You’re probably aware that taking probiotics is involved with your gut health. Well, the roles that the bacteria in your gut that probiotics nourish has gotten even more exciting.
First of all, here are some amazing numbers for you to be aware of. This microbiome, which is located in your large intestines, is composed of 100 trillion bacteria, fungi and other organisms – you read that right, it’s TRILLIONS. These microbes weigh a total of 5 pounds and about 85% of them are beneficial to your health.
Here’s the even more fascinating part. The role of the microbiome has been expanding. It now plays an enormous role in determining things you would never have connected to these microbes. Things, such as, your heart health, brain health, weight, longevity, bone fragility, level of happiness, your level of self-esteem, stress levels, risk of alcoholism, how well you sleep and even how likely you are to fall in love!
When you don’t feed and nurture your gut’s bacteria properly you can wind up with the good bacteria declining and the unhealthy bacteria, fungi and other organisms beginning to take over. This takeover can lead to chronic inflammation.
Let’s explore a couple of the benefits further.
One study with 54 sets of twins found that the twin with the most variety in their microbiome were less likely to be overweight or obese.
Improving gut microbes might even prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.
People in Japan who lived to 100 and older had healthier and more diverse microbiome than younger adults.
The way these good bacteria flourish is based on how we feed them. Unfortunately, most of us who have pets probably feed them better than we feed ourselves.
Instead, we eat a lot of processed foods that don’t even make it to the large intestines. Instead, these processed foods are absorbed in our stomach and small intestines. The number of calories we consume from processed foods is now around 60% of our diet.
We are literally starving our microbiome!
To feed your beneficial bacteria, you want to be eating fiber rich foods, plus even more importantly you also want to be eating a variety of foods. Researchers have found the greater the variety of plants in your diet, the healthier your microbiome.
As a matter of fact, those with the healthiest microbiome were eating at least 30 different types of plants in the form of vegetables, whole grains, fruit, nuts, seeds and legumes each week. The reason for this is simple, different microbes like different foods. While 30 is a lot, some experts say to at least aim for 20 different plants every day.
The best way to do this is to track what you’re eating to see the numbers you’re reaching.
The interesting thing is you can change your microbiome pretty fast for better or worse.
If you’ve been reading my blurbs recently, you know in February I was in the hospital fighting pneumonia and the flu that I had. I got a lot of antibiotics in the hospital and then at home 4 times every 24 hours for 21 days.
There’s a company that I’ve been using for a number of years that analyses your microbiome and then makes up a capsule to feed them so that your beneficial bacteria will flourish.
A couple of weeks after I finished my antibiotic treatments, I sent them a poop sample to analyze since I knew that antibiotics kill the beneficial bacteria. And when I got the results back, that’s what it showed. I had dropped from having a great abundance of beneficial bacteria to having almost none while the bad bacteria and fungi had increased but not to dangerous levels.
They sent me a new formula to take. I’m finishing taking the capsules for the first month and in another 3 months I’ll have another poop analysis done. I’m aiming to get the good guys back up in numbers!
So, if you want to explore what this company does, you can go to www.Flore.com.
(Reported AARP Bulletin, May 2024)
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