Gut Health Part 2: You Are What Your Gut Microbes Do With What You Eat

Welcome back to Broccoli People - who brought you The Food Wisdom Ebook series to learn the fundamentals of nutrition - with the second article in their 4-part Human Microbiota series, so you can understand your body, it's principles and make the best choices for your wellbeing.

Not read part 1 yet? Get clued up about gut bacteria functions, the latest research and the connection between the gut bacteria and your brain.

The Human Microbiota Series: Part 2

The human microbiota is composed by all the microorganisms living in the gut, and which have essential roles for the human body. We know that they turn certain undigested foods into nutrients we need, for example fibre into some essential fatty acids, but they actually have many more roles than just that!

To get an idea of the importance of the gut bacterias on our health, in 2017 during the “Microbiota for Health World Summit” in Paris, with more than 400 scientists presenting the latest researches, the famous “you are what you eat” was proposed to be updated by “you are what your gut microbes do with what you eat". Right, that means a lot!

Some examples of the topics presented during these conferences are: gut-brain communication,

the use of certain probiotics to improve depression,

the proposal of new therapies based on diet,

and the balance of the gut microbe for autoimmune conditions, obesity, behavioural problems, intolerances, or IBS. You can read more here [1].

Everyone has a different and unique bacteria population, like a fingerprint, and those differences can actually make someone more or less prone to develop certain diseases. And this uniqueness is such, that some studies even suggest that identifying people from their microbiome data could be feasible! [2].

In any case, whatever your fingerprint is, you can still do a lot to improve it!

So, which factors determine this flora? Its composition is established during the first years of life in children and tends to stay fairly stable, but it also change by dietary and lifestyle factors.

The process of colonisation of the gut by microorganisms starts at the moment of birth, not before. Even the way the baby is delivered, by cesarean section or naturally, or whether it is breastfed or not, will define the number and types of gut bacterias. The early years are crucial for the prevention of future possible problems, but again, it doesn’t matter what your age is, it is always possible to make it better!

As a general rule, include in your diet enough variety of fats, fibre, and some probiotics like yogurt or kefir. And to learn more about how food affects the gut, you can watch this 5-minute video by Dr Shilpa Ravella.

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