The health of your gut is connected to your overall health.
Bifidobacterium, bacterial strain3d illustration.
A few highlights from this article are quotes from Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist and author of two books on diet and gut health.
“It’s a vital organ in your body and you need to look after it. If you do that, it will look after you,”
“Lots of things that people don’t think about, like depression or anxiety, are very clearly modified by your gut microbes. Appetite and ability to digest food are modified by gut microbes. The key finding recently is the link with the immune system. Basically, the gut microbiome is controlling it, sending signals, because most of your immune system is in your gut, helping you fight infections, such as Covid and early cancers, that the immune system is picking off.”
“Over the past 80 years and since the dawn of antibiotics, there has been multi-generational loss of microbes that appear to be important for human health,” he says. “They’re passed from mother to child [during birth, via breastmilk and skin contact] throughout the generations, but at some point in the last three or four generations, we lost some. We’re not entirely sure if the cause was our lifestyle, our diet, cleanliness in our homes or the use of antibiotics. We’re also missing certain immune stimulants that people in the developing world have plenty of.”
Tips to improve your gut health:
Eat more fibre Most of us eat only half the recommended 30g a day. But start slowly – our guts don’t like rapid change
Eat the rainbow Choose colourful fruits and vegetables and try to eat
30 different plants, nuts and seeds every weekEat foods rich in polyphenols These include dark chocolate and red wine
Eat fermented foods Tim Spector favours kombucha, kefir and kimchi, as well as unpasteurised cheeses
Eat more omega 3 New research suggests a relationship between gut microbes, omega 3 and brain health
Let kids play with dirt and dogs Jack Gilbert’s research has shown that since the gut’s population is seeded in early life, allowing small children to dig in soil and play with domestic animals can undo a lot of the damage modern lifestyles do to our microbiomes
Avoid processed foods Cut back on salt and sugar, both of which seem to affect microbial diversity in the gut
To learn more about how to improve you gut health to feel better overall, I’d love to hear from you. You can book a complimentary consult here.
To read the full article use the link below.
Scientists are only just discovering the enormous impact of our gut health. Rebecca Seal reveals how it could hold the key to everything from tackling obesity to overcoming anxiety and boosting immunity
Source: Unlocking the ‘gut microbiome’ – and its massive significance to our health | Health | The Guardian
