Last week, we discussed intermittent fasting, and today, we’re diving into an equally fascinating and crucial topic in Lifestyle Medicine: our gut microbiome. This complex world inside us is often called the “second brain,” and understanding it is key to unlocking optimal health.
I recently had the pleasure of sharing my perspective and knowledge on this subject in an exclusive session, and I want to share the key takeaways about our internal ecosystem—and why we need to be kinder to our tiny, powerful friends.
🏞️ The Gut: Our Internal National Park
I believe the gut microbiome is the most wonderful ecosystem I have ever seen. Forget just thinking of your gut as an organ that digests food; think of it as a vast, thriving National Park.
This park is filled with trillions of small microbial beings—bacteria, fungi, and viruses—all living in harmony and helping one another. This internal ecosystem is a part of your body’s larger ecosystem (which also includes your respiratory system and skin). Essentially, the function of these microbes is to keep us healthy. They help with everything we do—from providing ATP for energy to working with our brain. I want to be clear: we are living because of them.
🧠The Second Brain: A Constant Conversation
You may have heard the term “second brain.” This refers to the fact that there are more neurons in our gut than in the brain itself. This is why we have a constant Gut-Brain Cross Talk.
Our gut is connected to our brain in multiple ways:
- Neuronal Pathways
- Hormonal Pathways
- Microbial Metabolites
- Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs)
These systems continuously communicate, and the health of your microbiome directly influences your brain function. Your mood, your happiness, your sadness, and even your wonderful ideas are all dependent on your gut microbiome.
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🌱 Nurturing Your Tiny Friends
If your gut microbes are your helpers and friends, our primary job is simple: feed them and don’t harm them.
We must change our perspective—they are not simply bacteria and viruses, they are our essential protectors. To look after them, you must:
1. Feed Them What They Love (Fiber!)
If you eat burgers, processed foods, and meats, your friendly creatures will die. They are wonderful friends who will not survive on bad food. Their preferred food is fiber, which comes from fruits and vegetables. We need to be consistent—if you are hungry every day, your friends are hungry every day, so you must feed them a satisfying quantity daily.
This reminds me of the powerful saying that what we eat can be the most wonderful medicine or the worst, slowest killing poison.
2. Understand Your Fiber
Fiber is not all the same. The two main types work together to clean and nourish your gut:
- Insoluble Fiber: This is the roughage that acts like a broom. It literally sweeps your gut from your esophagus to your anus, carrying away waste and keeping the environment clean.
- Soluble Fiber: This is the fiber that swells up and acts like a sponge. As it moves through your gut, it holds water and absorbs things like sugar, cholesterol, and toxins, expelling them from the body.
When microbes digest these fibers, they produce Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs). These SCFAs are their food, but they are also crucial for our bodily functions, including maintaining the health of our gut lining.
3. Don’t Harm Them
The worst things you can expose your microbial friends to are toxins and pollutants.
- Processed Foods: High fat, high oil, and salty processed foods ignore and harm your friends.
- Antibiotics: We often run to take an antibiotic pill for a little cough or cold, but this action “will kill your fellows”. We are being unkind to our protectors for a minor symptom.
- Artificial Sweeteners: These are straight-up toxins for your gut microbiome. My guidance is clear: rely on natural sources like a Stevia leaf from the plant, not a packaged, synthetic product.
đź’Ą The Cost of Disruption: Disbiosis
When you don’t feed your friends fiber, the delicate balance is destroyed, leading to a condition called disbiosis. If this continues for a long time, it leads to widespread inflammation.
This isn’t restricted to your gut—inflammatory markers will flow through your blood to everywhere, manifesting as:
- Joint Pain
- Headaches
- Mood Instability
- Muscle Pain
When you have these seemingly unrelated symptoms, it’s a good time to ask yourself: “Did I really eat well? What was the fun I had during my previous lunch where I ignored my vegetables?”
🎯 It’s Your Health Destiny
I call the gut microbiome’s influence our Health Destiny. Every meal, every habit—even something like a jet lag or poor sleep—can change your microbiome composition within a few hours.
We have the power to change our destiny, not just through our genes, but through our lifestyle. You can always change your environment and epigenome with a healthy gut, healthy microbial environment, and a healthy external environment.
Being healthy is cheap; being ill is expensive. We must commit to having the empathy and knowledge to do justice to our little fellows.
đź’ˇ Need to Improve Your Gut Health?
- Eat the Rainbow: Aim for variety! Eating a diverse range of fruits and vegetables (more than 30 plants a week, which is easy to achieve in Sri Lanka with our local greens!) ensures you get all vitamins, phytonutrients, and a variety of fibers.
- Food Over Pills: Don’t replace whole foods with probiotic pills. Nature provides the best “little packages” (buy one, get one free) that include adequate soluble fiber, insoluble fiber, and all the vitamins needed. Synthetic pills can’t replicate that.
- Combat Bloating: If you find fiber causes bloating, don’t stop! Instead, increase fluid intake, increase fiber gradually, and try cooking vegetables at first, as this makes fiber easier for bacteria to break down. Also, exercise and relaxation techniques are immensely valuable for reducing bloating.
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