Gut Health is becoming an increasingly important topic as developed countries continue to report increasingly higher rates of things like autoimmune conditions, diabetes, etc.
In our modern world full of antibiotics, antimicrobials, cleaning products, and processed foods, taking care of your gut health is more important now than it has ever been. The benefits cannot be understated. Taking care of your gut can help with things such as your blood sugar levels, your skin, and how you feel overall. An entire post could be made just about the benefits of having your gut in optimal health.
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Introduction
This post will outline some basic information about gut health, some positive and negative foods to select from as well as how exercise and stress impact your gut health. It is intended as a general overview of the subject.
We will also cover supplements and other important details throughout each section.
Explaining Gut Health
I’ve recently been obsessed with gut health and optimizing the gut. I’ve read many books, and studies, and have just been absorbing content related to this subject for months now. It has been increasingly clear to me that gut health is at the least something that can worsen your health if not mindfully taken care of and at best can provide amazing benefits in nearly every aspect of your health and life in general.
For example, medical doctor William Davis claims that specific strains of bacteria in the gut that have been lost due to modern lifestyles can help you regain youthful skin, an improved mood, and a better body composition. It seems to me that the gut interacts and impacts much more of the body than previously thought.
Ironically all of these findings about the importance of gut health are coming out at the same time that people are eating more processed foods, receiving more antibiotics, and living more sedentary lifestyles than ever before. Like with any subject I try to take a reasonable approach – I am not discrediting modern advancements in medicine or food. What I am saying is that if you are living a lifestyle like I described, your gut health may not be optimal or even healthy.
I can personally note that my gut health was abysmal and after taking more care of it I noticed a lot of positive changes in my life such as better bowel movements and digestion, better skin, and even improvements with fewer random aches, itchy reactions, and things that weren’t necessarily life-threatening but certainly weren’t optimal.
Nutrition
Nutrition is one of the most important aspects in regards to gut health. Did you know that microbes in your gut adapt over time based on what you eat?
For example, if you consume foods with high amounts of fiber certain types of bacteria will feed off of that fiber. The same is true for sugary foods – if you constantly consume a sugary breakfast cereal every morning your gut microbiome will start to adapt and crave that sugar.
Another interesting note is that every fruit or vegetable also has its microbiome of organisms that provide their benefits.
One podcast I watched featured Dr. Sara Gottfried. She mentioned that one of her patients was experiencing an autoimmune disease which he put into remission through drinking a smoothie consisting of 57 plants and vegetables every day. This is only one anecdote but I found it to be interesting, especially when comparing the story to what I’ve learned now.
I find it fascinating because an unhealthy gut has been connected to several diseases.
While reading the book “Fiber Fueled” by Dr. Will Bulsiewicz I learned that one of the greatest predictors of gut health was the diversity of plants in your diet. This fact comes from Dr. Rob Knight, founder of the American Gut Project.
Dr. Knight found that consuming 30 different plants in a week was highly correlated with a diverse microbiome. It was the best predictor.
As for me personally, I wasn’t even sure if I could name 57 edible fruits and vegetables, let alone the fact that they needed to be available near me, be somewhat cost-effective, and taste good.
I found that a smoothie is the easiest way for me to consistently get fruits and vegetables into my diet. Even though I try to eat a good variety of fruits and vegetables if I don’t have a “fail safe” of this smoothie I won’t be getting in an optimal amount of plants daily.
It’s simply too much for me in regards to a time and money sink any other way.
I will write an article about how I create my smoothie in the future.
Fiber
Fiber is another key ingredient in gut health. This point is somewhat more debated but it has been commonly noted that lots of Americans aren’t even receiving minimum standards of fiber in their diets. Much less healthy plant-based fibers.
Fiber is important because it feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut, these bacteria thrive off of fiber. Another great benefit is the fact that fiber regulates bowel movements and gut motility, if you are constipated fiber is likely to help you and the same is true if you are experiencing the opposite.
I try to shoot for around 30 grams of fiber daily. I cannot give any specific evidence or claims on this topic but this is just what works well for me. Anything less and I don’t feel optimal.
Fermented Foods
You cannot forget about fermented foods. Even though probiotics get most of the attention in regards to bringing beneficial bacteria back into your gut, fermented foods may be an even better option.
Even the strongest probiotic cannot compare to the probiotics within real fermented foods such as yogurts, kefir, or things like kimchi.
Just like having a healthy variety of plants is good, having a fair amount of fermented foods in your diet is beneficial as well.
As far as notable effects on the body: the Sonnenburgs (Ph.D. couple researching the gut microbiome) noted that 3 servings of fermented foods daily decreased inflammation.
Hydration
You should also keep an eye on your water intake. Similar to fiber, the main reason I focus on this aspect of nutrition is mostly due to gut motility. Proper hydration, whatever that means for you, will likely be a factor in keeping your gut running smoothly.
Lifestyle
In terms of lifestyle, one of the more interesting tips I learned is about chewing your food fully. It may seem obvious but with the amount of people (myself included) who eat while doing other tasks it needs to be said: chewing your food fully until it becomes a mush in your mouth allows for better digestion and nutrient absorption.
I still struggle with this even when consciously thinking about it, and training up my jaw as well as gaining the patience to chew fully has been an annoying process. When I started paying attention to this I found it strained me to fully chew tougher foods.
The oral microbiome is another key here – in researching the gut microbiome I found that the oral microbiome impacts a lot more than I originally thought and while I don’t have a ton of information on this keeping a clean healthy mouth should be mandatory.
The same goes for stress, sleep, and exercise – all things that benefit your gut health by proxy.
Supplements
Finally, we have supplements. Similar to the smoothie I mentioned, I know that while probiotics aren’t as effective as farm-fresh yogurt, getting 3 servings of fermented foods alongside all of the other things is likely impossible. For me at least.
This is where probiotics come in – these formulations allow for the supplementation of beneficial bacteria in the gut. They usually come in pill or capsule form and allow for a temporary boost of beneficial bacteria.
I have tried a few of the more popular probiotics and what I have found is that like most things, you will likely need to try out different things before settling on something that works for you. In my case I respond best to the Visbiome probiotic, it is expensive but I experienced great benefits (similar to what I touched on before). I have also tried the Seed probiotic and didn’t notice much from it.
I still need to try more probiotics to develop a solid opinion. I am interested in the Pendulum Life probiotics as they claim to be formulated for various goals such as targeting glucose spikes or increasing overall gut health, etc. All three of the probiotics I just mentioned seemed to be relatively well-studied and backed by some of the leaders in the industry (Visbiome specifically has clinical studies).
If you just want something that may be less expensive and geared more for general health there are so many formulations available to be tried.
So while I am still unsure about whether probiotics do anything in the gut after stopping use, they do seem to benefit me when I take them so I will continue experimenting with different brands and learning more about them.
There are also supplements you can explore for enhancing gut motility, improving intestinal lining strength, and fighting types of bacteria but I feel these are out of the scope of this article.
Conclusion
This post should give you an excellent beginner’s overview on why gut health may be something to look into as part of optimizing your health and appearance as well as some specific details as to how to start doing this.
I know I feel much better after transforming my gut health – good luck!