Gut Health

Technically speaking gut health is the physical state and function of the gastrointestinal system. It plays a pretty key role in our lives, not only does it break down food to provide our bodies with nutrients and energy but a healthy gut also helps us to fight off infections. In recent years gut health has also been linked to emotional stress levels and chronic illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes, so it’s clear it’s important to keep a healthy gut. Here we look at intolerances and food allergies before examining how we can understand our gut health and keep it healthy.

The rise of food allergies and intolerances

Firstly, food allergies and intolerances are very different but we are grouping them here for a reason. A food allergy causes an immune system reaction that affects numerous organs in the body and can be serve enough to be life-threating. A food intolerance can cause similar symptoms to an allergy but are usually less serious than those caused by an allergy and often solely linked to digestive problems.

This often causes confusion and so it’s difficult to trust the stats on the rise of food allergies, however Kari Nadeau, an allergy specialist from Stanford University, has stated that the rate of food allergies worldwide has increased from around 3% of the population in 1960 to around 7% in 2018.

So what's causing the rise? There are many theories in this area as to why we are seeing this rise, such as less vitamin D in our lifestyles, and the level of bacteria we are now exposed to. However, the one we are focusing on here is the theory that your gut has to be exposed to and generate different types of microorganisms and healthy bacteria.

There is evidence that the more antibiotics a child is given, the more likely they are to develop a food allergy because antibiotics kill healthy bacteria as well as the infection they are treating. Healthy bacteria are is used by your gut to help process different types of foods. It is therefore shown that a healthy gut is one that promotes healthy bacteria.

Tips for understanding your gut health

So we have touched on what gut health is and why it’s important, but how can we get an understanding of our own gut health and what should we be looking after? Without in depth medical testing it is hard to get a true picture of our gut health but there are signs which can indicate an unhealthy gut:

  1. Upset stomach: let’s not go in to the detail, we all know the symptoms but an upset stomach can be a sign that our gut is having difficulty processing and absorbing food.
  2. A high sugar diet: there have been studies that link a diet containing high refined sugar to a decrease in the amount of good bacteria in our diets, which can increase the level of inflammation in the body.
  3. Constant fatigue: this comes two fold, first the majority of our serotonin, a hormone that effects mood and sleep, is produced in our gut. So an unhealthy gut can cause us issues sleeping and lead to fatigue. Equally an unhealthy gut will have difficultly digesting the nutrients and vitamins in our food and therefore decrease our energy levels.
  4. Autoimmune conditions: there is growing research that an unhealthy gut can impact the function of our immune system, leading to our body attacking itself and causing autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and coeliac disease.
  5. Weight changes: an impact of something we have already touched on but an unhealthy gut can lead to unintentional weight changes. An unhealthy gut can limit the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, regulate bloody sugar and store fat. All of these can cause both weight gain and weight loss.

How to manage your gut health

Now we know signs of poor gut health and the importance of a healthy gut, here are some tips that can help improve your gut health through diet and lifestyle:

1. Eat a varied diet: as we mentioned, it’s important to get some good bacteria into your gut. One of the ways you can do this is eating a diverse range of foods. A diverse range of food type can lead to more diverse microbiomes in your gut and this is healthy!

2. Reduce stress levels: high levels of stress can take its toll on your body physically as well as mentally, and research shows links between stress and gastrointestinal problems. Lowering your stress levels can lead to a healthier gut.

3. Prebiotics: foods known as prebiotics promote the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut. They can be found in foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains. They are also known to reduce insulin and cholesterol, which helps your overall health.

4. Diet change: there are some simple changes to your diet that can promote good gut health, such as reducing the level of processed high sugar or high fat foods that you eat and getting back to whole foods. Increasing the level of fibre in your diet is also key and research has shown that a high fibre diet contributes significantly to healthy gut microbiome.