When it comes to wellness topics, gut health is now gaining the attention it deserves. We’re learning that a healthy gut microbiome, one that is richer in helpful bacteria and lower in unamiable ones, is a harbinger of good health: research has shown that it improves digestive, heart, and brain health. When it comes to what we eat, the microbiome lends an assist in digesting, processing, and excreting for better overall nutritional status.
What goes on in our gut community may even impact our sleep patterns; eating habits, like cravings and the propensity for compulsive eating; food allergies; and athletic performance. In other words, consider the microbiome as an important component of detoxifying our bodies for lasting health.
What we now know is that various lifestyle habits, including dietary choices, not only have a direct impact on our bodies, but they also make a big difference to the countless microbes that reside in our intestines. Here are some ways that the most beneficial micro-critters within can be best supported.
Go plant crazy
Looks like scientists have given us a good reason to make abundant salads. As part of the American Gut Project, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers discovered that people who ate more than 30 different types of plant-based foods per week had a greater diversity of beneficial gut microbiota than those who ate 10 or fewer types of plant foods.
Other research shows that adhering to a healthy plant-based diet, one rich in whole grains, vegetables, legumes, and fruits, is linked to a more robust microbiome. It might come down to components in these foods, including fibre and polyphenols, that give the beneficial organisms in your digestive tract a boost.
Don’t be fresh obsessed
After analyzing blood and stool samples of 36 healthy adult participants, Stanford School of Medicine researchers discovered that a 10-week diet high in fermented foods boosts microbiome diversity and decreases markers of inflammation, suggesting improved immune status.
Fermented foods
In general, probiotics including Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium help maintain a healthy population of microbiota (or flora) living in the gut, positively affecting digestion and overall well-being. For the most part, probiotics are found abundantly in the following fermented foods:
- yogurt
- kefir
- miso
- kombucha
- sauerkraut
- tempeh
- kimchi
It’s thought that probiotics need to be regularly consumed to replenish the beneficial microorganisms in your gut to help counterbalance any less desirable bacteria residing there. So make these items a regular part of your diet.
Work up a sweat
It’s worth noting that the very act of performing physical efforts appears to alter the microbiome in a good way. A recent study review in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found enough evidence to suggest that regular bouts of exercise are associated with a positive shift in gut microbial composition (higher levels of bugs that produce the beneficial compound butyrate), and this is independent of diet. This may be one of the main ways that regular physical exercise can have a positive influence on human health.
Go easy on meat
Some research suggests that a meat-heavy diet, especially at the expense of plant-based foods, can shuffle around the types of microbes thriving in the gut to favour less beneficial types. And a study in the journal Nature Microbiology found that certain gut microbes, found in greater quantities in people who eat higher amounts of red meat, may be responsible for turning the dietary nutrient carnitine into the chemical TMAO, which is linked to cardiovascular risks.
Shop for inulin
Inulin (a prebiotic) belongs to a class of carbohydrates called fructans, which are plant carbohydrates that, because of their unique structure, resist digestion in the upper gastrointestinal tract but are quantitatively fermented in the colon by the microorganisms that reside there. This helps the beneficial microbes flourish and produce postbiotics. You can source this prebiotic fibre from Jerusalem artichokes; chicory root; alliums, including onions, leeks, and garlic; asparagus; soybeans (which includes edamame); oats; and whole wheat.
Manage stress
Stress gets into the belly. It’s thought that periods of stress can reshape the human microbiome in a way that’s less favourable to health. Worth noting is that psychological stress can contribute to dietary habits, such as the propensity to eat more ultra-processed foods, that can sucker-punch your biome. This means that measures, such as going for walks and practising meditation, that help downgrade stress are important to implement.
Try supplementation
A probiotic supplement can help optimize the microbiome, especially during periods of travel, illness, antibiotic use, or stress, when your microbiome can take a hit.
If turning to a supplement, choose one containing multiple bacterial strains―to better mimic the diversity of our guts―numbering at least 5 billion colony forming units. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are two heavily studied strains. These days, other supplements, including greens powders, are being beefed up with probiotics to help support improved digestive health.
Don’t overdo the sweet stuff
Research published in the journal iScience found that people who consumed more foods and drinks with aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, and stevia leaf extract had less diverse beneficial colonies of gut bacteria and higher concentrations of harmful toxins in their intestines when compared to those study participants who didn’t use non-nutritive sweeteners. This suggests that some non-caloric sweeteners are not benign for the gut microbiome.
Grab more shut-eye
It appears that both sleep fragmentation and short sleep duration are associated with gut dysbiosis, an imbalance in the different types of microscopic organisms living in your body. Make it a habit to practise good sleep hygiene, such as reducing bright light exposure before bedtime and, yes, keeping that phone far away from the bed.
Meet the “biotics” family
Probiotics
These are live microorganisms (mainly bacteria and yeasts), found in certain foods, beverages, and supplements, that reside in your digestive tract where they impart various health benefits, such as improving immune functioning and absorbing nutrients.
Prebiotics
While probiotics are itsy-bitsy living creatures, prebiotics are components of foods, including fibres and polyphenols, that promote the growth of probiotics, the healthy microorganisms living in our digestive tracts. In other words, prebiotics are the “food probiotics” found in foods, like fruits, asparagus, and legumes, required to proliferate and work optimally for your health.
Postbiotics
These are incredible compounds, such as protein peptides and short-chain fatty acids, that are produced in the human digestive tract by microorganisms. For instance, postbiotics can be created when the micro-critters in your gut ferment indigestible prebiotic fibres like inulin.
In essence, they’re the third and final piece of the “biotics puzzle” working through the gut to support your health. Research suggests that postbiotic short-chain fatty acids can have a positive impact on inflammation, blood pressure, and even hormones involved in appetite.
Chill out
To foster a booming microbiome, consider cooking your starchy foods ahead of time. When cooked and then cooled for about 24 hours, the digestible amylopectin starches in foods like potatoes and rice are converted into the hardened resistant starch amylose.
Unlike other types of starchy carbs, which break down into simple sugars in your small intestine (the place where most of the food you eat is processed), resistant starch, so named because it “resists” digestion, stays intact until it reaches your large intestine (colon). And it’s here where the micro-bugs get their shot at this prebiotic to help bolster their numbers and produce important health-boosting postbiotic compounds, including short-chain fatty acids. Potato salad, anyone?
This article was originally published in the January 2025 issue of alive magazine.
