“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are”.

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are”. Although little was known about gut microbes at the time of this quote by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in 1826, it offered early profound insight into the relationship between diet, the digestive system and health.

 Emerging research into the relationship between the gut microbiota, the brain and the food we eat is revealing how the brain, digestive system and gut microbiota interact and how these interactions can make us more or less vulnerable to a growing number of diseases.

Current research tells us that our gut microbes actively mediate how the food we eat affects both our physical and mental health, and that the well-being of our gut microbes depends on the food we eat. Gut microbes digest everything we feed them producing hundreds of thousands of metabolites.  Our understanding of the effects of these metabolites on the body continues to grow.  However, we know that many of them affect our digestive system, our brain, our immune system and our resilience to infection and disease.  Some of the gut microbes produce molecules that can induce low-grade inflammation in the body and have been implicated in obesity, mental health disorders, heart disease, auto-immune diseases and degenerative brain diseases.

 So when you eat, remember that whatever you are eating, your gut microbes are eating too.  If you and your gut microbes are consuming a diet based on highly processed foods and additives, some of your gut microbes could be producing inflammatory molecules leaving you vulnerable to ill-health and disease.  Whereas a diet rich in complex carbohydrates and fibre from fruit, vegetables, legumes and seeds will help to minimise and reduce the number of microbes that produce inflammatory molecules, and help ensure a state of optimal health.

 For appointments to restore and rebalance digestive health please follow the link below to Bookings.

Have a healthy day.