Gut Health. Don’t let it keep you from your best health.
Understanding your gut.
Our guts are composed of millions and billions of microbes. We are the ultimate hosts. They presence at this body party we call life keep our brains and physical capacities functioning as they should. Gut health. Don’t let it keep your from your best health.
Research is starting to show us just how much our microbes.. or MICROBIOME (the tribe of all of them that inhabit us) affect fat storage, mental wellbeing, happiness, glucose levels in our blood, hormones, and our cravings. Balance in our microbiome is critical for our health.
Further, our cultivated gut microbes can open doors for obesity, chronic health problems, and depression. Expanding gut research has found that our beautiful microbes produce neurotransmitters that regulate mood including serotonin, dopamine, and GABA. To put things into perspective, roughly 95% of serotonin.. aka the happy hormone is produced in your gut. Now you are understanding why the gut is being referenced as the second brain.
YOUR health and wellness of body and brain depend on gut health.
Getting to know the good, bad, and ugly of your gut is crucial to know how to get and cultivate the bacteria you need for a vibrant, happy life. Good gut bacteria allows the body to digest and absorb nutrients, create certain vitamins, and protect against foreign intruders, also know as immunity. Our bodies are made up of over 100 trillion.. let me reinforce that, 100 TRILLION bacteria. The numbers are incredible. Imagine a 10:1 ratio of your bacteria and your working cells.
Plainly, a happy microbiome is a happy human.
SO what exactly is this microbiome? A tribe of bacteria in charge of really important things in your intestines that affects everything.
Let’s go into the further.. just to our gut further.
(side note: I really enjoy the Insidious movies. I normally stick to comedy and forgo scary movies but these I really dig.)
Okay.. the microbiome further. First, our bodies are complex systems. There are “tribes” of bacteria within our body consists of the genes that these cells inhabit. All these tribes are the community called our microbiome. The vast majority are found in our digestive system.
Each microbiome uniquely ours. A genetic footprint. Described as such because our individual microbiomes help determine DNA, hereditary factors, predisposition to diseases, body type or our “normal body weight,” and more. This genetic footprint of bacteria that makes up our microbiomes can be found everywhere, even outside our bodies. We leave a trail on almost all the surfaces we touch and the environments we connect with. Imagine, the fluidity of “Pig-Pen” from Charlie Brown.
Sometimes confusing, yes. The microbiome is very different from our traditional body systems and organs. It’s not one pinpoint, defined location and it’s roles are tethered to so many different bodily functions. The importance of our gut microbiome will not reach a point where it is overemphasized. Lacking in a healthy gut will lead to leaky gut syndrome, autoimmune diseases, arthritis, dementia, heart disease, and cancer. Health and longevity are dependent on the balance of our microbiome. Gut Health. Don’t let it keep you from your best health.
It is imperative now the importance, but where do you go from here with that knowledge?
Our daily lives either shape and grow our guts or dampen and destroy the bacteria within our digestive system. Think for a moment.. what do we do EVERY single day? We eat. There’s one tool we can utilize. Next, we sleep. Thirdly.. we all are are living life and inherently are exposed to different levels of stress. Besides breathing, that’s about as basic as it gets. These three things establish the health of our microbiomes.
- Eating.
- Sleeping.
- Stressing.
Lets explore them, their effects, and how to cultivate healthier microbiomes through them.
Eating the way to a healthy microbiome.
We all have heard the the proverbial “you are what you eat.” It’s so inherently true. If you are eating processed, inflammatory, saturated junk.. you are going to feel like junk and so are your gut bacteria. Gut Health. Don’t let it keep you from your best health. Do this by cultivating it with positive nutritional choices.
Nutritional choices establish gut health and cultivate the “good” bacteria within our digestive tracts. Research has shown sharp contrasts in the microbiomes of not only just humans, but other species, with the nutritional lifestyle consumed. There is an inextricable link between a microbiome, digestion, body weight and metabolism. Think about this from the digestion and absorption perspective.. the body needs great functioning guy bacteria in order to extract nutrients, store fat, and replenish energy stores. Inflammation has a direct effect on our microbiomes. It is also the driving force behind IBS, and other bowel inflammatory diseases that is continuing to increase and increase in prevalence. The foods we consume are at the root of this and are a direct driving force in our gut health.
What should you avoid?
- Dairy products
- Refined carbohydrates and processed grain products
- Meat, poultry and eggs
- Added and refined sugars
- Packaged/processed products and meats
- Trans fats/hydrogenated fats (think fried foods)
The Standard American Diet is centered around these foods.
Healing foods, on the other hand, will decrease inflammation and help the good bacteria in our gut thrive. They do so in a lower inflammatory environment. Foods that are high in antioxidants reduce harm from oxidative stress. For more info about antioxidants or a refresher on them check it out HERE.
What should you eat?
Any and ALL fresh vegetables. Vegetables are laden with phytonutrients. They are the protective nutrients found in plants. My highly recommended for better gut microbiota health include beets, carrots, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kale), dark, leafy greens (collard greens, kale, spinach), onions, peas, and squashes.
Whole fruit (not just the juice). Fruit contains various antioxidants. Antioxidants are molecules that stop the oxidation of molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction. A natural process to many things in our bodies and environment. The downside is that it produces free radicals, leading to chain reactions that damage cells. Think, aging etc. Image, decreasing the amount of cells doing digestive damage to our good bacteria. My highly recommended for better gut microbiota health include blueberries, cherries, plums, pomegranates, nectarines, oranges, apples, blackberries, pears, pink grapefruit, red grapefruit and strawberries.
Herbs, spices and teas. turmeric, ginger, basil, oregano, thyme, etc. Many herbs and spices carry great health benefits. This is something to discuss more in depth in later posts. Many of my posts have them featured for various health reasons.
Pre and Probiotics: Probiotic foods contain “good bacteria” that populate your gut and fight off bad bacterial strains. Check out my post Pre and Probiotics, the facts. When you are just wasting your money.
Beans, legumes, and whole grains. Try to always choose sprouted and unrefined. My highly recommended for better gut microbiota health include adzuki beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, chickpeas, lentils, black rice, quinoa, and mung beans.
So what do all those foods have in common that keep digestive systems healthy and functioning optimally? Plant based. Fiber. Nutrient dense. Simple. For even better guts, get your hands on fermented foods! Need to know how? Check out the Living Whole Pre and Probiotic know how post.
Maintaining a healthy microbiome put the greatest emphasis on the importance of what you eat and drink. Internal health is really determined by what you put into it. Vegetables, grains, and beans feed a healthy gut environment. But meat, junk food, dairy, and eggs feed a unhealthy gut environment. Worried about all your past food choices and way of eating?
GOOD news: even a whole life of Standard American diet lifestyle eating is fixable. At least in terms of cultivating a better microbiome. Plus, that biome strengthens with more and more vibrants, colorful, plant-based foods.
Hippocrates is often referred to as the father of medicine. He is most recognized observations was of disease and its effects. Even then he embraced the progressive understanding of how health is often influenced by diet, breakdowns in bodily processes, and the environment.
With his quote, “All disease begins in the gut,” our modern research is now showing how much truth is in that. Overall health depends markedly on the diversity of gut’s microbiome. Eat your way to health.
Sleeping!
A healthy microbiome will work hard to regulate hormones and neurotransmitters that can keep us happy and calm. Even, lower cortisol levels. Those pesky stress hormone that increase during anxiety and stress.
Roughly 90% of serotonin is made in the gut. This mood regulating happy hormones also assists in preventing sleep disrupting disorders. Most of the times for the general population this presents itself as depression. Your good gut bacterial also produces GABA, an amino acid crucial for restorative sleep. Imagine your microbiome not doing all of those jobs effectively.
A healthy microbiome is critical for restorative sleep. Maintaining simple, effective sleep habits will assist in cultivating a healthy microbiome and set the course for longevity.
When we aren’t sleeping.. typically we are: Stressing.
Research has shown that our microbiomes change when triggered by stressful perturbations. Referring to the optimal stable state (symbiotic) of our microbiomes, stressful pertubations can cause an unstable (dysbiotic) state. Even more exquisite, every single one of our responses in the structural stability is different. Our microbiomes are like gut fingerprints.
When dealing with the complexity of the importance of our microbiomes, symbiotic state is vital. Decreasing and coping with stress can be quite the daily chore but simple steps can make it more manageable. Here are some simple steps to manage stress. Do it for the microbiome.
