The Wildbiome® Project

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Have you ever wondered what happens to your body when you eat wild foods?

In 2023, Mo Wilde (Award Winning Author of The Wilderness Cure & Ethnobotanist) ran a citizen science study of 24 people living only on wild food!

Why? Well, during lockdown, Mo lived for a whole year on the free, wild food found in Central Scotland and did gut microbiome tests. Living entirely off foraged food had a profound impact on her gut microbiome and health – hers and that of her friend, Matthew Rooney, who joined her on this unusual diet. Their gut microbes became very responsive to different foods. Mo returned to a healthy BMI and Matt, a type 2 diabetic, regained pre-diabetic blood status in just 9 weeks.

However, a study of two 'crazy' people doesn’t make good science. So in 2023, Mo was joined by fellow members of the Association of Foragers in a citizen science research study. 24 people ate only wild food for 3 months (Cohort A) or just 1 month (Cohort B). They were monitored against a reference control of 24 people eating normal shop-bought food. What they wanted to know is “If you are what you eat, what happens when you add something wild?”.

Dan Saladino (The Food Programme, BBC Radio 4) covered this in the summer of 2023 and will be covering the 2025 project also - The Wildbiome® Project 2.

You can follow the project progress on social media. We’re using the hashtags #wildbiome and #thewildbiomeproject or, if you’d like to read more about a year living wild, ‘The Wilderness Cure‘ by Mo Wilde can be ordered from any online or local bookshop.