Week 10 Lectorial Questions

You are at an event. A wide range of food is laid out with various labels including: GF, contains peanuts, organic and microbe-friendly.

One of your relatives (a devoted listener of talkback radio) loudly proclaims, “What’s with these stupid labels? We get so much fake news about food causing or curing every disease under the sun these days that I don’t even know if GF means its grain-fed, gut-friendly, for your girl-friend, guy-friend or whatever. Microbe-friendly!! Gawd help me haven’t these people heard germs kill you.”

Q1. Describe the key benefit that we receive from microbial activity on food in our gut. (50 words or fewer) (1 mark)

Q2. Explain the numbers and location of microbes in the gut and how our body would be different if we were germ-free (75 words or fewer) (1 mark).

Although there are dangerous microbes that cause disease, there are also good microbes. You are asked, “How does our body separate _g_ood from bad microbes?”

Q3. Describe the roles of anatomy, and digestive functions in control of microbial numbers and activity in the small and large intestines. (100 words or fewer) (3 marks)

Q4. Explain how the immune system functions to limit microbe contact with the epithelium and prevent escape from the gut (50 words or fewer) (2 marks).

“But none of that is actually about the so-called microbe-friendly foods boosting immune health like this label says – is that for real?” You explain that microbes can help your body produce more regulatory T cells.

Q5. Describe how regulatory T cells influence your susceptibility to immune disorders. (50 words or fewer) (1 mark)

Q6. Your cousin with peanut allergy asks, “Does that mean that our bad diets cause allergies?” Propose a hypothesis to explain the increased incidence of allergic diseases in modern society. (100 words or fewer) (2 marks)