GUT FEELING

Why you must pay attention to your

Of the body’s five key defence systems, your gut bacteria are potentially the most powerful — we have only recently started to understand its disease-fighting potential.

But we know that almost 40 trillion bacteria inhabit our bodies, most of which act to defend our health.

Not only do these bacteria metabolise the food we eat to produce health-supporting compounds, but they have a powerful influence on our other key defence systems, too — they control our immune system, influence angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels), stem- cell production and they even help produce hormones that influence our brain and social function.

It is quite clear that our gut is far more than a digestive container. It is a command centre for your health — and those gut bacteria are in charge.

far from being passive squatters, healthy bacteria, collectively called the microbiome, form a complex biological system that interacts with your cells and organs in many ways.

A well-cared-for community of gut bacteria will affect your ability to resist diseases, such as cancer and type 2 diabetes, influence your ability to heal wounds and instruct your brain to release chemicals that make you more fun at a party.

But

a poor community is likely to be one ‘common denominator’ shared by the most serious diseases of our time.

Because the microbiome is closely tied to your other four health defence systems, an unhealthy diet can, by extension, damage the health of your blood vessels, disrupt your stem cell function, make it harder for your body to protect its DNA and compromise your immunity.

We are seeing alarming connections between the microbiome and the rising incidence of diseases and conditions as far ranging as type 2 diabetes, obesity, autism, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, cancer, asthma, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, coeliac disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, dental cavities, schizophrenia and depression.

there is emerging evidence that harmful bacteria growing in the gut can produce toxins that provoke brain inflammation.

Our microbiome can make the difference between life and death, between developing a

serious disease or resisting it. It is clear that an unhealthy diet of processed food can wreak havoc on your microbiome and leave scars that can be slow to recover. If you have taken antibiotics for any reason, they will definitely disrupt your microbiome.

But the good news is we know certain foods can help to shape the bacterial population of our microbiome health defence system, increasing populations of good and reducing the spread of bad bacteria.

We are constantly introducing new bacteria into our body, exchanging bacteria with friends family and pets (a single kiss can introduce as many as 80 million bacteria) but the most common entry point is through eating.

Studies show that what we eat has the most profound day-today effect on our microbiome defence system.

Our diet can shrink or expand the different populations of gut microbiota on an hour-to-hour basis.

the best way to eat for your bacteria is by putting more dietary fibre into your diet and less animal protein and fat, then adding in traditional fermented foods and cheeses to add a little bacterial diversity.