Yet again, it is NOT about gut flora singularly. They are a secondary concern, given the immediacy of treatment of other more serious infections.
Healthy gut flora are NOT a panacea for all ills. That is simply too simplistic an explanation that does not take in the facts. It is typical of the alternative therapy crowd that see fit to "dumb down" explanations in the misguided belief that people are not smart enough to see through their rubbish.
I would be far more concerned about the influence and consequences of a diet high in refined sugar - THERE is a cause with significant peer-reviewed research to back it up. I also believe there is a link between high sugar diets and infections, other than the well defined predisposition for diabetics to get more infections, ie., not suddenly "T2DM therefore increased infection risk", but a graduated scale of increasing risk related to amount of refined sugar consumed, regardless of diabetic status. As a consequence this increased sugar load would also change the flora in the gut contributing to some of the scientifically adverse proven issues arising from that (no, I'm not contradicting my earlier comment as I am aware of SOME adverse conditions attributable to altered gut flora).
No, healthy gut flora will not PREVENT cancer (feel free to post a peer reviewed article that says it does - no blogs). It may (and a very iffy "may" at that) reduce some gut cancers, but not actually PREVENT them. (I'm using "may" like Alternative Medicine does - generally means there has been no independent studies that prove it works - so is just as good as "may not")
"...there is no money to be made in recommending a healthy organic diet high in fibre plus fermented foods and probiotics..."
Really??? Blackmores (ASX: BKL) has the market cornered, every gym and heath store sells exactly that crap ($2/kg whey powder trade price, becomes $40 once it has its "magical properties" added by the marketeers). All done with little to no formal testing, research etc. Oh, and ask the two major football leagues about your precious "amino acid boosters". Your statement is UTTER BULLBEEP
