eating for gut health
Your gut is home to trillions of microbes, predominantly bacteria but also fungi and even some viruses, that are vital to your health and wellbeing. Collectively, they are known as your gut microbiome but they can also be referred to as your gut flora or ‘good’ gut bacteria. Unlike those that cause infection or illness, the ‘good’ bacteria in your gut are extremely beneficial, aiding digestion, metabolism, immunity and even your mood (1).
Although your gut will contain some ‘bad’ bacteria, generally speaking a healthy gut is a balanced one, with an abundance of diverse, ‘good’ bacteria and little ‘bad’. Interestingly, what you eat not only nourishes you, it also nourishes the bacteria living inside of you, with some foods fuelling the ‘good’ and others fuelling the ‘bad’ (2).
So what foods should we include and what foods should we reduce to create a healthy happy gut environment?
prebiotics
Prebiotics (not to be confused with probiotics) are natural, non-digestible, plant-compounds that exclusively fuel the good bacteria in your gut. They are abundant in fibrous foods such as bananas, asparagus, garlic, onion, peas, beans and berries and consuming them regularly has been shown to improve microbiome diversity and overall intestinal health. They also help to inhibit the growth of harmful, toxin-producing bacteria such as Clostridia and E.coli (3).
probiotics
Probiotics are beneficial live bacteria and fungi, found in naturally fermented and supplemented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, kombucha and raw milk cheeses (4). Consuming probiotics regularly can enrich the microbiome by increasing the number of inhabited good bacteria, in turn improving digestion, immunity and nutritional status as some microbes can produce their own vitamins (5) (6). Contrastingly, many probiotic-rich products are dairy-based, a known gut irritant and allergen for many. Thankfully, more dairy-free probiotics such as Biomel (my personal favourite) are emerging. Biomel are gluten and dairy free, milk drink, made using a blend of vitamins, minerals and billions of live active cultures.
variety
We know that eating plants is great, but eating wide variety of plants is even better as different plants have different fibres that each nourish a particular microbial species. Encouraging the growth of a diverse microbiome is essential as every microbial variety possesses a distinct health benefit (7). For example, some microbes produce vitamins whilst others support digestion, metabolism, immunity or even produce neurotransmitters such as serotonin (your happy hormone). The American Gut Project, one of the largest microbiome studies to date revealed that people who consume 30 or more types of plants per week have a more diverse microbiome than those eating 10 or fewer (7). I know that 30 different plants per week seems an awful lot at first, but it is important to note that beans, legumes, whole-grains, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables all count towards this target. One of the simplest ways to get more plants into your diet is to make new soups, stews and smoothies.
reduce processed foods
Reducing the amount of processed foods in your diet is vital when it comes to your gut and overall health and wellbeing. Convenience foods such as ready-meals, fried foods, pizzas, crisps, biscuits, sodas and sweets are high in fat, salt, sugar and addictive substances made in laboratories that disrupt your microbiome. Just as the friendly bacteria in your gut thrive on fibrous foods, the unhealthy bacteria in your gut thrive on processed high-sugar, high-fat foods. Coming back to the good old saying ‘you are what you eat’, if your diet is nutritionally imbalanced then your gut will be imbalanced too (8). However, we are all human and enjoy a treat now and again and so you don’t need to completely eliminate your favourite foods, but rather reduce your consumption of them. Remembering to increase your fibrous pre and probiotic-rich foods too!
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6682904/.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835969/
https://www.nutrition.org.uk/nutritionscience/foodfacts/functional-foods
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5031164/
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/probiotics/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/vitamins-and-supplements/health-benefits-of-taking-probiotics
https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2018-05-15-big-data-from-worlds-largest-citizen-science-microbiome-project-serves-food-for-thought.aspx
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872783/
