Are there really bugs in your gut? Actually you have bugs or bacteria, along with viruses and fungi, living all over your body like your nose, skin, hair, mouth, and intestines. These microbes are essential to your health and have been in the spotlight the past few years.
Scientists are studying the potential links between our gut bacteria, consisting of many different species, and disease. With over 4 pounds of bacteria living in our gut, some being inherited and some determined by our lifestyle, there is no doubt they have an influence on our health.
During digestion, the bacteria in our gut act on the food we eat to further assist in breaking it down. It’s the by products or chemicals produced from this process that are showing to be beneficial to our health. Science has revealed that people with good health have a different mix of bacteria compared to those with poor health.
We know that along with digestion, gut bacteria makes certain vitamins like vitamin K and B vitamins and makes chemicals for our immune system to keep it functioning properly. However scientists have now shown links to certain diseases like colon cancer, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, ulcerative colitis, and obesity. Others have shown certain gut bacteria can cause inflammation or decrease inflammation, and yet others may be responsible for our mood keeping us happy or depressed.
Research is too new to know whether it’s a certain bacteria responsible for causing disease or if the disease causes the bacteria. However, some researchers are suggesting that it’s having a variety of different types of bacteria in the gut that can break down many different food sources and produce many different chemicals that leads to good health.
So how do we keep our gut healthy with the good bacteria flourishing? It’s a well balanced diet, consisting of a variety of vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains, that will do the trick, while a diet high in sugar and fat will create an imbalance and less diverse population of bacteria potentially leading to poor health.
Including fermented foods like Kefir, Yogurt, Sauerkraut or Kimchi, which have probiotics, may prove to be beneficial in keeping our gut bacteria balanced. Prebiotics, like inulin, found in root vegetables, are also showing to have benefits. It’s important to note that while prebiotics and probiotics are showing to play a positive role in digestive health it’s best to get them from our food rather than from supplements unless prescribed by a doctor for certain health conditions.
It’s not just what we eat however. Exercise can play an important role in keeping our gut bacteria diversified while stress and antibiotics can create an imbalance. In recent studies it’s been shown that athletes had more varied gut bacteria than non-athletes.
To show the dramatic benefits a healthy gut bacterial population can have, treatment for a difficult GI infection, c. difficile, now includes a fecal transplant. This treatment takes a healthy person’s feces and puts it into the sick person via the colon to fight the infection. Treatments like these may expand to help other conditions as well.
The bottom line: Continue with a varied meal plan consisting of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, including fermented products like yogurt, kefir or Kimchi, and keep moving!!
By Vincent Alvarez, RDN, NSCA-CPT