4 Ways to Improve Your Gut Microbiome
Did you know that we have 100 trillion microbes living in our gut?
These microbes include live bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other species that all play important roles in one’s health. In particular, the roles and functions of the gut microbiome include supporting digestion, absorption, metabolism, brain health, immunity and mental health. With so many microbes present in our gut it is important that we aim to achieve eubiosis meaning microbial balance of both good bacteria and bad bacteria.
How Our Gut Microbiome is Populated
Many factors influence our gut microbiome - from the foods we eat, the environment we live in, exercise, genetics, age, and many more. We start populating our gut microbiome from birth, where studies have shown that the type of birth delivery being vaginal or caesarean results in the infant having different types of bacteria present in their gut. From birth to the age of three, the gut microbiome rapidly matures and becomes rich and diverse filled with many different species of bacteria as a result of exposure to one’s environment and the intake of new foods. From childhood, the gut microbiome becomes quite stable and stays this way throughout adulthood. However, making changes to either (or both) your diet and environment can ultimately affect the composition and diversity of the gut microbiome, meaning it can be manipulated and changed, for better or worse.
Signs and Symptoms of an Imbalanced Gut Microbiome
First, let’s explain what an imbalanced gut microbiome means.
Dysbiosis is a state where your gut is in an imbalance of good and bad bacteria, where it is the pathogenic bacteria that are the dominating species. Being in dysbiosis means that you are susceptible to illness and disease. Normally, good bacteria ensure the integrity of your gut. This means the good bacteria produce the by-products our body needs, such as short-chain fatty acids, that promote the production of a thick mucus barrier lining the cells in our gut wall to prevent any bacteria including bad pathogenic bacteria being able to enter the bloodstream where they can cause infection, illness and disease. However, when the bad pathogenic bacteria is dominating, these types of bacteria eat the mucus barrier, causing it to degrade - and without the appropriate balance of good bacteria to counteract this, the pathogenic bacteria are able to move past this barrier and enter the bloodstream, causing harm and potential disease.
The common signs and symptoms of a dysbiosis state of the gut microbiome can include gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, weight gain and frequent gut discomfort as these symptoms can indicate that your gut, the microbes are not fermenting and digesting foods and eliminating waste adequately. Additionally, other signs can include fatigue, brain fog, frequent illness, poor sleep quality and skin irritation.
How to Optimise Your Gut Microbiome
So, if you are experiencing any of the above symptoms or want to ensure you maintain a healthy and balanced gut microbiome here are some ways to optimise your gut health.
1. Eat a variety of plant foods
Each week you should aim to consume 30+ different plant foods in your diet.
This includes a variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, herbs and spices. Including a wide variety of plant foods in your diet supports the diversity of healthy bacteria in your gut. 30+ different plant foods a week can sound daunting at first, but there are many ways to incorporate this into the meals and snacks you already eat.
Smoothies are a great way to combine many diverse and colourful fruits and vegetables into one simple snack, particularly as we’re heading into the warmer months. Eating salads that incorporate 5 different colours of fruit, vegetables and legumes is another great way to visually ensure you are ensuring richness and diversity of these plant foods in your diet. Sprinkling seeds and nuts onto your cereal, or having a trail mix as a snack instead of one kind of nuts, are all ways to easily incorporate more plant foods into your diet and enhance your gut microbiome.
2. Eat plenty of fibre
Aim to eat at least 25 grams (for females) or 30 grams (for males) of fibre every day as per the Australian guidelines.
Fibre is a type of plant food, specifically a carbohydrate, that is not digestible. This means that fibre is not broken down nor absorbed, and instead is left to the bacteria in your gut to use and create by-products, including the short-chain fatty acids which promote the protective mucus barrier to stop pathogens from entering the bloodstream and causing harm.
Foods high in fibre include beans, lentils, chickpeas, fruit, and vegetables. It is important, however, to note that if you are not meeting these fibre guidelines, it is important to slowly increase your fibre intake, otherwise you may experience bloating and other uncomfortable symptoms if you attempt to increase your fibre intake too much, too soon.
3. Include prebiotics and probiotics
The bacteria in your gut need to be fed and prebiotics are the foods that your gut microbes like to eat to help them perform their important roles and functions. Prebiotic foods consist of foods that are non-digestible including foods rich in fibre, garlic, fruit, vegetables, legumes, cereals, nuts and seeds.
On the other hand, probiotics are live bacteria, this being the non-pathogenic good bacteria. Eating probiotics which contain these live bacteria cultures allows for the microbe community to grow and develop and become rich and diverse in good bacteria species. Foods that contain probiotics consist of fermented foods such as yoghurt, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, tempeh and miso. You can purchase these foods from the supermarket, or you can even ferment your own foods at home.
4. Reduce intake of ultra-processed foods
Ultra-processed foods are products that have been designed for creating highly profitable, convenient, hyper-palatable food products. Ways to identify these ultra-processed foods are by looking to see if they contain at least 1 ingredient that you would not typically have in your kitchen or can purchase - for example, this could include high fructose corn syrup, classes of additives, colours and sweeteners.
Research has shown that these products - in particular, the additives - are detrimental to our gut microbiome because they increase inflammation. Additionally, consuming these ultra-processed foods over other healthy foods such as prebiotics, fibre and fruit and vegetables depletes the availability of substrate available for the good bacteria to feed upon and instead provides a source of food to the pathogenic bacteria.
Preliminary research has shown that food additives increase inflammation as they are seen by the body as foreign and are treated as pathogenic bacteria which causes an inflammatory response where chronic long-term inflammation can lead to tissue damage and increase the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Therefore, whilst it’s totally okay to include these foods in your overall diet, it is important to ensure that these ultra-processed foods do not take away from ensuring a balanced diet and are eaten only occasionally as snacks, rather than full meals.
Take Home Points
The gut microbiome consists of 100 trillion microbes living inside our gut. It is important to ensure that these bacteria live in a eubiosis state to ensure optimal digestion, absorption, immunity, and brain health, as well as to mitigate any symptoms of dysbiosis including bloating, gas and constipation or diarrhoea.
The 4 key ways to achieve this and optimise your gut microbiome can be summarised as the following:
1. Eating 30+ different plant foods each week
2. Eating 25-30 grams of fibre each day
3. Include prebiotic and probiotics foods in your diet
4. Reduce ultra-processed food consumption
