The gut microbiome is a complex ecosystem of microbes in your digestive tract. It is made of trillions of beneficial bacteria that are essential for our health.
Most of the gut microbiome is in the last part of the digestive system called the colon (large intestine). There are 1000s of species of bacteria that make our microbiome, and they have very important jobs
Your gut microbiome communicates with your brain via the ‘gut-brain axis’. So what you eat affects this communication pathway and therefore your mental wellbeing.
Here are ten top tips for giving your gut microbiome the foods that it needs to thrive. Many of these foods contain 'prebiotic' fibres which encourage the health of the microbiome:
✓Aim for at least five servings of vegetables a day - raw, cooked, fresh or frozen.
One serving = 1 cup of raw vegetables e.g. lettuce, tomato or carrot
OR = 1⁄2 cup cooked vegetables
✓ Aim for two servings of fruit a day, ideally with the skin on.
One serving = 1 piece of fruit e.g., banana, apple, orange or 2 smaller fruits e.g., apricots, plums or kiwifruits or 1 cup fruit salad, grapes or berries
✓ Switch to whole grains
Opt for whole grain bread, brown rice/pasta, whole grain breakfast cereals, oats, quinoa instead of low fibre cereals
✓ Make water your drink of choice
Aim for at least 8 to 10 glasses each day
✓ Eat more legumes
Eat daily - beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas
✓ Have a serving of nuts each day
One serving is a small handful (30g)
✓ Focus on healthy fats
Cook with extra virgin olive oil, eat oily fish such as salmon/mackeral/sardines 2-3 times a week.
✓ Include food that contain live beneficial bacteria
Yogurt and Kefir. Check the label, it should state the type of bacterial strain e.g. lactobacillus or bifidobacterium. Other foods that contain live bacteria include aged cheese, 'raw' vinegar, unpasturised saurkraut/kimchi.
✓ Flavour food with herbs and spices - dried or fresh
✓ Diversity - the more variety of all of the above foods you can get, the healthier and more diverse your gut microbiome will be.
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