Heribert Watzke: The brain in your gut

www.ted.com Did you know you have functioning neurons in your intestines -- about a hundred millions of them? Food scientist Heribert Watzke tells us about the "hidden brain" in our gut and the surprising things it makes us feel.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/translate. Watch a highlight reel of the Top 10 TEDTalks at www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

[@KieranLeCam]

I have a gut feeling that researching our guts will lead to pretty impressive discoveries.

[@paml.6101]

I think it will put a lot of medical people and techniques out of commission. I don't think big Pharma will allow it how will they make any $$$ if we the people can heal our own gut.

[@greenapple6]

@Kieran, you're right! Here it continues kzbin.info/www/bejne/fn-wgpKtbM2LiqM :-D

[@stayfree6115]

I can stomach that

[@Iker888]

@HigherPlanes I agree, cooking was crucial in our transformation from a nomadic people to sedentary and even city folk, but I don't think it holds a primary role in the way we evolved as to be an essential part of our diet.

[@ralphwatzke304]

Excellent talk from Cousin Heribert, one of the world's leading nutritionists/food scientists! Not only is he a relative, of whom the family is very proud, he is also my Doppelganger look-alike (when I wear a beard, which I often do!)

[@mooshikishi]

@Archamitect i don't know if you understood the talk, but it's NOT about healthy eating - it's about our gut, and how cooking as a technology affected human evolution.

[@1.Ayesha]

Exellent explanation sir. Thank you so much😊

[@Dumass88]

He's got a point. Eating "softer" food allowed our jaws to shrink and loose need for high bloodflow to the jaws, making is possible to support more focus on the brain. We locked up the powersupply and gradualy evolved increased brainpower due to social and survival-needs. The whole thing about the gut was tricky to really understand.. since he sometimes were pretty in-comprehensive.

[@silvercoin1111]

Great, interesting talk!

[@Bene9]

I remember seeing an interview with one of the oldest people around, they asked him what his secret was, and he replied "Porridge!!" he did sound a bit like Herbert from family guy but there it is, the secret elixir of life.

[@EriqKoontz]

Here is one of the more excellent videos from the TED talks.

[@globalroamexplorer]

Try Chlorella it works wonders!!! Sun Chlorella A

[@lihamedi8363]

Only cooked food is not enough . We need both, cooked and raw vegetables , fruits and nuts. Moderation.

[@florisr9]

That is what unscientific dietitians make you believe. Cooking vegetables is part of the whole cooking skill what helped humans absorb more nutrients. It makes vegetables more digestible. Most fruits, however, are already easily digestible, so cooking them would not be worth the time and energy. Now, here is the funny part: Almost all nuts you eat are already roasted in the factory. This is essential to detoxify them and improve the taste. Cooking is more important than you think.

[@HeavenlyH3R0]

unless you buy raw nuts :o and chew your veggies good :)

[@florisr9]

quora.com

[@constantinosmarcunikandrou9003]

One question on this that has been told: "cooking led to big brain" and then"big brain invented cooking" So again we have the chicken or the egg!

[@leeqingxia1071]

this is really very informative. And I believe so too. A lot of doctors have not been very educated about leaky gut which led them to wrongly diagnose patients and in turn make life pretty miserable to patients, but the gut is something that people don't know and only give little information which make people who are really sensitive live a zombified life because they cannot even assimilate glucose for the brain use -->> hence cannot remember, cannot focus, cannot this and that (ADHD), brain fog, CFS. There's so much to study about it so that the minority who are sensitive can lead a normal life, i think that's more important if not they really will live a very miserable life.

[@DigitalNomadPhysicians]

I wonder if physicians are at all needed in this discussion. I don't tell my patients what to eat - I am not sure anyone is educated enough to be able to do that. I can help my patients listen to their bodies and figure out what fits their unique biome well and what doesn't. I suspect no matter how educated doctors are about leaky gut individuals will pursue the diet they choose. I suspect education won't stop fast food or processed good consumption or production.

[@NathanielSolace]

It's hard to take advice on eating from someone with such a gut... Love him either way though!

[@stayfree6115]

It takes a lot of gut's For a large Man to put this message out there

[@momentary_]

@HigherPlanes It takes your body more energy to break down and absorb the nutrients in raw food than in cooked food. Think of cooking as outsourcing some of the digestion process by using external energy i.e. your stovetop to break down the food before you eat it. Cooking also prevents a lot of illness caused by pathogens, bacteria and other microorganisms. That prevention saves a lot of metabolic toll and energy as well.

[@katakanadian]

@machetey Umami is 5th tastebud type that was only described a few years ago. I believe it comes from the Japanese word umami (good taste).

[@ron7006]

What happens when you fast for a week or so? Do you kill off your gut brain? I tried fasting a few years ago. My gut brain was very upset the whole time. (6 days) Careful preparation went into the fast, by the way. It was terrible - never again.

[@Bene9]

@HigherPlanes I see what you mean, but it wouldn't surprise me if the reason why you guys are so healthy is the fact that you pay attention to what you eat and your health more than most, there are many ways to lessen you're chances of cancer and avoid disease and your way obviously works but i think there are definitely other ways equally effective which involve eating cooked foods

[@nuffinmuffin7351]

why are there some thumbs down? this guy is brilliant.

[@clixx13]

TED, get a camera that records in 720p and hi-def audio! Please! I need to hear these lectures crystal clear.. especially when the speaker has a thick accent.

[@gavin104471]

He makes some interesting assumptions and arrives at fascinating conclusions drawn from scientific discoveries and observations. How much validity they have is, of course, another quetion.

[@KieranLeCam]

+gavin104471 Guess we'll have to abstain from making hasty conclusions and let the science do the talking. Perhaps a little more research in neurogastroenterology might do the trick.

[@franivel5253]

Then he says twice this is autonomous, and never uses the scientific terms! This is the ANS or autonomic Nervous System, and it is indeed a form of intelligence and it does much more than digestion, and he is right that over-riding our impulses is breaking more havoc in our bodies than we think!

[@aleeks831]

TED should notate when speakers jump from introduction to the raw content! I don't have time to sit through the entire talk - but I'm really curious as to what my gut can make me feel. :O

[@mmedefarge]

@AtheistdotEDU I'm no egghead but perhaps it was 8 yrs. of Catholic grammar school having given me a slight background in Latin which made it easily translatable. It's a well known saying such as, "et cetera", "mea culpa" "semper fi", "caveat emptor", "memento mori", "tempis fugit", et. al..

[@GracefulxArcher]

I'd like to know more on this... Sources?

[@biblicalworldview284]

Affections and Passions by Scott Aniol is a helpful article to read.

[@shadywalker2159]

@KaylinJH Actually, there were people in the vid that laughed.. and they are like smart people and all.. whoever goes to the ted talks or whatnot.. I didnt actually reffer to any youtube user.. or even mean to. So sorry, I didnt mean to seem as if I meant to include you.

[@Berelore]

wow this guy is wrong in the first 2 minutes there's a record. The canine's are the pointy ones and they along with the incisors tear and cut food...

[@wendyscott8425]

But our canine teeth are small compared to a dog's. Mine are only slightly longer than the rest of my teeth.

[@berekdollinger9165]

@@wendyscott8425 It's really more about shape overall than length. Although even length of canines will very quite a bit because it's not something with much selective pressure these days.

[@wendyscott8425]

@@berekdollinger9165 Well, obviously, the canines are remnants of the days when people at meat or veggies raw. Just like wisdom teeth are remnants of some past need.

[@alik2003]

1:01 bottom left guy has fabulous teeth

[@Ko252]

@MrZeus7 basicly, yes.

[@OpakeArawra2]

@machetey yes. it's a taste.

[@personalbranding292]

Gut feeling is Existing ❤️

[@Archamitect]

@mooshikishi you are right I don't understand. I just watched an obese man lecture as if cooking is an innate process (which it is not). We are the only species that has to cook our "food", he sees it as a defining trait, which agree it is, but were I differ in opinion is the fact that I don't think it's a positive trait since cooking food has allowed him to gain that much weight because it allows us to overeat so easily, try gaining that much weight on a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables.

[@andreeaweed]

wow this is very interesting video...love it

[@SuperiorApostate]

If I was this guy I'd open a food stand outside the speaking area after the talk. This talk made me hungry...

[@Ambushcrysis]

*looks at neighbor* :D

[@HigherPlanes]

@dragonofthedarknight I won't argue with that!

[@BGSoccerMagic]

@MrZeus7 No, it means exactly what it means - they cut your gut out and the neurons that come with it.

[@bryanwilliams5777]

cool video about guts and your gut feeling

[@matchu4444]

Ummm I have dracula teeth....It does look like fangs when I smile lol

[@jimconnell8994]

Interesting

[@momentary_]

@HigherPlanes Yes, there are foods that have their own enzymes like fruits and some vegetables that require no cooking to digest well, but readily picked fruit and vegetables was not accessible to humanity most of our history. Stored food had to be cooked. Cancer and obesity have no direct tie to cooked good. Humaity has eaten cooked food for thousands of years, but it is only the last 100 or so years that cancer and obesity has become more prevalent. I'd wager that it's changes in habits in

[@DarrenChen]

niiice!

[@HamsterPants522]

@HigherPlanes But what about proteins? There are just some things in meat, particularly fish, that can be incredibly healthy. However, I certainly don't prefer meat from cows, pigs, or chickens, and I also don't think that meat should be eaten often, but I do feel that it has it's merits as a food for human consumption.

[@dagerousdave]

@ibrahimadat ... Umm fire is a source of heat, energy and light, all things that are very important for survival. Cooking all the good nutrients and enzymes out of our food is not, in fact it is detrimental to our health.

[@JM-pv8vt]

The gut is in your brain🤣

[@alanadkisson3455]

Fermentation not cooking.

[@Archamitect]

@dudepal187 obviously we see food differently, when I think of ANY cooked food red meat and steamed vegetables being the extreme's I ask myself why. We shouldn't have to cook ANYTHING, people can THRIVE off of raw fruits and vegetables. Mr. Watzke says in he opening remarks how people are designed to eat soft mushy food's, then he goes on to lecture on how cooked foods are great for people. All I'm saying is, if we would have stuck to fruits & veggies (soft/mushy when ripe) he wouldn't be obese.

[@lilthug19908]

Did anyone else think of that one south park episode? Where they stick candy bars up their butt, and poop out their mouth?

[@ShipMonster]

lol coctivor I love it.

[@TotalRookie_LV]

I don't know the original source, but like 20 years ago I red in some pop-sci article that our teeth is about 2/3 in size of what they used to be aprox. 10'000 y.a. Fire is to blame, obviously. 8) Ehmm, wait... so our brain has developed thanks to (at leaast partly) our taste receptors? o_O

[@HigherPlanes]

@GRNoam Nuts and Seeds? Imagine being out in nature trying to hunt down a live animal, but you don't have modern tools, after you capture it, how do you eat it? Our canine teeth can't tear through flesh very efficiently, especially not through the tough hide of a cow or pig. There are many theories of how the modern brain developed, animal protein is the most widely accepted, but it's not conclusive. The frontal lobe was developed very recently. Animal protein isn't a very good candidate.

[@typeclash]

Im sure there is something interresting here but i don't know what. Can't even see why cooking food is good other then an option when u can't get your sufficient caloric intake with raw food.

[@drorbenami]

what many people don't realize is that in in the Hebrew bible Pontiphar is described as a "cook". this is important because joseph arrived with a spice caravan. also to be considered is that the way jacob was able to secure both the birth right and blessing of esau was thru cooking.......

[@AGfosho]

I don't think I heard a proper conclusion, another thing is people still eat fresh raw meat, such a dish called Kebbe-naye and also sawda (fresh liver). What about all the uncooked vegetables and fruits that we eat, this man really needs to go out more.

[@maximus180]

So what are raw foodists and people who eat sushi classified as?

[@jmm1233]

i am hungery now

[@smartcatcollarproject5699]

So true... and some people have their brain even lower !

[@goodvibrato]

@dagerousdave You say our brain is shrinking because we have a lot more nutrition in our diet in order to make the argument for eating raw food, but most people do not eat raw food. It follows that if we have more nutrition in our diet, then it must come from cooked food, because that's what most people eat!

[@Freigeist20789]

:D i love his swiss accent ....very nice talk :)

[@otivaeey]

A guy went up the stage to shake his hand, who's that guy? does it appear after every session?

[@nev357]

Today we talk about micro biome.

[@mrcuddles100]

Hand me your wallet bro *reaches over his right shoulder*

[@dudepal187]

@Archamitect Cooking food is also what allows him to live to be as old as he is. I'm assuming you're a vegetarian, and there is nothing wrong with that but you can't expect everyone to live on a diet that excludes meat. It's just not going to happen nor would it work. Plus, meat is a healthy part of a good diet and it does not rot in your gut for four days... Anyways, mooshikishi is right, thats not the point of this talk. If you're missing the point, watch it again.

[@alexander33345]

@Phelan666 Why nom?

[@empp6013]

You can't have anorexia if you are vibrating on a much higher frequency. There are many people who have lived Extremely healthy lives who eat only very sporadically or just a bit of food to share with friends and family on occasion. (I am not there yet. 😂😂) It will not effect your weight at all in fact, if you are not overweight already. Your skin clears up, and your mind becomes incredibly clear to name a couple benefits. But at the very least a raw vegan diet can be very beneficial on many levels, especially if it consists of more fruit. Peace and Love. ❤🙏

[@longlifeenergy]

I have tried the raw food diet. I was raised vegan. I realized now that one of the reasons my nervous and digestive systems were out of wack was because my body was having trouble digesting. So I looked into ayurvedic medicine and found my body constitution and appropriate diet which is: Cooked, warm and mushy food. I feel a lot more grounded and peaceful. Of course I still eat raw food, but not as much, and always in combination with cooked. Every body has it's own constitution and needs.

[@joycebeckstrom674]

wow

[@PrinsTsabi]

finally! im not really fat... this just means my gut brain is actually smarter than my big brain! :D

[@fender3345]

this man's accent makes me inexplicably happy

[@sausage4mash]

I knew the gut had a brain ,I did not know it was so large

[@ddnguyen278]

@GodNyou2 Cooking has lots of benefits, ie kill parasites, allows for low level chemical interaction between ingredients to liberate locked nutrients, long cooking will make proteins more digestible, etc..We have evidence of cooking stretching back over 100,000 years.. Humans might have existed well before.. but our culture and advancement coincides with advent of cooking and ofcoruse fire used for cooking.

[@TheChewanater]

Coctivors? That's what she said!

[@0MoTheG]

drugs and medication that effect the brain also effect the digestion. If you take antidepressant drugs you get happy bowel movement. ;~)

[@shoebox91us]

NO INFO JUST KEEPS REAPETING THE WORD COOKING

[@shoebox91us]

SO IS YOUR MOTHER

[@shoebox91us]

were did u craw out from go back in your hole

[@bananabender3201]

+shoebox91us Are you a moron?

[@shoebox91us]

is your mother a moron

[@fuunguus]

@lilthug19908 LMAO, what episode is that???

[@HigherPlanes]

@sexyloser I eat raw foods. My diet consists of raw fruits, veggies & soaked nuts. I don't know any raw foodists that get sick, overweight or that visit the doctor regularly. We eat foods with life force, not rotting corpses. On the other side of that you have people who eat traditional diets of cooked foods. 1 in 3 develop cancer, most are overweight and pay the doctor regular visits. They literally pay the doctor! I can't argue with years and years of consistent results.

[@MsBonSaint]

@mongoliansavage fancy a shire pudding and stout ale?

[@VanirVay]

"easily digestible - sounds like fast food" The shape his body is in tells you everything about his credibility when it comes to what food is right for humans lol And yes, our teeth are made for "soft and mushy" foods. Because that's how ripe >fruits< mostly are. What utter horsedump.

[@AndreSelbach]

Agreed. This guy has holes everywhere in this theory.

[@2DReanimation]

Fruit though...? one of the better snacks for sure... but they have become way too sweet and denatured to be the ideal food. Berries though! That's how fruit initially were like -- full of seeds, and not as sweet. Also a standing theory is that we evolved by the ocean, and ate fish, and other food from the sea (with plenty of fats for the brain and protein). Fish is also easy to eat and digest raw. However, that's also out as an ideal food, what with the poisoning of the oceans... I think we've got to develop our own ideal food from fungi and algae to actually get an ideal source of sustenance. It could easily become staple, unlike fish or fruit, as they are too expensive for organic farming. And algae only need sunlight, CO2, and minerals. And fungi are decomposers of various materials, and may even turn plastic into food!

[@TatiKlinik]

try to search the video called: 72 year old vegan or 72 Year-Old Man Raw Vegan Body Building Every Day (now 75 Year-Young :))

[@klptzxm]

lol, herbert the pervert from family guy is in the top 5 video suggestions

[@popitypop]

@MrZeus7 probablitomy

[@BionicDance]

@PATTONM14A1 True enough, true enough. :)

[@mykmmc]

I allway had disagreements with my vegi friends about this

[@lizlove99]

how big is the gut brain?

[@HigherPlanes]

I enjoyed his presentation, but in my opinion, he has no evidence for the following conclusions: 1. That our anatomy developed to eat cooked food. 2. That raw food doesn't provide sufficient energy. 3. That cooking made it possible for our environment to develop us.

[@franivel5253]

Badly explained.... mn 12: "Along this lower layer - this gut - the signal becomes stronger and stronger if undigested, but digestible, material could penetrate. This we found from bariatric surgery" Which signal? "penetrate"? Why not talk more about what happens when we do not digest our food properly? Does he mean it was not cooked properly?

[@HigherPlanes]

@HamsterPants522 Nuts have protein. If you take raw nuts and soak them for 24 hours, they germinate, release enzymes so they're easily digestable and leave behind very little metabolic waste. I'm not going to judge, because I used to eat meat as well, but I'm just not into eating things with a head, eyes and limbs anymore, just ain't my thing. Especially cooked meat because it putrefies in the GI tract, which leads to a lot of the illnesses that we experience nowadays.

[@Ash_Wen-li]

@vaibhav1710 Maybe he meant Homo Erectus.

[@CantWeedThis]

im about to eat food right now , i like food does anybody else like food?> Its good right? i know im not the only one

[@MaCs1313]

LOL Coctivor ! think it through.

[@EntinludeX]

@MRL1985 Not according to my gut.

[@MrStillmans]

Problems with his notion: first, we do actually have canine teeth. Also, wouldn't we have evolved nearly enitrely on hunting, scavenging (raw meat) and foraging (non cooked foods) and then only learning how to cook in some tiny percent of our recent existence? I doubt our great ape ancestors were into cooking, and that is the bulk of our evolutionary development. Modern man is a tiny little drop of our timeline. Also did every last tribe know of cooking so that we all have the teeth that we do?

[@pipem4n]

Dont get me wrong - all the stuff about second brain is very exciting. And mind you that Lusting is overweight also, but he's a statist so he's down with cognitive dissonance, nevertheless he provides some crucial insights that semm to be confirmed by practice - like a complete restoration of satiation mechanism I enjoy.

[@MyBadGamertag]

Anyone else chuckle when he said we were cock-tivores?

[@mongoliansavage]

I think this guy is reincarnation of a hobbit from the Shire and he's come back to bring the cooking revolution! Coquo Ergo Sum!

[@QuijanoPhD]

@GRNoam I see. So that's why people who eat constantly at Burger King are smarter than vegans!

[@pipem4n]

We had a woman way over 300 lbs teaching us nutrition at school - laughable. I'd say it's pure performative contradiction. Anyways - this guy says that satiation mechanism will be restored by some mambo jumbo of tuning up signals, BS. You just have to stop blocking it with fructose. It is not a food, it is an addictive drug and should be treated like liquor. Ditching fructose completely gives you marvelous choking of hunger when you need it. Hoebel sugar Lusting bitter truth

[@PrinsTsabi]

@wretcherwretch haha I guess so.. lol

[@Archamitect]

@macharius how is meat good for you? that steak your talking about eating is going to take 4 days to fully digest which means it's rotting in your stomach for at least 2 days. Great. Also eating 2 pounds of nuts.seeds a day would be terrible for you in the long run because that is way too much fat,but hey don't take my word for it read 80-10-10 or the China Study.