With so many ultra-processed foods in the shops labelled as "good for your gut" it is hard to know what is fact and what is just marketing. In this post we unpack the growing understanding of the importance of the gut microbiome, why it matters and what we can do about it.
Terminology
First off, what is the gut microbiome? It is the name for all the micro-organisms (bacteria, virus, fungi and parasites) that live in our digestive system.
What is a Pre-biotic? Plant fibre that acts as a food for the good bacteria and stimulates its growth
What is a Probiotic? A food or drink that contains the beneficial bacteria that typically live in our digestive system.
What is a Postbiotic? Dead fragments and metabolites of probiotics that are beneficial to health. This is often what you get when you consume a probiotic supplement as a significant proportion will die during the digestion process.
What is a Synbiotic? A product that combines a probiotic and a prebiotic, which in theory helps more of the live bacteria to survive the digestion process.
What is healthy?
It is widely accepted that a healthy and diverse gut microbiome helps us keep a stable digestive tract, prevent us getting infections and provides us with essential nutrients as the bacteria help us to digest our food by breaking it down into small molecules that we can absorb. A healthy gut is also thought to communicate with various organs in our bodies such as the liver, kidney and even brain. Our gut microbiome can very a lot between people and a modern western diet and lifestyle is associated with less different types of bacteria in our gut, which is ultimately a bad thing. Lack of diversity in bacteria can lead to diabetes, eczema, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and obesity.
What can we do to change it?
Studies have shown that we can change our gut bacteria, and that it does have improved health outcomes if we do. There are a number of ways of doing this, including prebiotic or probiotic supplements or diet. There are even a small number of studies where patient receive a poo transplant from a patient with a healthy gut. It actually showed that injecting poo directly into the bowels could cause a lowering of blood pressure (do not try this at home people!!). Intermittent fasting has also been studied although the results of the studies are mixed.
Diet
Many health problems can be influenced by our diet. A general rule would be to consume a wide range of plant-based foods (fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and spices) for good gut health.
You will probably already be familiar with the 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day rule, but what we are also looking for is diversity. Feed your gut with a wide range of different plants and a wide range of different bacteria will thrive. 30 different types throughout the week seems to be a good number to aim for.
Plant fibre can be found in vegetables such as onions, leeks, peas and Jerusalem artichoke to name just a few, fruits such as apples bananas and kiwi are also good. Other plant based whole foods such as oats, lentils, garlic and seaweed are other good sources. These are just examples, of some of the healthy ways that you can boost your bacteria buddies.
Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, miso soup, pickled vegetables and kefir are cheap and natural sources of probiotics. Sure you could buy expensive supplements, or the ultra-processed foods like yakult and actimel, but typically natural foods will provide not only a source of the good bacteria, but also other vitamins and minerals that have other benefits too. Plus they are cheaper - win - win!!
Some of the commercially manufactured probiotics have been extensively studied, others lack research and it is difficult to know what you are getting. Often there is uncertainty of the quality of the product as they are dietary supplements, not drugs, so their content and manufacturing are not as closely monitored.
Other things found to promote a healthy gut are good hydration, regular physical activity and avoiding ultra-processed foods. All of these are either cheap or free so good for your wallet and for your waist line.
Research
More than £1.35 billion has been spent in the past 10 years on gut health research. A futher £9.55 billion has been spent researching how microbiomes can replace toxic chemicals in the food production industries. There is so much money to be made and so many companies offering products it is easy to feel overwhelmed.
Summary
Eat natural probiotic and prebiotic foods if you want a healthy gut without an empty wallet. If you feel as though you have problems that could be caused by your gut microbiome then please don't hesitate to seek medical advice first. They can rule out anything really nasty first then leave you free to work on upping your natural plant foods and decreasing the ultra-processed junk. Don't forget that just because something is labelled as "gut health" it does not make it healthy.
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