What’s up with your microbiome?
An image of the ocean leaving pools in the rocks. It reminded me of our flourishing gut bacteria.
Our microbiome is just as diverse and can thrive just as much as these sea creatures if we let it.
This word seems to be popping up everywhere lately. From the microbiome of your skin to your gut to the dirt that you food is planted and grown in, its everywhere. The first thing to know about it is that is a group of bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi that coexist peacefully mainly in the gut. It helps our digestion, keeps our immune system strong and can even improve our emotional well-being.
This only works though if you feed the gut with the right bacteria, meaning the right type of food and probiotic enzymes must be consumed. This brings in the right vitamins and minerals and probiotics that can help break down the food as well. Consistently eating foods with little to no nutritional value will decrease the amount of good bacteria in the gut and therefore lower your immune response, and can even affect your mood and skin as everything is connected through the gut-brain-skin axis. Good things to eat are probiotic rich foods including yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso and more. It basically includes any fermented food that you can think of that has a bunch of the good bacteria your tummy thrives off of. It is also equally important to eat prebiotic rich foods as well which include whole grains, bananas, quinoa, onions, garlic, and much more. It is basically foods high in fiber which is necessary “food” of the gut bacteria provided by the probiotics. Both are equally important for optimum functioning.
So key takeaways from this tiny article are: take care of your gut microbiome as it can impact you in more ways than you know from your digestion, to your skin, immune health and mental health.