00:01Let's compare ourselves to ancient humans. Over the past few thousand years, we've become better
00:06looking, smarter, and more creative. We live longer and make more art, but we eat much less
00:13fiber, which means there's one area where we seriously fall short of our ancestors, and that
00:18is poop. How is that even possible? What does it mean? How does nice, tasty, nutritious food turn
00:27into this unpleasant, smelly stuff? And what do jasmine and poop possibly have in common?
00:35Scientists analyzed the DNA of eight ancient coprolites found in rock shelters in northern
00:40Mexico and discovered that they were very different from modern human poop. If you didn't know,
00:46coprolites are well-preserved ancient poop found during archaeological excavations, and these ancient
00:52human remains showed that their digestive systems and bodies as a whole were way better than ours.
00:58Our poop is worse than theirs in almost every way, but to understand what exactly makes them so
01:04different, we first need to understand how beautiful, tasty, nutritious food turns into, well, you know.
01:13Let's look at a classic burger. First, you use your teeth and saliva to chew and soften the burger.
01:20Then, you push it down your digestive tract. Inside your stomach, there are muscles and digestive juices.
01:27They knead, mash, and mix the food with these juices, turning everything into a smooth, soupy mass.
01:33These digestive juices contain acids and enzymes that help break food down and extract useful nutrients
01:39from it. For example, one enzyme breaks long protein chains into smaller ones, while another breaks fats
01:46down into tiny fat molecules. Why does this happen? Because nutrients need to enter the human body in
01:52very small portions. The walls of the stomach are covered with special sensors that monitor how much
01:59food is coming in. When there's too much of it, the stomach stretches, and these sensors send a signal to
02:05the brain telling it that you're full. At that point, the feeling of hunger disappears, and you stop eating.
02:14After digestion, the burger soup moves into the small intestine. The intestinal muscles squeeze and mix
02:21the food, adding even more enzymes to it. From here, the extracted nutrients are sent to different
02:27parts of your body. The intestinal walls are lined with special corridors that allow tiny particles to
02:33pass through. Your body knows exactly which corridor each particle should enter. For example, amino acids
02:41are sent to muscles, hair, and skin. Fats go to the liver. It's like a huge train station where workers
02:47load different goods onto trains and send them off to different cities. All of these extracted useful
02:53substances and vitamins are monitored by special sensors that inform the brain about which substances
02:58are going where and in what amounts. After that, everything that's left of our burger moves even lower
03:07into the colon. This is where the very last useful nutrients are extracted. But why weren't they broken
03:13down earlier? Because some nutrients from plant food are resistant to enzymes. These particles are called
03:20dietary fiber, and your body can't break them down on its own. Help comes from the countless beneficial
03:26bacteria living in the colon. These bacteria are called microbiota. And these tiny friends help your
03:33body break down fiber. During this process, the microbiota produce vitamins and other useful compounds.
03:40It also protects us from infections and helps regulate appetite. More than that, it even affects our mood.
03:47Whether you feel sad or happy depends a lot on these little guys living in your gut. Besides useful
03:54substances, microbes also produce waste products that give poop its unpleasant smell. Sometimes it smells
04:01worse. Sometimes it's sorta without a prominent odor. It all depends on the quality of the food and type of
04:07bacteria that interact with it. So your squeezed-out burger turns into a soft, uniform mass filled with
04:16byproducts of digestion. At this point, there's no longer a burger. It's real poop. It moves deeper
04:22through the dark corridors of the large intestine. When an exit appears, light replaces the dark, and the
04:28poop leaves your body. Now let's go back to coprolites. What makes them so special? Poop contains waste
04:37products and bacteria themselves, remember? Scientists found that ancient coprolites contained far more
04:43different microbes than modern human poop. The difference in microbial populations was huge.
04:49About 40% of the bacteria found were completely new species that don't exist in our guts today.
04:55Over thousands of years, our intestines evolved in the opposite direction. They degraded. We lost almost
05:02half of our microbial biodiversity. But why did this happen? There are many reasons, but one of the main
05:10ones is our diet and antibiotics. In ancient times, people didn't have supermarkets where fruits and
05:17vegetables were available all year round. Their diet depended on the season and many other factors.
05:23That meant people constantly changed what they ate. This dietary variety strongly stimulated the growth of
05:30diverse bacteria. On top of that, ancient people ate unprocessed food. It was natural, and bacteria had
05:38to work much harder to break it down and digest it. Ancient people also had transpostases. These are
05:44powerful enzymes that help bacteria modify their DNA. This ability allowed bacteria to evolve very quickly,
05:52which was extremely useful for adapting to a constantly changing diet. Today, this ability is mostly gone
05:58because our bacteria no longer need to adapt. We eat roughly the same processed food all the time.
06:05So, what does that mean? Do we have weak, lazy microbes living in our guts? Yes and no. We do
06:13have
06:13some incredibly tough bacteria, but they didn't become that way because of food. They became that way because of
06:19antibiotics. We basically created microbial monsters that wiped out many other normal bacteria. How did that
06:28happen? Imagine eating spicy sauce every day. At first, it burns your mouth, but over time, the taste
06:37receptors on your tongue adapt, and you tolerate the heat much more easily. Something similar happened to
06:42the microbes in your gut. When humans invented antibiotics, they used them to destroy harmful
06:48bacteria that caused serious diseases. But along with bad microbes, antibiotics also fought good ones.
06:55Over time, a lot of bacteria adapted to antibiotics, just like your tongue adapts to spicy food. Some
07:03became stronger, while others disappeared completely. Not only because of antibiotics, but also because the
07:09stronger bacteria became dominant and wiped out the weaker ones. The gut microbiome changed, and many organisms
07:17went extinct. On top of that, our microbes had to face supermarkets. Pick up any cookie, sauce, or snack,
07:26and look at the ingredients. Preservatives, flavor enhancers, all kinds of strange chemical compounds.
07:33Most of us honestly don't care what's in there as long as it tastes good. But our bacteria are horrified
07:39by
07:39this kind of food. It's not even that these products destroy bacteria. The real problem is that foods
07:46with long shelf lives are too easy for them, and because it contains much less fiber, which is necessary
07:52for the good development of the microbiome. Imagine going to the gym and finding no equipment there,
07:57just a yoga mat and a ball. In ancient times, every bacterium lived in a brutal, extreme gym with every
08:04kind of equipment imaginable. So why should we even care about ancient poop and all these bacteria?
08:11Because the microbiome affects immunity, mood, and many other things. If we learn how to manage it,
08:18we may learn how to improve our health. Ancient coprolites also show us the health and diet of
08:24ancient people, and this is important to know our past. And let's end with one final question.
08:30What do jasmine and poop have in common? More than 10,000 species of microorganisms live
08:37inside our bodies. Many of them are responsible for the unpleasant smell of poop. Depending on the type
08:43of food and substances involved, bacteria release different gases that give poop its characteristic
08:49odor. For example, some microorganisms break down the amino acid L-tryptophan. During this process,
08:56they produce a unique chemical compound called indole that gives poop its nasty smell. And here's the
09:03twist. In very small concentrations, this compound gives jasmine and other flowers their pleasant scent.
09:10Now live with that!
09:15That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it
09:20with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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