New research shows your intestinal flora affects everything from your
weight to your happiness. Here's how to keep it healthy
Thanks to TV yoghurt ads and the many rows of mini probiotic drinks in
chiller cabinets, most of us are aware there’s a host of bacteria – many good,
some not so good – living in our guts. And with a recent flurry of diet
and lifestyle plans designed to improve health and control weight through
revamping your gut bacteria, it’s clear this is an area of science that’s
really catching the popular interest. But although we’ve known of the
existence of gut bacteria for several decades, science is only just starting to
grasp the full ramifications for your health – both body and mind. ‘We’re
just beginning to unravel the effects of our gut flora – or microbiome [the
genes of the microbial cells] – on health, and it’s very exciting,’ says Dr
Robynne Chutkan, gastroenterologist and author of the Microbiome Solution
(Avery, £17.87). ‘Everything from our weight to our cravings and even our mood
and immune system could be affected by what’s going on with the bacterial zoo
inside us.’
Your Five Step Plan
So how to promote more diversity, boost levels of good bugs and reap the
health, weight and wellbeing benefits? Here, distilled from the latest
research, is a practical five-step guide to rebuilding and recalibrating your
healthy gut bacteria, and being healthier and happier as a result.
1 Veg out
Eating lots of veg is a key recommendation from all the new healthy gut
plans. In The Gut Makeover, Hyde recommends having at least seven handfuls of
produce a day (five veg, two fruit, 20-30 different varieties per week), while
Chutkan suggests implementing a 3:2:1 regimen for mealtimes – one portion of
veg at breakfast, two at lunch and three at dinner. The reason? ‘A helpful way
to think about the relationship between eating plants and gut bacteria is that
the plant fibre that can’t be broken down and absorbed by your body ends up
feeding your gut bacteria instead, explains Chutkan. ‘That means less food for
you (think easier weight loss) and more for your microbes.’
2 Select gut-friendly carbs
In essence, that’s any of the whole grain or unprocessed, types (the fibre
advantage again). But to really turbo charge your good bugs, it’s important to
include carbohydrates with prebiotics in them (prebiotics include inulin,
fructo- and galacto-oligosaccharides and in horticulture terms are like giving
your gut bacteria a big dose of organic fertiliser). Foods highest in prebiotic
carbs are onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus and Jerusalem artichokes, but you
can also find them in bananas (the greener the better) and chicory coffee
replacement. Another food with prebiotic properties is the ‘resistant starch’
which forms in significant amounts when starchy carbohydrates are chilled after
cooking. To harness the benefits of resistant starch for your bacteria means
plumping for chilled potato salad over baked potato, and cooking your pasta and
rice ahead, and then reheating (thoroughly) for dinner the next day.
3 Include fermented foods
Different experts have their different takes on which fermented foods to
consume, but they all agree that by eating them you can introduce important
probiotic (friendly) cultures into your system that help keep the microbiome
alive and kicking. The most familiar fermented food is natural probiotic (or
‘bio’) yogurt, while at the more delightful end of the scale, a smelly
Roquefort, good strong Cheddar or chunk of Parmesan will also give your good
bugs a boost. For a more hardcore (and potent) option, try whizzing kefir into
a smoothie (Mlekovita Kefir, £1.39 a litre, tesco.com), a helping of freshly made
sauerkraut (from £3.99, theculturecellar.co.uk) or kimchi (from £6.49,
theculturecellar.co.uk). Chutkan gives a detailed account of how to ferment
your own veg, kimchi-style, in her book.
4 Don’t graze
Giving your gut some down time looks likely to benefit your biome, with a
study from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California showing that
when mice were only allowed an eight-hour window in which to eat they absorbed
fewer calories from their food. The eight-hour access groups also had more diversity
of bacterial species in their guts than the ad lib groups. Previous research
has shown that a period of fasting or calorie restriction beneficially alters
gut bacteria, perhaps by avoiding a constant stream of sugar into the
bloodstream, which raises insulin levels and might give less healthy bugs the
upper hand. If an eight-hour window seems a bit undoable, Hyde recommends
giving your gut at least a 12-hour break – in practical terms, not eating until
eight in the morning if you finished dinner at eight the night before.
Professor Tim Spector goes further, suggesting that skipping breakfast may
actually be a healthy strategy for some people (he’s also a fan of the 5:2
regimen). Whatever approach you take, it seems at the very least, it’s important
to eat substantial meals that reduce the need to snack in between.
5 Dial down the sugar
The health of your microbiome is yet another good reason to cut down on the
sweet stuff. ‘Simple carbohydrates found in soft drinks, baked goods and other
processed grains cause undesirable shifts in microbial composition, and can
lead to the proliferation of yeasts,’ says Chutkan. Unfortunately, sweeteners
such as saccharin and aspartame may not be your microbiome’s friend either –
although the significance of the findings to humans have been disputed, a study
published in the journal Nature in 2014 identified gut bacteria changes and
associated glucose intolerance in mice who were given high levels of
sweeteners. For your gut, as well a your general health, when it comes to
drinks, it seems water is best.
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