Microbiome Diversity is Great for Gut Health
"I struggled with crippling digestive health issues for most of my life. It was only until I learnt about gut health that things started to change." - Anonymous
The gut microbiome is the collection of microbes that live in your gut. They equate human cells approx. 1 to 1. They're responsible for much of how we look, think and feel. There are many different species of microbial cells and they differ from person to person like a finger print.
Research has shown that higher diversity in the gut microbiome is linked to better health outcomes. Whilst it is common to find lower levels of diversity in people who are suffering from digestive health issues, such as IBS and Crohns disease. Many diseased states are correlative to an imbalances in the microbiome. These include diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's, autism, cancer and many others.
The combination of species that you have in your gut are influenced by environment, diet and lifestyle. One way to increase microbial diversity in the gut is to focus on diet. If your diet is restrictive, it's likely that you're restricting the ability of some import species to thrive .
We recommend eating the rainbow with 30 - 40 different plant foods incorporating different colours each week. The fibre and nutrients you'll find in plant foods will help to encourage different types of bacteria to thrive.
Eating fermented food is a great way to introduce good bacteria, primarily lactobacilli and beneficial metabolites (postbiotics) into your gut. Examples of postbiotics are digestive enzymes, short chain fatty acids, vitamins and many more. We recommend eating as many different fermented foods as you can in each meal. Milk kefir, water kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi are all great.
Which is your favourite? here's why we love milk kefir:
Did you know fermented foods are very easy and economical to make at home with our fermentation kits. We have a community of 8000+ members in our Gut Health gurus Facebook group to help you on your journey.
Join our community here:
With Gratitude, Grace and Love
Namaste
Kriben Govender
Nourishme Organics
Instagram: @kribengovender
Facebook: @kribengee
