How to optimise your gut health
As a Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach, I am all about being healthy, happy and balanced which means more than counting calories and watching the scales!
As we near the Winter months, there is a tendency to exercise less, eat more highly processed/lower-quality food produce as well as rely on caffeine to give us energy, less exposure to our sunshine vitamin (Vitamin D) and perhaps lower quality sleep due to all these factors, which inevitably has an impact on our mental wellbeing.
Perhaps even more importantly, all the above has a direct influence on our gut bacteria.
But how?
Well, before we dive into this, I’ll explain a little bit about what our ‘gut’ is exactly.
What is our ‘gut’?
Behind the curtain, our gut is responsible for putting our body into working order. From the oesophagus to the bowel, gut health covers the health of the entire digestive system — the parts of our body responsible for breaking down our food into individual nutrients we use to run our bodies.
The gastrointestinal tract starts with digestion in the mouth. Then it continues to the stomach, small intestine and large intestine for further digestion and absorption, before leading to the end product where waste exits via faeces.
Microorganisms in the gut play a vital role in breaking down food, making it easy to digest. As it breaks down the foods we eat, our gut absorbs nutrients that support our body’s functions — from energy production to hormone balance, skin health to mental health, and even toxin and waste elimination.
There is evidence that the gut microbiome may influence longevity, as suggested by the unique gut bacteria of people who live to be 100. Some gut microorganisms may also give athletes an edge. Everyone's gut microbiome is unique, so foods that help one person to thrive may cause irritation in others.
These trillions of microorganisms in the gut, including beneficial and harmful varieties, collectively make up what is known as our "gut microbiome". Maintaining a healthy balance of microorganisms within the microbiome is crucial. Factors like diet, exercise, medications and even genetics can affect its composition and diversity, impacting various aspects of your health for better or worse.
Did you know that 15% of our gut lining is composed of endocrine cells, which produce over 90% of the serotonin over 50% of the dopamine (two hormones associated with emotional wellbeing, mood, memory, etc.) that our bodies use? And that around 70 percent of the immune system is also housed in the gut? So, making sure our digestive system is in tip-top shape is important in addressing many of our bodily woes. Your gut may not be a literal voice, but its functions communicate in a form of code. From complete silence to hunger grumbles and bathroom habits, we can get a real insight into our health.
Beneficial and disruptive gut bacteria
Within our bodies we have trillions of both beneficial and disruptive bacteria. Ttheir role in our health is far-reaching affecting the body in various ways, including through digestion, hormones, neurotransmitters, immunity and weight management.
The beneficial bacteria help with essential nutrient uptake, as well as having a major role in proper digestive function, gastrointestinal health, inflammation, immune responses and insulin sensitivity.
Dysbiosis (overload of disruptive bacteria) can occur due to many factors including:
Overuse of medication (especially antibiotics)
Stress (and stress hormones)
Lots of processed/high sugar foods
Lack of fibre
Lack of exercise/slow gut motility
Overuse of anti-bacterial sanitisers
There is rarely a single cause.
Signs of an unhealthy gut:
Food intolerances
Bloating and gas
Acne
Brain fog/fatigue
Anxiety and depression
Sugar/Carb cravings
Weight fluctuations
Suppressed Immunity
How to feed your gut garden
What are Probiotics?
Many of you may already be familiar with the term ‘probiotics’. Nowadays we have a plethora of probiotic supplements and enriched foods adorning our health food and supermarket shelves.
Essentially, Probiotics are foods or supplements that contain live microorganisms intended to maintain or improve the "good" bacteria (normal microflora) in the body. Traditionally, our ancestors would find their probiotics in the form of fermented foods, which thankfully are having a trendy renaissance and one of the best ways to source these good bugs, but you can also find probiotics in supplements.
What are Prebiotics?
With this greater insight into probiotics also comes with it a deeper understanding around prebiotics - a term which you may not be so familiar with. Prebiotics have become widely recognised for their powerful role in supporting the health of the gut microbiome and even though there is just one vowel separating probiotics and prebiotics they have very different actions.
Prebiotics can best be defined as a type of non-digestible carbohydrate that beneficially affects the host (that’s you), by stimulating the growth and activity of beneficial microbes in your gut when you ingest them. I often like to use the analogy of a garden when it comes to the gut, and you can think of these guys as the ‘fertiliser’ whereas probiotics would be the ‘seeds’. Basically, like seeds need their fertiliser to grow so do our beneficial bugs require adequate food in the form of prebiotics.
The Importance of Prebiotics
Prebiotics offer a range of benefits:
Promote a balanced gut flora.
Enhance calcium absorption, essential for your bone health.
Boost the immune system.
Support bowel regularity.
How else can we support and optimise our gut health?
The food we eat affects both the beneficial and disruptive bacteria, by shifting our nutritional intake we can boost the productivity of the good stuff and reduce the activity of the ‘less-good’ stuff. Here are some tips on how you can make some simple changes to your nutrition to see and feel improvements from the inside out:
Sugar
Sugar is made out to be a bit of a devil but that isn’t necessarily the case, sugars are so important for energy throughout the body. Having said that, if you’re feeling like your gut is a little on the unhappy side cutting down on processed foods can really help to alleviate symptoms. Your small intestine is responsible for breaking down sugar and it can cope with up to 7 tsp of sugar at a time (one can of coke), opting for more nutritious sweet snacks can do so much to help you feel happier, try a banana with peanut butter, or using natural sweeteners like honey.
Fibre
Fibre is a gut health hero. It helps to retain water to keep your hydrated and reduce constipation; it can be fermented by gut microbes to help with energy production: it slows the absorption of sugars helping to maintain steady energy levels. The recommended daily requirement is 30g (an apple is 4g), this can be quite a feat to hit, and if your body isn’t used to it can actually cause you to feel gassy and uncomfortable, see what your current average is and try to increase by 5g a week until you’re hitting that magic number. High fibre foods include veggies, beans, pulses, avocados, and whole grains.
Hydration
Hydration is really important for the working of your body. If your dehydrated water will be more readily absorbed from your large intestine often leading to constipation which creates a less than ideal environment for our microbes. Aim for at least 1.5L a day – more if you exercise regularly.
Exercise
Speaking of which, exercise has been shown to increase the number of beneficial bacteria by up to 40%, as well as increasing microbial diversity, and having an active role in keeping your gut moving. There isn’t enough evidence as to what kind of exercise is the most beneficial, but getting up and walking whilst on the phone, doing a 10-minute yoga session before bed, or taking the stairs are a great way to introduce some extra movement into your day.
Stress
Stress and mental health are hugely linked to your gut health. It is evident that we cannot support the body, notably the gut, without factoring in how we nourish our mind. And we now know it is our gut microbiota (collectively the trillions of microbes that live in our gut) that has a highly influential role in how our brain
operates.
In recent years there has been a surge of research looking at the gut-brain connection, and while we still have a long way to go towards fully understanding the process, we know that chronic stress can change your microbes and create an environment that favours unhelpful bacteria.
Practises like Mindfulness, Meditation, Therapy and more restorative exercise can help alleviate symptoms associated with stress, depression and anxiety.
My top 5 tips for a gut healthy nutrition plan
1. Add garlic to sauces at the end of cooking so it’s still raw when you’re eating it.
Finely chop raw asparagus and sprinkle over salads/dishes before serving.
2. Try drinking kefir or kombucha in the morning.
3. Make smoothies/shakes with unripe bananas and a spoon of live, cultured yoghurt.
4. Mix raw, powdered chicory root into your coffee with raw honey (personal favourite!!)
5. Aim for a tablespoon of fermented food a day
Just remember – a happy gut = a happy body and mind!