Asun González, an expert in microbiota: “Ideally, you should have breakfast at nine, dinner at four, and fast according to the rhythms of the sun”

When it comes to the mysteries of the gut microbiome, few people know the terrain as well as Asun González — a biologist, nutrition advisor, and digestive‑health specialist. In an interview a little over a year ago on the podcast Tiene Sentido, she tackled some of the most common questions everyday people ask themselves. “We’re basically a bag full of bugs,” she said right off the bat — and she wasn’t wrong.

Bloating and gas

González, author of You Have SIBO Too, doesn’t hesitate to identify the culprit behind the bloating and gas so many people struggle with. According to her, these symptoms are signs of an imbalance in the microbiome’s complex ecosystem — an imbalance that can be triggered by many factors, including irregular eating schedules. And here, she notes, Spanish habits don’t help: “Ideally, you’d eat breakfast around 9 a.m. and have dinner at 4 p.m.”

This disruption in the microbiome isn’t an infection, she stresses, but a kind of internal misalignment that needs correcting before it snowballs into more serious digestive issues. The fact that so many people experience gut discomfort, in her view, reflects a broader imbalance — what she calls a “deficit in evolutionary living.” Our habits have changed so quickly, she explains, that the human body hasn’t had time to properly adapt.

A Pesco‑Mediterranean approach

Once the timing issue is on the table, González turns to diet — and simplifies the conversation. Don’t overthink it, she says: focus mostly on fish, vegetables, and water. This pesco‑Mediterranean foundation, paired with intermittent fasting aligned with natural sunlight and circadian rhythms, offers the best support for a healthy microbiome. No miracle diets, no magical products.

Her guidance also aims to address SIBO — small intestinal bacterial overgrowth — a condition in which bacteria ferment food in the small intestine, producing gas that expands the abdomen. González knows the condition firsthand, having dealt with it herself. Her recommendations stem from that personal battle and the research that followed.

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