Did you know that upto 70% of our immune system is in our GUT ?
The gut microbiota contains - 10 of trillions of microorganisms - including at least a thousand different species of known bacteria - Probiotics.
These Probiotics help restore - good bacteria of our gut and support natural immune defences of gut.
The gut microbiota composition is unique to each individual.
“Our gut is home to our ‘second brain’.
With neurotransmitters embedded throughout the enteric nervous system.
Ninety percent of nerve fibres in the enteric nervous system go from the gut to the brain .
So when we have a gut feeling about something.
That’s your gut talking directly to our brain !
LOVE YOUR GUT EVERYDAY.
Easy ways to help support our gut health !
Our gut health plays an important role in your overall wellbeing, and luckily there are a number of simple things you can do to improve it.
Our gut might spend a decent blob of its time digesting the food eaten by you but the reality is, its role in your day-to-day life is much more complex than that.
For one thing, something called the enteric nervous system, also known as the ‘second brain’ of our body , lives in our gut.
Intrigued ? Find out what it means for our health, and how to look after our gut.
Why does gut health matter so much?
In a nutshell, our gut health can affect everything from how well we cope with stress, to our mood and even how easily we lose weight.
How ? It turns out the 2nd brain that lives in our gut contains 100’s of millions of neurons and around twenty five different neurotransmitters. In fact it’s thought that 95 % of the body’s supply of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that contributes to happiness, is produced by the gut rather than the brain.
It’s long been known that the brain can send signals to the gut, that is why stress and other emotions can often affect our digestive health.
However, it’s a 2 way street: our gut sends signals to the brain, which is 1 explanation for the role gut health plays in so many other areas of wellbeing and health.
Gut health facts
Which foods improve gastrointestinal or gut health?
A variety of different foods can help to improve our gut health, but they all have one thing in common: they do it by positively affecting the bacteria that live there. And it’s our gut bacteria – both the type and diversity – that are key.
Not only do they influence the production of the neurotransmitters that live in our 2nd brain, they also generate chemicals that send signals to our ‘head brain’.
Eating more of the five foods listed below is a good place to start to support our gut health.
- Asparagus - It contains a fibre called fructooligosaccharide (FOS), that’s a natural prebiotic, stimulating the bacteria production in the large intestine that boost immunity of the intestines.
- Firm bananas - These are the good sources of resistant starch, which, like fructooligosaccharide (FOS) , resists digestion in the small intestine so it’s able to feed the good bacteria living in the large bowel
- Pistachios - Eating a small serving every day not only helps modifying the composition of gut bacteria, it increases the volume of a specific type of bacteria that produce a fatty acid which helps protect the bowel’s lining
- Sauerkraut - It delivers a hit of probiotics to our digestive system. Probiotics are live bacteria that help to restore a healthy balance to bacterial population of our gut.
- Chickpeas - These contain galacto-oligosaccharides – or GOS ( another type of prebiotic fibre) – that travels through the gut and stimulates the activity and growth of good bacteria.
What else improves gut health?
As well as diet, there are other things we can do to improve our gut health. Getting plenty of good quality sleep and doing some regular physical activity can help .
We can learn more about how to make those and other lifestyle changes work best for our gut health by following 1 of our Action Plans, whether we’d like to supercharge our digestive system in seven days or more gradually, over four weeks.
Click the link below to Know about best gut health supplements.
