Gut Feeling Part 2

In our last post, we were talking about different ways to help improve your gut health, and subsequently your overall, whole body health. We decided to add a few more easy tools for you. 

#4 Avoid Processed Foods 

Processed foods are rich in emulsifiers. Emulsifiers are additives that are put into foods to help ingredients combine into a more palatable manner. The issue with emulsifiers is they disrupt the lining of the GI tract. This disruption leads to full body, low grade inflammation which can lead to increases in body fat, higher blood sugar levels and insulin resistance which are all key markers for metabolic syndrome. Now this has only been shown in animal models, and started to be seen in humans but is too big of a risk to take in your own health. 

#5 Avoid Artificial Sweeteners 

Artificial sweeteners have been shown, in animal models, to disrupt the gut microbiome. This disruption can lead to a whole host of negative downstream consequences. A secondary, and equally impactful, issue with artificial sweeteners is the presence of specific neurons in the GI tract that can sense the presence of calories and nutrients or their absence in sweeteners. Since many artificial sweeteners have little to no calories, they change how the body responds, often craving more food in an effort to get the needed calories. 

#6 Don’t Over-Sanitize Your Environment 

Exposure to other microorganisms in your daily life is healthy for your body and immune system, keeping it educated and in balance. Over sanitization kills both health and unhealthy microbes leading to a drop in the resilience of the immune response. Many sanitizers also contain harsh chemicals that should not be in contact with skin and can disrupt hormone systems. However, it is important to practice proper health practices and avoid harmful disease causing pathogens. This is a gray area that requires good judgment. Some basic ideals are to go play outside, in the dirt, in the grass and with pets with other healthy people. Don’t eat food off of the sick kid's plate. This will help keep the immune system bolstered and your gut health resilient while not taking unnecessary risk. 

Our gut health is directly proportional to our overall health and subsequently our overall well being. Taking care of our gut is taking care of the very essence of ourselves. 

Chassaing, B., Koren, O., Goodrich, J. et al. Dietary emulsifiers impact the mouse gut microbiota promoting colitis and metabolic syndrome. Nature 519, 92–96 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14232

Suez, J., Korem, T., Zeevi, D. et al. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature 514, 181–186 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13793