Our bodies are homes to trillions of tiny microscopic organisms constituting at least 2 kilograms of our total body weight, majority of which are teeming inside our gut, and of which around 90% are bacteria. These microorganisms collectively constitute our microbiota, and there is absolutely nothing to worry about them as they are not the germs that make you fall sick. In fact, the ones that I am talking about are the good bacteria that help us stay healthy. If we keep our gut bacteria in good shape, we can save ourselves from diabetes, heart diseases, and even cancer. Read on to know more.
How Acquiring a Healthy Microbiota Early On In Life Shapes Our Health?
Let’s start from the start- from the day a baby is born. The first thing a mother does, after delivering her baby, is that she embraces her baby. She does so out of affection. But there is some science that comes into play when she does so. Embracing is especially important as it transfers a vital set of microbes from the mother to the baby by body contact (FYI: babies are not born sterile; the source of a baby’s first set of microbes is the mother’s birth canal in case of a natural delivery). The next vital thing that a mother does is that she breastfeeds her baby. This is another important step for the baby’s good health. It is believed that a litre of human breastmilk contains about a billion (a hundred crore i.e. 1,000,000,000) of good microorganisms that make their way to the baby’s gut. Once these good microbes establish themselves in the baby’s gut, they start playing key roles in keeping the baby healthy and happy. That is why mother’s milk is considered so important for the babies. Also, it is particularly important for all breastfeeding mothers to have a healthy diet, as this ultimately effects the microbiota in her breastmilk. In a study, scientists have found that if breastfeeding mothers eat high-fat diet, the babies will have an imbalanced microbiota. Needless to say, a balanced diet is extremely important for all.
Ways to Maintain and Strengthen a Healthy Microbiota
All diseases begin in the gut.
Hippocrates, Ancient Greek Physician
The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, quoted some 2500 years ago- “All diseases begin in the gut.” Hippocrates was right! Now we know for sure that our gut is a much more advanced and multifunctional system than merely being a centre for digestion in our body. An unhealthy gut can lead to various diseases such as obesity, (type 2) diabetes and heart disorders. As this post is all about microbiota, may be you have guessed it by now that there is a direct link of an unhealthy gut and gut-associated disorders with the millions of bacteria living in our gut (the gut microbiota) that team-up together to keep our digestive system heathy. That’s because not all our gut bacteria are good; we have the bad ones too. Studies have linked a number of metabolic and autoimmune disorders to an imbalance in the gut microbiota that occurs when the bad ones outnumber the good ones. Our gut can be happy and healthy only when the good and the bad bacteria in our gut are in a good balance. What we eat can either balance or imbalance our gut microbiota and, thereby, decide the fate of our health and wellbeing.
There is an extremely simple, yet exceptionally effective practice that all of us can follow to keep our good gut bacteria happy, and that is
EAT DIETARY FIBRES.
According to the FDA, an adult should eat at least 25 g of dietary fibre per day.
An excerpt from the current article
What are dietary fibres? And where can we get them from?
Dietary fibres, also called PREBIOTICS, are the food for the beneficial bacteria that live in our gut. Don’t get confused here with ‘Probiotics‘ which are foods that contain health-promoting live microorganisms in it, such as fermented beans, yoghurt, fermented vegetables, and those are very good for our digestive system. But Prebiotics are different from ‘Probiotics’. ‘Probiotics’ are live microbes good for the gut, while ‘prebiotics’ are the food for the good gut microbes. Chemically, prebiotics or dietary fibres are long-chain polysaccharides (long chain of simple sugars) that our gut microbes love to devour on. In return the microbes produce a substance called short-chain fatty acids or SCFAs in short. These substances are the main source of nutrition for the cells in the lining of our intestine. Scientists believe that SCFAs play important roles in many diseases. SCFAs in our gut can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, and even cancer. It may all sound a bit complicated, but believe me it’s not. Simply put, dietary fibres are the indigestible part of the plant foods, and all you need to do is to eat lots and lots of fruits, veggies, beans and grains to take care of your dietary fibre requirements. According to the FDA, an adult should eat at least 25 g of dietary fibre per day. To meet this requirement, at least 50% of your food should be fruits, vegetables and salads. If we eat enough amount of dietary fibres, on a daily basis, our gut bacteria will be happy, and they will keep our digestive system on track.
Be Mindful: Too much of anything is bad!
It is important to keep our gut bacteria healthy and happy by providing them the food they love so that they can keep us healthy and happy. However, eating a good amount of dietary fibres doesn’t mean that we don’t have to worry about other nutrients. Although dietary fibres are very important and can reduce the risk of many diseases, other nutrients are important as well. Every nutrient has its own importance. Nevertheless, we should also be mindful that eating too much of any one kind of nutrient can also effect our gut microbiota. For example, proteins are very important in building the muscles of our body but eating too much protein can increase the number of protein eating bacteria in our gut. Scientists have found that people who eat a lot of animal proteins but less dietary fibres have more protein-eating bacteria in their blood. These bacteria produce some toxic substances. One of these substances is Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). TMAO is known to induce heart diseases.
Eating a balanced diet with a good amount of vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains will provide good food for our bacterial friends living in our gut. Now you know the key to keeping our gut microbiota healthy and happy.
Are you consuming enough dietary fibres in a day? Let me know in the comments.
In the upcoming blog posts, I will be discussing a lot more about scientifically evidenced ways to stay healthy…so stay tuned!
– Your ScienceBuddy Arohi
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