You wont just feel it in your gut. You’ll see it in your clear glowing skin and sparkly eyes. You’ll feel in rockstar energy. Your brain will have razor sharp focus. And you’ll even feel it in your moods as happy-go-lucky becomes your new baseline.
Microbiome Foods?
What are “Microbiome Foods”?
They’re foods that help your microbiome.
What’s your Microbiome?
In short, your bugs. Your bugs that live in your gut aka digestive system.
…before we go there though…
If you have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) or even any digestive symptoms such as bloating, constipation or food intolerances, please either reach out to me, or organise yourself a SIBO Test, before going gung ho with any of the recommendations in this blog post.
SIBO = Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth and is present in up to 84% of people with IBS symptoms. I wrote a blog post on it here: “What is SIBO and is it the reason you’re bloated?” If you have SIBO you HAVE to clear it first before doing a lot of what I am about to go through.
If you go straight to increasing your bacteria and you have SIBO you could actually make it worse. A lot worse.
Test here.
Meet Your Microbiome
Today I spent all day at the “Meet your Microbiome” workshop with Dr Jason Hawrelak.
9 hours on a Sunday and I was buzzing after! Literally could’ve stayed for another 9.
Dr Hawrelak is a Tasmania based Naturopath, Probiotic Researcher and Lecturer. He is one of the leading experts in the world on Gut Health and our gut microbiome.
I’m a HUGE fan.
This is the second time I have seen Jason present (secured a front row seat each time), and I also had a personal consultation with him back when I was dealing with my SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) a few years ago.
What’s the Microbiome?
We have a few microbiomes. The one I am going to talk about today is our Gut Microbiome…aka the one in our digestive system.
(we also have one on our skin, in our ears, in our eyes, in our biliary tract, and for the ladies in our vaginal canal, uterus and placenta).
The more diversity we have in our microbiome the better.
How do we get diversity in our gut microbiome?
By eating a diverse range of plant based whole foods.
I’m not saying you have to be vegan. I’m not even saying you have to be vegetarian. I personally eat animal products and have even been known to go home to a steak for breakfast after a morning surf.
What I am saying is that whatever your style of eating you do need to make sure you are not just feeding yourself, but also your microbiome.
And the bugs in our guts feed off fermentable carbohydrates and pre-biotics.
Carbohydrates aren’t the devil like they’ve been made out to be lately. My diet is mostly LCHF (low carb high fat), but I still make sure that I get a variety of and enough carbohydrates.
(it’s not just your microbiome that will suffer, not enough carbohydrates can crash your adrenals and/or fry your nervous system).
We mostly think of bread and pasta when we hear “carbs”. But carbohydrates are plentiful in vegetables and fruits too.
Those are the ones I like.
What does our Microbiome do for us?
1. Modulates our Immune System
2. Regulates gut motility (keeps you pooping)
3. Improves our nutritional status (more vitamins and minerals for us)
4. Helps with weight management
5. Controls blood sugars and insulin sensitivity
6. Boosts mood (95% of our serotonin is produced in our gut!)
7. Helps control inflammation (different microbes increase our inflammatory load, while others have the ability to decrease)
As Unique as a Fingerprint
We each have around 160 different species in our Microbiome, and the make up is completely unique to the individual. Of those 160 different species, 30 – 40 make up the bulk of the ecosystem.
Jason reckons that they could scrape off the little microbes we leave on our laptop mouse pads from our skin microbiome and they’d be able to trace it back to the exact individual.
Cool.
Variety is the Spice of Life
What happens if we don’t have diversity in our Microbiome?
Lack of microbial diversity is associated with:
1. A higher risk for allergies and asthma in children
2. Obesity
3. Insulin Resistance (leading to Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes Type II)
4. High Cholesterol and Triglycerides
5. Systemic (body wide) Inflammation
So What to Eat for a Healthy Microbiome?
A rainbow coloured selection of plants.
I thought Jason explained it really well: Aim for 40 different whole plant foods each week.
You may be going, woah Kirsten! That’s a lot!
Not really when you break it down.
40 per week. That’s 6 per day (which would actually give you 42 per week). If you have 2 meals a day that’s only 3 different plants on your plate per meal. 3 meals a day, that’s just 2 per meal.
Totes doable.
And his rule of thumb is at least 1 teaspoon of something for it to count.
Ie. Half a teaspoon of cumin as seasoning wouldn’t. But 1 tablespoon of onion in your cooking would.
Let’s add more guidelines for the 40 per week:
1. Animal products don’t count (they don’t contain fermentable carbohydrates)
2. Protein powders don’t count (same reason)
3. Different varieties of the same (plant) food can count. Ie Granny Smith Apple, Golden Delicious Apple, Fuji Apple, Honey Crisp Apple etc….
4. The less processed the better
5. Go for a rainbow, we want multi-coloured whole plant foods
Specific Examples of Foods to Eat for a Healthy Microbiome
(you don’t need to concern yourself with the funny names, just aim for a variety from the different categories)
Resistant Starches
RS1: grains (buckwheat, sorghum), seeds and legumes
RS2: starchy foods including raw potatoes, plantains and green (unripe) bananas, legumes
RS3: formed when certain starchy foods are cooked, then cooled. Legumes, black beans, adzuki beans, red lentils, chick peas, kidney beans, peas (dried), faba beans
Polyphenols
– fruits: blackberries, black elderberries, black currants, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, plums, raspberries, apples (red), black grapes
– nuts & seeds: flaxseed meal, chestnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, black tahini
– vegetables: purple carrots, red carrots, purple/red potatoes, red cabbage, spinach, red onions, broccoli, carrots (orange), red lettuce
– grains: red rice, black rice, red and black quinoa, whole grain rye bread (sourdough)
– other: black olives & olive oil
Pre-biotic rich foods
FOS (fructooligosaccharides): Jerusalem artichokes, yacon tubers, burdock roots, chicory roots, dandelion roots, garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, globe artichokes
GOS (galactooligosaccharides): legumes, brassica-family vegetables, fresh beans, beetroot, rye sourdough (if gluten tolerated), sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds (pepitas), LSA mix
Pre-biotic like foods
Brown rice, carrots, black currants, dark cocoa, almonds (the skin), green tea
Gums
Acacia gum
Mucilages
Slippery Elm
Pectins
Peaches, apples, apricot, orange, grapefruit
Soluble & Insoluble Fibres
Partially Hydrolysed Guar Gum (PHGG), psyllium husk, psyllium seed, oats, legumes, lentils, flaxseeds
And the Non-Food things Recommended to Improve Microbiome Diversity:
Prebiotic supplements daily
Probiotic supplements and fermented foods (although these only temporarily improve the diversity – like 2 weeks).
Moderate exercise (too much can hurt just as much as too little)
Manage stress
Live on a farm and/or get into organic farming
What are the Prebiotic Supplements (& Their Dosages) recommended for a Healthy Microbiome:
Lactulose (syrup): at least 5ml per day
GOS (galacto oligo saccharide): at least 3g/day
FOS / Inulin: at leat 3 g per day
Partially Hydrolysed Guar Gum (PHGG): at least 5g per day
Testing
I like numbers.
I don’t always need them as I know what questions to ask and what signs to look for when taking a client’s case history.
But there’s a super cool test you can do through Ubiome that measures your microbiome diversity.
And it’s really affordable too.
I recommend getting the :”Gut Explorer – Time Lapse Kit”. It’s $199 for THREE kits. So then you can monitor your progress from your starting point.
If you’re going to go for the test I’d suggest ordering your kit(s), keep your diet and lifestyle the same, then literally as soon as you have put the lid on your test tube you can begin making some changes.
This gives you your “baseline”.
Another test (already mentioned in the beginning) that I highly recommend when working to heal digestive issues is the SIBO Test (with lactulose as the substrate, not lactose).
SIBO is so, so common. Not very well known about…yet!
Worth looking into if you can’t tolerate many foods without puffing out or getting brain fog.
Wrap up!
How’s your brain doing?
Summarising: to have a healthy, diverse, Microbiome:
1. Eat a rainbow of whole plant foods – 40 different types per week (over 1tsp of something counts)
2. Pre-biotic supplementation daily – lactulose seemed to do well for a lot of people. Can source easily in most pharmacies except for the States where you would need a prescription.
3. Exercise moderately – don’t be a couch potato, but don’t go too hardcore either while working on your gut.
4. Manage stress
5. If needed supplement with probiotics (the right strains for you)
Hope you found some nuggets in there. I really believe looking after your bugs is one of the best things you can do for your long term health.
I love our bugs!
Lots of love,
Kirsten
