8 ways to Heal your Gut microbiome

Is your gut making you sick? Improve your digestive system’s microbiome to heal your whole body

Your microbiome needs a reset if…

• You have taken antibiotics or antacids

• Eat processed foods (like fast food) and sugar

• Consume artificial sweeteners

• Your diet lacks fiber

• You don’t eat or supplement with probiotics

Your microbiome is the organisms and bacteria that live in your digestive tract (and entire body) and lay the foundation for your health. There are trillions of microorganisms in your gut alone and an imbalance in these organisms can lead to huge health disturbances – weight gain, poor immune function, indigestion, and depression and anxiety.

Your gut microbiome plays a role in:

• Overall health

• Digestion

• Immune system

• Inflammation

• Weight

• Appetite

• Mood

• A dysfunctional microbiome has also been linked to autoimmune disease.

Check out these top tips on how to improve your microbiome. Your microbiome is made up of beneficial (good) organisms and not so good ones. What is important is the balance between the two. You need A LOT of good bacteria, but you also want those bacteria to be diverse in type and species. The more diversity your microbiome has, the more protected you are against immune dysfunction and allergies.

Here’s how to improve your microbiome and increase the beneficial bacteria while getting rid of the bad guys.

1.       Avoid sugar and processed foods. Sugar feeds bacteria, and not the good kind. Processed foods have this same effect and so the more of these foods that you eat, the more you disrupt your microbiome and health. Avoiding processed foods and sugar helps give the beneficial organisms time to flourish and diversify, and stops feeding the harmful bacteria.

2.       Eat naturally fermented foods. Naturally fermented foods such as kimchi and sauerkraut have good probiotics in them that occur naturally through the fermentation process. These help repopulate your gut with the good guys, which will help crowd out the bad guys.

3.       Supplement with probiotics. A high quality probiotic supplement can help repopulate the good bacteria in your digestive tract. Supplementing with a probiotic can help decrease bloating and gas by increasing the number of beneficial bacteria. This helps decrease the bad bacteria as well by crowding them out. This is especially important (during and) after taking antibiotics and other medications (over-the-counter antacids like Tums and prescriptions like Prilosec) that alter your microbiome, as well as after surgery. Antibiotics are not selective in which organisms they kill off and so a round of antibiotics will end up killing off the beneficial and harmful organisms in your digestive tract. Repopulate the good with probiotics to make sure you aren’t left without any good organisms after taking antibiotics.

4.       Ditch the antacids. Antacids don’t kill off your microbiome, but they do decrease your stomach acid which allows the bad guys to flourish. Your stomach acid is designed to help you break down the food you eat, and also keep the bacteria in your gut balanced. Antacids, especially long term, prevent both of these functions from occurring and what you end up with is poorly digested food with an overgrowth of bad bacteria. If you are struggling with digestion and often turn to antacids (or have been prescribed Prilosec or another prescription antacid by your doctor), check out this article on indigestion to help you ditch the antacids and heal your digestive tract naturally.

5.       Avoid artificial sweeteners. Somehow artificial sweeteners became a good thing in the eyes of the public, providing us with a no sugar option to our favorite junk foods like soda. Artificial sweeteners are not beneficial to our health and we are much better off avoiding soda, or drinking them very seldomly rather than consuming one with artificial sweeteners on the regular. Artificial sweeteners can promote harmful bacteria growth in our digestive tract and do nothing to help the beneficial bacteria. It also impacts your blood sugar in much the same way as consuming sugar does, which means that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners promotes insulin resistance (which can lead to type II diabetes) just like the regular consumption of sugar does. Ditch the artificial sweeteners and “diet” and “sugar-free” products ASAP to help your restore microbiome to its optimal condition. 

6.       Eat plenty of fiber. Fiber helps keep your digestive tract moving. It also feeds the good bacteria in your gut to maintain a healthy and diverse balance of flora. A lack of fiber can lead to constipation and increased inflammation in your digestive tract. Your best sources of fiber are a variety of vegetables and fruits. Increased fiber intake is also associated with decreased cardiovascular events, diabetes, colorectal cancer, and overall mortality.

a.      Eat Inulin. Never heard of it? You’re not alone. While it doesn’t get talked about a lot, inulin is a prebiotic fiber found in plants that we commonly consume, such as garlic, onion, leeks, artichoke, and asparagus. (It can also be found in supplement form). Prebiotics help feed the beneficial bacteria in your body which means that your probiotics require prebiotics to flourish and repopulate your gut. Making sure you get enough inulin can help decrease inflammation, decrease blood sugar, help your weight and keep your gut healthy by feeding the beneficial bacteria and giving your probiotics the fuel they need to do their very important job. An added bonus: inulin helps increase calcium absorption.

 Caution: if you notice worsening of your symptoms by eating foods with inulin, you may need to do some more groundwork on balancing your gut microbiome before adding inulin in as it can sometimes feed more than just the beneficial bacteria.

7.       Eat a diverse diet. Your body needs a diverse population of beneficial bacteria to thrive and the best way to support this is with a diverse diet. Different bacteria species feed off of different nutrients and so eating a variety of foods will allow multiple species to get what they need from your diet. We often get stuck eating the same foods over and over, whether that is because it’s easy or because we aren’t feeling particularly food adventurous. However, this doesn’t help diversify our microbiome, or the nutrients we are getting. So get adventurous and try some new foods in your diet!

8.       Eat organic and local. Eating organic provides you with nutrient dense food without the pesticides and toxins that can build up in your body. This means more nutrient absorption and better fuel for your gut and its bacteria. Our bodies are designed to eat what is currently in season where we live. Eating local helps you eat a variety of meat and produce by getting only what is available at that time of year. Shopping at local farmer’s markets is a great way to see what is in season in your local area. (At bigger grocery stores, what is in season is often what is on sale because they have more of it than they would in off-season times and so they discount it to sell more volume.)

Support and feed your digestive system and its bacteria well to cultivate your body’s microbiome and it will treat you well in return.

Contact us to see how Dr. Sahni can help you rebalance your gut microbiome with a personalized treatment plan for your specific body.

Resources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/science/food-fiber-microbiome-inflammation.html

Uptodate

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/03/07/inulin-health-benefits.aspx

Abrams SA1, Hawthorne KM, Aliu O, Hicks PD, Chen Z, Griffin IJ. An inulin-type fructan enhances calcium absorption primarily via an effect on colonic absorption in humans. J Nutr. 2007 Oct;137(10):2208-12.