Glyphosate and Your Gut: How to Protect Your Microbiome from Pesticides, Herbicides, and Everyday Household Chemicals

The audience recognizes that the modern chemical environment may undo the benefits of a high-fiber, plant-diverse diet. Substances designed to kill or inhibit microbes—pesticides, herbicides, preservatives, detergents—inevitably affect the gut ecosystem. While glyphosate is marketed as safe for humans because it targets a plant-specific pathway, our gut microbes also rely on that pathway. This means glyphosate exposure can theoretically act as a chronic low-dose antibiotic within the microbiome.

Experts confirm that antibiotics, processed foods, preservatives, and over-sanitization drive microbial collapse in industrialized societies. The result is reduced diversity, weakened immunity, and increased chronic disease risk. Protecting the microbiome, therefore, requires both limiting chemical exposure and actively rebuilding microbial ecosystems through diet and contact with nature.

Many viewers feel caught between the need for dietary diversity and fears that non-organic plants might introduce more harm than benefit. They question whether it’s worthwhile to eat high-fiber foods when those foods could be laced with microbiome-disrupting chemicals. Others express distrust toward regulatory claims that glyphosate is “non-toxic,” noting that while humans lack the targeted pathway, our symbiotic bacteria do not. The audience also worries about systemic antibiotic exposure from industrial meat and dairy.

Protecting your microbiome is about subtraction and addition. Subtract chemicals that destroy microbes—pesticides, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and overused antibiotics. Add microbial input through fermented foods, fiber diversity, and environmental exposure. Diversity and contact with nature are the ultimate antidotes to chemical sterilization.

• Dr. Will Bulsiewicz – Warns that preservatives and emulsifiers designed to kill microbes are “impossible to believe” as safe for the gut. Promotes plant-based diversity and fiber as the foundation of microbiome resilience.
• Dr. Justin Sonnenburg – Notes that antibiotics, processed foods, and environmental sanitization have decimated microbial diversity. Encourages outdoor exposure as immune education.
• Erika Ebbel Angle – Links the decline in bacterial diversity from over-sanitization to rising chronic conditions and encourages getting outside to restore balance.
• Dr. Pradip Jamnadas – States that “anything from a factory is suspicious.” Highlights processed oils, emulsifiers, and artificial sweeteners as harmful to the gut microbiome and urges embracing biophilia—daily contact with nature.

Eliminate ultra-processed foods, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives from your kitchen tonight. Replace them with whole, plant-based ingredients and at least one fermented food (like sauerkraut, kefir, or kimchi) to begin restoring microbial diversity.

• Assuming all plants are safe: Non-organic produce may carry pesticides. Choose organic or wash thoroughly when possible.
• Over-cleaning your environment: Over-sanitization decreases bacterial diversity; moderate cleaning and time in nature restore microbial exposure.
• Ignoring non-food chemicals: Recognize that detergents, artificial fragrances, and mouthwash can also impact microbial ecosystems.

• "How can we talk about gut health without mentioning glyphosate and pesticides?"
• "We live in an over-clean, over-medicated, over-processed world—our microbiome is paying the price."
• "Mold exposure, antibiotics, and pesticides should be part of this discussion."
• "What’s wrong with our food? GMOs and bioengineered crops changed everything since the 1990s."

Protecting your microbiome means protecting its environment. Reduce exposure to microbe-killing chemicals—glyphosate, preservatives, artificial sweeteners—and replace them with microbial allies: fiber-rich plants, fermented foods, and nature itself. The healthiest gut ecosystems are built not only in the kitchen, but also in the soil, sunlight, and air we share.