra-processed food (UPF) on public health outcomes is among the hottest topics in nutrition, medical, and public health journals, and media coverage on food quality and health outcomes. At the request of the journal, the authors developed a video abstract that explains the paper’s goals, methods, and key findings and recommendations. The authors conclude their paper with these observations: Transparent and accurate food product-specific ingredient and nutrient composition data should determine the content of nutrition health labeling. Efforts to soften the message should be resisted in light of the overwhelming need for new food labels that help bring about substantial improvements in food nutritional quality and dietary choices. Benbrook and Mesnage’s paper builds on public comments HHRA submitted in response to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed rule in 2023 to update the definition of the term “healthy” on food labels. The proposed role would require foods labeled “healthy” to contain minimum amounts of foods recommended by USDA’s Dietary Guidelines, and to limit saturated fat, sodium, added sugar and other less healthy nutrients. Entitled “Food Labeling: Nutrient Content Claims; Definition of Term `Healthy’”, the comments recommended new nutrition/health messaging on the front of food packaging. Co-authors of comments included the chair of HHRA’s Policy Advisory committee Dr. Kathleen Merrigan, HHRA science advisors, and other experts working on how changes in farming systems and technology can increase the nutritional quality of food: Dr. Hannah Flower, Dr. Donald R. Davis, Dr. David Montgomery and Anne Biklé. In the comments, the authors introduced “NuCal” as a name for their new system. Resources HHRA February 2023 comments to the FDA. Benbrook and Mesnage (2024). Enhanced Labeling to Promote Consumption of Nutrient Dense Foods and Healthier Diets, Foods. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13213377 Video Abstract: “Enhanced Labeling to Promote Consumption of Nutrient Dense Foods and Healthier Diets”
HHRA Weighs in on Key Pesticide Issues Under Review by the National Organic Standards Board
HHRA and ORG-Tracker, represented by Dr. Chuck Benbrook and Dr. Brian Baker, submitted comments to the Agricultural Marketing Service at the USDA in advance of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meeting in Portland, Oregon, from October 22nd to 24th, 2024. Drs. Benbrook and Baker will both attend the conference and deliver public comments. ORG-Tracker is a project carried out by HHRA. It aggregates pesticide residue data from inspections of organic farms carried out by certifiers. The tables generated by ORG-Tracker utilize the results of certifier testing to compare residue frequency and risk levels to food produced on conventional farms. The team is working to more effectively highlight gaps and challenges faced by certification agencies to answer questions like What crops should we be testing, and where? Is a pesticide residue found in an organic sample likely caused by accident, pesticide drift, or an intentional and illegal application? How can we modify organic programs to better mitigate risk? The comments delivered to the USDA discuss risk-based certification, pesticide residue testing, and policies impacting the incorporation of so-called inert ingredients in the biopesticides approved for use on organic farms. They argue for a more rigorous, comprehensive, and health-focused approach to risk oversight. Regarding residue testing, they advocate for more expansive and effective data aggregation to inform consumers and the organics community. Finally, for inert ingredients, they recommend further review of current policy, including increased transparency of ingredients in pesticide products. Thank you to Drs. Benbrook and Baker for your advocacy and hard work! The three sets of comments are posted on HHRA’s website as part of our policy program: Comments to the NOSB on the Risk-Based Certification Discussion Document Under Consideration During the October 2024 Meeting in Portland, Oregon Written Comments on the NOSB Discussion Document “Residue Testing for the Global Supply Chain” Comments on the Inert Ingredients in Organic Pesticide Products Proposal dated August 13, 2024 Drs. Benbrook and Baker also submitted and presented comments at the Spring 2024 meeting of the NOSB, which are available on HHRA’s Policy and Regulatory Reform page.
Dr. Kimberly Yolton joins HHRA board
Dr. Yolton is a developmental psychologist and epidemiologist serving as Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Her interests include exposures and experiences that may alter a child’s developmental trajectory from infancy through adolescence. She collaborates on research projects on typical child development as well as those focused on the impact of exposures to environmental toxicants, opiates and stress during early development.
Paul Hartnett, HHRA’s Executive Director
Paul Hartnett has served as HHRA’s CFO since our founding . With the departure of Russell King, Paul has now joined the board and Executive Director. We thank Russell for his service and wish him the best in his future endeavors.
Heartland Study Enrolls 1,000th Mother-Infant Pair
July 19, 2024 – In June of this year, the Heartland Study achieved a major milestone, enrolling its 1,000th mother-infant pair. Enrollment is now at 50% of goal. The objective of the Study is to help fill major gaps in our understanding of the impacts of herbicides on maternal and infant health. Currently in Phase 1, the Study is focused on evaluating associations between herbicide concentrations in body fluids and tissue samples from pregnant women and infants, and pregnancy/childbirth outcomes. Phase 2 is designed to evaluate potential associations between herbicide biomarkers and early childhood neurological development. Much appreciation for the mothers enrolled, and the entire Heartland Study Team including scientists, support staff and clinicians for this tremendous achievement, and for our funders to making this work possible. Read more about the study including peer-reviewed studies published in Chemosphere and Agrichemicals at our publications page. The investment required to conduct this study exceeds $1 million each year. You can support this important work by making a donation here.

By: Michelle Perro, MD

During the past several decades, I have observed rapid escalation in rates of chronic disease in my patients, as well as a host of neurocognitive and neurobehavioral disorders among the children I care for. My search for reasons why kept pointing to something different in the diet. I am now persuaded that near-daily exposures to glyphosate might be one of the factors undermining the health of children.

I honed in on the gut-brain axis and how microbiota in our gut helps modulate children’s health, and particularly neurologic health. The microbiota, now classified by some as an organ, is home to bacteria, viruses, fungi and archaea (now sometimes referred to as the ‘holobiome’).

Since Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) first received a patent for glyphosate as an ‘antibiotic’ in 2010, the presumptive thinking was that the microbiome imbalance, or dysbiosis, now presenting in the gut of many children was in part caused by the antimicrobial effects of glyphosate-‘enriched’ diets.

Published studies confirmed changes in the microbiota of poultry and lab rats, changes brought about by decreased populations of beneficial pathogens and the propagation of pathologic species from glyphosate-based herbicides. Many wondered (me included): could the same thing be happening in children?

With the release of this newest ground-breaking work by the King’s College London team led by Drs. Michael Antoniou and Robin Mesnage, our thinking on how glyphosate is disrupting the microbiota is shifting (see Dr. Mesnage’s HHRA Guest Blog for his summary of their research findings). This meticulous study revealed that glyphosate did inhibit the production of aromatic amino acids within the shikimate pathway in the microbiota, but did not kill the bacteria via this pathway. The microbes were still able to get the necessary amino acids from food. The authors postulate that there may be another mechanism through which the pathologic bacteria propagate, e.g., by using the phosphorus in the glyphosate molecule as an energy source.

According to the CDC, about 25% of American children between 2 and 8 have a chronic health condition.

Children are overwhelmed with chronic diseases, most originating in the gut and others intrinsically linked to how well the immune system responds. When examining the makeup of their microbiota, I note a lack of microbial diversity, diminished beneficial microbes and overproduction of pathogens.

There are often imbalances in the ratios of calming and stimulating neurotransmitters — chemical messengers of neurologic information. Such imbalances are at the root of many neurocognitive disorders that affect the brain.

It is important to note, first, that many neurotransmitters are actually produced in the gut, and secondly, that gut microbes play a significant role in their production. When working with children, rebalancing their diets to include organic, nutrient dense and prebiotic-enriched foods is a necessary first step in healing. Progress takes time and can be tracked with observed improvements in health and behavior, as well as in the laboratory measurements and biochemical indicators of healthy organ and metabolic functions.

This publication also demonstrated that the effects from glyphosate don’t just reside in the gut. Via metabolite (chemical) analysis, the study demonstrated negative health effects from glyphosate in blood circulating throughout the whole body. Various metabolites had levels disrupted by glyphosate, indicative of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress can cause cellular damage. If children or adults are not consuming enough antioxidants, mostly found in fresh vegetables and fruits, they cannot offset the damage wrought by the so-called free radicals unleashed as a result of oxidative stress. (see HHRA’s FAQ on glyphosate’s impact on the microbiome for more).

Via cutting-edge technology like the metabolomics and metagenomics used in this research, important breakthroughs in clinical medicine are emerging. If we heed lessons learned, practical advice and new clinical interventions will set the stage for major progress in promoting, and when necessary, restoring, gut health.

[HHRA note – sign up for our newsletter to receive updates about this important research.]