Dr. Davis' "Super Gut" Clove Green Tea

Repair, rebuild, maintain your intestinal mucus barrier

There are a handful of writers/thinkers (most also happen to be reformed MDs) I keep coming back to: Dr. Robert Lustig ("Metabolical"), Prof Karl Herrup ("How Not To Study A Disease," his Alzheimer's research whistle-blowing expose), Dr. Alan Gaby ("Nutritional Medicine"), Dr. Otis Webb Brawley ("How We Do Harm"), and Dr. William Davis ("Wheat Belly,"* "Undoctored," "Super Gut").

And after reading (Dr.) Dawn Harris Sherling's book "Eat Everything" (link to her book site) over the winter, I feel like I had something of an epiphany. But more on that later.

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Now back to Dr. Davis.

His tea concoction (and there's no reason why it couldn't be tweaked & enjoyed cold during the summer months) combines, as he explains on page 246 of the paperback edition, "the mucus-increasing effect of eugenol oil from cloves, the mucus protein cross-linking effect of the catechins in green tea, and the Akkermansia muciniphila growth-stimulating effects of FOS (fructo-oligo-saccharides)."

Here's the recipe:

2 cups water

1 Tbsp whole cloves (link to 2015 Nature paper)

1 tea bag (I use matcha green tea; link to 2020 Molecules paper at MDPI)

1 tsp FOS powder (I use inulin from Jerusalem artichoke; link to 2018 British Journal of Nutrition paper finding greater effect (from inulin specifically) in people already consuming a good amount of fiber: >25-30g daily)

His suggested tweaks:

2 tsps allulose (if you desire more sweetness)

1 cinnamon stick (if that appeals to you)

In a small saucepan combine the water and whole cloves and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a low simmer, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, add tea/tea bag and allow to steep for 1-2 minutes.

Stir in the FOS and/or the optional allulose & cinnamon stick.

Serve or sip throughout the day.

Because Akkermansia muciniphila is said to love all things (within reason) red (cranberries, pomegranate seeds, other berries), I am experimenting, especially during summer months, with crossbreeding Dr. Davis' recipe with the rosehips hibiscus tea we got at Netcost last weekend. Possibly too many clashing flavors? And I don't know of any research off hand that indicates it will necessarily feed Akkermansia. Now that the gorgeous indigo-red dragon fruit is almost affordable (I didn't love the frozen chunks so much) at one of our cavernous local Asian markets, maybe I should just stick to that.

(The indirect and possibly more effective way to make Akkermansia happy-- apart from following the advice of Dr. Sherling in her breezy read book-- is to make its buddy Faecalibacterium prausnitzii happy. Cue the resistant starches! More on that later as well.)

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*I'm not (yet) convinced that all cereal grasses are evil, as Dr. Davis proposes, but I appreciate his exploration of what we have permitted Big Ag to do to Triticum aestivum.