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Examples of Good Bacteria

Bacteria are one-celled animals, invisible to the naked eye. The noted naturalist Stephen Jay Gould wrote in his article "Planet of the Bacteria" that bacteria accounted for all life on earth for the first two billion years life existed here. They still make up more than half of the biomass (living things by weight) of life on earth today. Bacteria can transmit horrible diseases (like the plague), but they can also be beneficial to humans.

  1. Digestion

    • You have billions of bacteria in your body right now. According to famous German microbiologist Robert Koch, they account for about 10 percent of your total body weight. Most of these bacteria live in the gastrointestinal tract and are beneficial. They are essential for food digestion, and they also help in the production of vitamin K, which humans need but cannot manufacture without bacteria. Bacteria also aid in the process of rebuilding the stomach and intestinal lining, which are constantly being destroyed by digestive juices. You can get some idea of how plentiful bacteria are in your digestive system by realizing that 95 percent of our fecal matter is composed of dead bacteria. This level of mutual beneficial interaction has come about because humans and our "guest" bacteria have been co-evolving for millions of years.

    Food

    • Certain bacteria have a marvelous effect on milk. They convert lactose -- the primary sugar in milk -- into lactic acid. This makes the milk more acidic, which kills all the bacteria and prevents additional bacteria from entering the milk: bacteria can't exist in an acidic environment. From a nutritional point of view, this process produces a wide range of healthy, delicious and high-protein foods, such as cheese, yogurt, kefir, sour cream and buttermilk. Bacteria also play key roles in the processing of other foods like chocolate and coffee. Bacteria are not essential in the fermentation of alcoholic beverages (yeast are not bacteria), but they are often an important element in the taste.

    Recycling

    • If it weren't for bacteria, the world would be much more dangerous (and disgusting). Bacteria are the main forces acting upon the bodies of dead plants and animals as they decompose. Bacteria are instrumental in the way nature recycles organic matter, as well as in recycling valuable nutrients. Nitrogen, a component of amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins, is an essential element for all living things. Too much nitrogen would stay trapped in the soil, were it not for the "nitrogen-fixing" bacteria that help plant roots extract nitrogen.

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