Your gut is highly intelligent and an ultra-sensitive system. It breaks down food and absorbs the nutrients so that they convert to energy. Your gut’s complex ecosystem of probiotics and prebiotics tells you when it is happy and unhappy. Listen to your GUT because it will warn you to smarten up your act and start eating better.
Your gut’s health matters more than you may realize.
How do you feel when you hear the word GUT? Is it your stomach you first think about or that butterfly feeling you get when you are overly anxious?
When we talk about the GUT, we are referring to your whole digestive system starting with your mouth and ending where? I hope we all know where our food ends up! Your gastrointestinal (GI) tract runs from your mouth to your large intestine and is lined with trillions of microorganisms and mucus that metabolize the foods you eat.
Studies are showing that there is a link between microbes and bacteria that occupy your gut and the ones that can cause disease. This is why your GUT health is so important, especially when you are living with cancer or another inflammatory condition. Keeping the balance of Probiotics and Prebiotics in the healthy range, with body-friendly strains is the key to helping your body keep that inflammation down.
Do you know the difference between probiotics and prebiotics?
Keep Your Gut Happy With Probiotics
What are Probiotics?
Probiotics are the talk of the Internet these days, so let’s learn some truths about probiotics.
Probiotics are live microorganisms (bacteria or yeast) found in food products that help to promote the good bacteria in your gut. They keep the balance between both the good and “bad” bacteria.
If you need antibiotics, please take probiotics, so you line your gut with good bacteria to prevent the “bad” bacteria from getting out of balance. This will help boost your immune system.
If you are supplementing, make sure you read the label and that there are billions of live probiotic cultures in your supplement. Since your microbiome is composed of about 100-trillion good and bad bacteria, you will need a high number of CFU’s (Colony Forming Units). Look for 20 – 40 billion CFU’s.
There are many types of probiotics. They include lactobacilli (like Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus GG), bifidobacteria (like Bifidobacterium bifidus) and some yeasts (like Saccharomyces boulardii). Different probiotics have different effects. Make sure to ask a health professional which treatment option is best for you.
9 foods loaded with probiotics
- Yogurt
- Kefir
- Saukraut
- Miso
- Kombucha
- Buttermilk
- Kimchi
- Tempeh
- Nato (If you can eat Nato kudos to you. OMG! …I have to say NO to Nato!)
Keep Your Gut Happy With Prebiotics
What are Prebiotics?
Prebiotics are fermentable fibers, and they come from non-digestible carbohydrates. Non-digestible carbohydrates are found in foods like leeks, asparagus or artichokes. These foods are not fully digested, so they can reach the colon where good bacteria ferment them.
9 Foods loaded with prebiotics
- Jerusalem Artichokes
- Leeks
- Chicory root
- Asparagus
- Garlic
- Onions
- Dandelion Greens
- Cocoa Bean
- Oats
When you don’t have enough fermentable fiber in your diet, you will have a lack of short-chain fatty acids. Short-chain fatty acids are produced when the fiber is metabolized by “good” bacteria in the colon.
When we eat the soluble fibers from whole plant foods, the bacteria in our gut ferment the fibers into short-chain fatty acids like butyrate and acetate. More significant amounts of fiber consumed will lead to greater short-chain fatty acid production. Naturally occurring soluble fibers are essential for feeding the friendly bacteria that live in our guts.
When our diet is low in fiber and high in sugar and saturated fats, we can create a leaking gut. This is where you have holes in the lining of your gut, and bacteria can breakthrough into the blood, causing all sorts of health problems.
How Do We Keep Our GUT Happy?
Your GUT requires two essential things: fermentable fiber to supply energy to the microbes in the gut (primarily in the colon) as well as adequate levels of polyphenols. Think of the polyphenols as gardeners that help to promote good bacterial growth and inhibit the bad. Without sufficient levels of either in the diet, the result is increased gut inflammation and an increase in leaky gut, which can cause inflammation in the body. Click here to learn more from my long time friend and mentor Barry Sears, Ph.D.
Remember that your gut is your second brain and is a highly intelligent and an ultra-sensitive system. It works together with probiotics and prebiotics to break down foods and absorbs their nutrients to convert into energy.
Your GUT tells you how you are feeling. Listen to your GUT because it will remind you to smarted up your act and start eating better foods.
Your GUT health contributes to your overall wellbeing by maintaining balance and keeping the “bad” bacteria from overwhelming your Gastrointestinal tract (GI)
When your gut is in balance, you will live in harmony.
Now you know how to get more energy and keep up a good pace as we climb together higher and higher up the holistic healing mountain.
Prue’s thought for the day: “Love your GUT and it will love you back!”
