If you want a healthy gut, you need to feed it well. A balanced diet should include both probiotics and prebiotics – two nutrients that are increasingly recognized as essential for your gut and overall health, says Teresa Fung, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Recently there has been much discussion about the need to consume probiotics – microorganisms that live in foods such as yoghurt and fermented vegetables. Probiotics boost your gut microbiome, the collection of around 100 trillion bacteria and other factors that live in the gut. Having a healthy microbiome can help develop a healthy immune system and reduce inflammation in the body. Regular consumption of probiotics can also help prevent the intestinal environment from being “overrun” by unhealthy bacteria, which have been linked to various health issues such as mood disorders, obesity, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.
But probiotics are like pets, says Fung. “It’s not enough to get one, you also have to take care of it,” she says. This means feeding the population of microorganisms with prebiotics – food, that is, that will help all those desirable gut inhabitants to grow and thrive in your digestive system.
A better understanding of your gut
To understand how to keep your gut environment healthy, it is important to understand how it works. Each one has a unique mix of microorganisms living inside it. Some of them come from your mother and are passed on to you during pregnancy, childbirth and possibly breastfeeding. Others are added through the food you eat and your environment.
Probiotics found in fermented foods and drinks – such as yogurt, cheese, kefir, and sauerkraut – can add desirable organisms to your gut. But not all varieties of these foods have probiotics – it depends on how they are processed. Sometimes foods containing natural probiotics are cooked or heated, killing the microorganisms and any potential health benefits, Fung points out.
So, “probiotic consumption should be regular,” says Fung. However, research has not yet determined what the ideal frequency is. Try adding them to one or more daily meals for greater benefit. For example, have a yoghurt smoothie for breakfast or add sauerkraut to your sandwich at lunch.
The need for prebiotics
Even if you eat a lot of foods containing probiotics, you won’t benefit from them if your gut environment doesn’t allow them to thrive, Fung says. Research has shown that a traditional Western diet – high in fat, sugar and animal meat – creates a toxic environment for healthy microbes and can even change the ratio of different types of bacteria in your body.
What the beneficial bacteria love, says Fung, is the fibre. When the fibre enters your digestive system, enzymes from the microbiome help break it down, producing substances called short-chain fatty acids. Experts believe that having more of these fatty acids changes the pH in your gut, making it less hospitable to certain harmful types of microorganisms.
Some good prebiotic options are beans and whole grains, from oats to wheat. Vegetables and fruits also contain healthy fibre. Other good prebiotic sources include garlic, bananas, onions, asparagus and seaweed.
