text: Each of us has approximately 100
  trillion microbes in our guts. Our gut flora, also known as our gut microbiome,
  is a living community of bacteria, viruses, yeasts, and other microbes.
  Until recently, most people thought
  of bacteria—or "germs"—as enemies that needed to be eradicated, but
  as scientists learn more about our gut flora, we're gradually realizing how
  critical it is to protect it.
  We know that our microbiome helps
  us stay healthy by producing vitamins and fighting infections. It may even aid
  in the activation of drugs (Source: NCBI). Anything that upsets the microbiome
  balance in our gut has the potential to cause disease.
  Unfortunately for our gut bugs,
  modern life is brutal. Antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria, and they
  don't share our fondness for processed foods. Add to that our fear of dirt and
  our sanitized, sedentary indoor lives, and you have a very different
  environment than the one in which our microbiomes co-evolved with us.
  What was the end result? A scarcity of variety. That means that while we all have roughly the same total number of microbes in our guts, many of us have fewer species of them. That is not ideal because each species has different properties and functions related to different aspects of human health.
  Is it possible to reinstate gut
  14 simple steps to restoring healthy gut flora
  A fiber-rich, nutrient-dense diet
  is the most effective way to restore gut harmony.
  The good news is that you can start
  changing your gut flora right away with your next meal. According to research,
  our gut bacteria are very responsive to what we eat, and communities begin to
  shift almost immediately after we change our diets (Source: NCBI).
  However, scientists have discovered
  that when the gut is significantly damaged by repeated courses of antibiotics,
  some bacterial communities disappear and are unlikely to return.
  It's difficult to tell if you've restored your microbiome
  because it's nearly impossible to define what a healthy one looks like.
  People's gut flora varies greatly across the globe and throughout our lives.
  Babies' guts, for example, are typically dominated by bifidobacteria (Source:
  NCBI). until they begin to eat solid foods When compared to an adult
  microbiome, this lack of diversity is exactly what they require to get the most
  out of their specific diet: milk!
  One thing that research has repeatedly confirmed is the
  importance of diversity. The more bacteria families you have in your gut, the
  healthier you are likely to be.
  There are stool tests that can provide insight into your
  digestive system. These reveal the presence of certain parasites, yeasts, and
  levels of inflammation, as well as the levels of specific families of bacteria, thought by scientists to help or harm your health.
  So, while you can’t ‘restore' your gut microbiome, you can
  definitely improve it. Here's how to do it:
  1. Fill your plate with
  Polyphenols are plant-based compounds that are not completely
  absorbed in the small intestine. That is, they become food for the microbes in
  our colon (Source: NCBI), who convert them into substances with prebiotic,
  anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-microbial
  2. Keep a standard
  The last five years of microbiome research have revealed that
  our gut's microbial residents have their own sleep cycle. According to one
  study, people with jet lag had higher numbers of bacteria associated with
  obesity and metabolic disease in their gut flora (Source: NCBI). Other studies
  have discovered that a diverse gut microbiome promotes better sleep.
  3. Completely eradicate
  the standard Western diet.
  The evidence for the detrimental effect of a processed,
  high-sugar, low-fiber modern diet on our health is growing. According to one
  recent study, our modern diets are “an evolutionarily unique selection ground
  for microbes that can promote diverse forms of inflammatory disease” (Source:
  NCBI). This means that the bad bacteria in our guts appear to enjoy our poor
  diets, while the important good bacteria are less enthusiastic.
  4. Get some exercise,
  but don't overdo it.
  Over the last decade, science has moved at a breakneck pace.
  We now understand that exercise has a direct effect on our gut bacteria, which
  improves our tissue metabolism, cardiorespiratory fitness, and insulin resistance.
  However, our bodies perceive too much heavy exercise as a threat, which
  triggers the stress response, reducing the diversity of our gut flora.
  5. Increase your fiber
  Fiber isn't really food for us because, unlike horses,
  elephants, and cows, we can't extract nutrients from it. Our gut flora, on the
  other hand, thrives on it. The evidence supporting the benefits of a high-fiber
  diet is overwhelming. According to one study, a low-fiber diet can cause a significant
  decrease in the diversity of our gut flora, increasing the risk of metabolic
  syndrome and obesity-related disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis,
  liver disease, and colorectal cancer.
  6. Eliminate all added
  sugars from your diet.
  Sugar acts as rocket fuel for your microbiome. That sounds
  like a good thing, but it appears to encourage specific families of bacteria to
  "take over," crowding out others and tipping a healthy gut into
  dysbiosis. In one study, mice fed high-sugar diets lost gut microbial diversity
  and developed leakier guts, with tight junctions in their gut walls opening
  wider due to inflammation caused by high sugar intake.
  7. Initiate fermenting
  For thousands of years, humans have fermented their food and
  beverages. Immunoglobulins, antibacterial peptides, antimicrobial proteins,
  oligosaccharides, lipids, and short amino acid sequences are all activated
  during the fermentation process (depending on the particular food). These
  appear to have antioxidant, antihypertensive, antimicrobial, and other
  bioactive effects when combined.
  8. Have fun with your
  Most of us have been told that after playing with our pets,
  we should wash our hands. However, it appears that having a pet—and sharing
  their germs—could be beneficial to our microbiomes, lowering the risk of
  allergies and obesity.
  9. Get your hands dirty
  Growing up in microbe-rich environments, such as on a farm,
  has been shown in studies to protect children from chronic disease as they get
  10. Get rid of your
  Artificial sweeteners aren't good for you. Some studies have
  concluded that they are not harmful, but a recent study discovered that they
  cause glucose intolerance in certain groups of people by altering the gut
  11. Quit cleaning so
  much (yes, really)
  Bacterial aversion is big business. We're given an endless
  supply of antibacterial cleaning products to saturate ourselves and our homes
  with. While it is not advisable to eat your dinner from a filthy kitchen floor,
  it is also not necessary to disinfect your hands or work surface every five
  12. Make your life
  Isn't it amazing how emotion can influence the living
  things in our bodies? When we are stressed, our bodies produce a cocktail of
  hormones that prepare us to fight, flee, or freeze, which has an impact on our
  microbiome. Stress is useful for fleeing lions, but it is detrimental to our
  gut flora in the long run.
  13. Day fast
  It may seem strange that we can help our gut flora by not
  eating and thus starving them, but one study in mice discovered that fasting
  was associated with increases in gut mucus (a good thing), numbers of goblet
  cells (the cells that produce mucus), and length of villi (the finger-like
  structures on the lining of your gut that help absorbs nutrients). Fasting is likely
  to have a similar effect in humans.
  14. Determine whether
  you have any infections or imbalances and treat them.
  Worms, parasites, and single-celled pathogens can all infect
  our intestines. They can cause no symptoms at times, but they can also cause a
  lot of trouble at other times. For example, a protozoon known as Giardia has
  been found to have a significant impact on our gut flora (Source: NCBI). More
  information on parasitic infection can be found here.
  SIBO is a bacterial overgrowth in your small intestine (where
  bacteria levels should be very low), which can disrupt the balance of bacteria
  in your large intestine. If you believe you have SIBO, you can learn more about
  the symptoms, testing, and treatment options here.
  7-day plan to begin
  restoring gut health
  The keyword here is
  previously stated, gut bacteria respond quickly to dietary changes, but total
  gut flora restoration is a) difficult to define and b) even more difficult to
  Ideally, we should all have the microbiomes of our ancestors'
  hunter-gatherer societies. That is most likely impossible in the Western world.
  But don't give up! With a few changes, we can begin to restore healthy bacteria
  in our guts.
  The Day 1
  fermenting. Sourdough bread is easier to make than you think, and sauerkraut
  (traditional German pickled cabbage) provides the benefits of a cruciferous
  vegetable as well as fiber and polyphenols. Many people claim that fermenting
  their own food is therapeutic, so restoring gut bacteria may be a good way to
  unwind as well!
  Roast a large number of vegetables, store them in the
  fridge and consume them over the next few days. Maximum fiber and polyphenol
  impact with the least amount of effort. Cook cauliflower, broccoli, red onion,
  and beets in olive oil.
  own vegetables or herbs. OK, you won't be able to eat them for a while, but
  just getting our hands in the dirt is good for our guts.
  We know that contact with soil is beneficial to our
  skin microbiome (yes, your skin has a microbiome) (Source: NCBI). We also know
  that contact with the earth and soil was a major factor in the evolution of our
  ancestors' gut microbiomes, and research has shown that people who live
  traditional rural lives have more diverse gut flora as a result.
  Replace any white, refined grains in your diet with whole, brown grains. Brown rice, whole grain bread, and pasta contain far more fiber than white rice, bread, and pasta. If you soak your brown rice for 24 hours before cooking it, it will be easier to digest and the nutrients will be more available (Source: NCBI).
  Try naturally gluten-free whole grains like quinoa,
  buckwheat, millet, or amaranth. The importance of variety in gut health cannot
  be overstated. If you can find it and tolerate gluten, brown or rye sourdough bread
  is great for your gut because the slow fermentation process uses probiotic
  bacteria instead of yeast to make the bread rise.
  Go outside and
  enjoy nature. We've already learned that stress is bad for your gut bacteria,
  and one of the simplest and most effective ways to de-stress is to simply go
  outside. A recent study discovered that visitors to a natural environment
  reported significantly lower levels of stress — as well as lower levels of the
  stress hormone cortisol — than their counterparts who visited a more urbanized
  Consider taking a probiotic supplement. While
  fermented foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, sourdough bread, and
  traditionally-made pickles are probiotic foods (good bacteria are used in the
  fermentation process), probiotics are also available as supplements in the form
  of pills, powders, and liquids. Some of them have been thoroughly researched
  and have a large body of evidence to back up their positive effects.
  Probiotic supplements have been shown to ‘remodel' the
  gut after antibiotic treatment (Source: NCBI), and ‘Mutaflor,' which contains a
  beneficial strain of E. coli bacteria, has put people with Ulcerative Colitis
  Prebiotics are worth a shot. Prebiotics are not to be
  confused with probiotics, though they do enjoy each other's company. They are
  available in both food and supplement form.
  Prebiotics are food for bacteria because they pass
  through our small intestines without being digested and end up as food for
  bacteria in our large intestine. In the case of prebiotic foods, some parts of
  the food will be digestible: for example, a banana contains simple sugars that
  we can digest as well as oligosaccharides that we cannot digest (but our
  Prebiotic supplements are typically far more effective
  than prebiotic foods. Returning to the banana, it contains 0.21 grams of
  fructooligosaccharides (FOS), while most supplement manufacturers recommend a
  starting dose of 5 grams per day. Although studies have found it to help diversify
  the microbiome (Source: NCBI), lower cholesterol (Source: NCBI), and alleviate
  constipation (Source: NCBI), if you have IBS, use FOS with caution as it can
  exacerbate diarrhea and gas.
  While we don't know if we can completely restore our
  gut flora—or even what that would entail (what point in our lives or ancestral
  past are we aiming to restore it to?—we can certainly help it along.
  We already know that when we change our diet, our gut
  flora changes. So far, research has indicated that it can occur quickly.
  If you want to restore your microbiome, your best bet
  is to feed it high-fiber whole foods, establish a good sleep routine, get out
  in nature, and simplify your day-to-day life. Prebiotic and probiotic
  supplements could also be beneficial.
  Post a Comment