Gut Reaction
Take a minute to digest vital advice on healthy eating.
Breakfast oats with yoghurt and fruit, lentil soup with rye bread for lunch, stirfried vegies with cashew nuts for dinner… These foods all come with extra benefits for the gut, a part of the body that has a big influence on our health. A gut that plays host to a mix of friendly microbes is key to keeping the immune system healthy and helping prevent allergy and chronic disease.
Let’s start with fermented foods, such as yoghurt, kefir and high-quality sourdough bread. Despite their reputation for providing probiotics – ‘good’ gut bacteria – that’s not the full story, explains Dr Jane Muir, head of translational nutrition science at Monash University. It’s hard to know how long these bacteria survive in food or supplements. As for all the benefits attributed to probiotics, there’s only strong evidence for a handful.
“One is reducing the risk of traveller’s diarrhoea; preventing diarrhoea linked to taking antibiotics is another. There’s also evidence for improving irritable bowel syndrome,” says Dr Muir. “But studies are usually done with supplements containing specific strains of live bacteria. You can’t assume that eating yoghurt will have the same effect.”
Still, these bacteria can be beneficial in other ways, she adds. “Fermented foods may contain byproducts of fermentation, which could have benefits. Research has found that microbes produce shortchain fatty acids [SCFAs], which may be anti-inflammatory, meaning they help prevent low-level inflammation thought to contribute to chronic diseases.”
In order to thrive, friendly gut bacteria need the right food.
That means feeding them prebiotics, a term for a special type of fibre found in plant foods such as beans, rye, lentils and some nuts and fruits, including watermelon and figs. Prebiotic fibre arrives in the large bowel undigested and provides food for friendly microbes. These, in turn, have a range of benefits, such as producing more SCFAs.
“One of these SCFAs, butyrate, is important for maintaining healthy cells in the wall of the colon and may help protect them from cancerous changes,” says Dr Muir. “I can say, with confidence, that these SCFAs are vital for good gut health.”
‘Short-chain fatty acids are vital for good gut health. The best way to get them is a diet rich in fibre, including prebiotic fibre.’ Dr Jane Muir