CELL FOOD
The importance of a
Healthy Gut By Charlotte Meschede - Nutritionist
If I was asked to give only ONE health tip that I had gleaned from my 44 years in clinical practice, I would say this: LOOK AFTER YOUR GUT! In my experience, most people, doctors and other medical practitioners included, tend to take the health of our digestive systems for granted. This is probably because the gut can, and is designed, to take care of itself, much like a well-run corporation. However, as in a large business, when one department is not working well, it eventually will impact the efficacy of another one. Separate divisions in any enterprise are not islands, as they rely on the efficient functioning of all the other departments around them and a fault in one of them will eventually be manifested in the other. Such is our digestive system. The entire digestive tract is not only designed so we can put food in our mouths, chew it, swallow it and transport it to the stomach and small intestine, where the nutrients and other good stuff can be absorbed and then into the large intestine, from which all the indigestible remains are excreted. The gut is now considered to be a complex microbial ecosystem, which impacts many of our cellular pathways including detoxification, immunity, brain health, hormonal feedback mechanisms, neural pathways and many others. The gut and the brain are therefore intricately connected through a complex network of compounds released by the
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microbiota in the digestive tract, to nerve cells and pathways that enable us to respond to different stimuli.
How can we ensure that we maintain a healthy gut?
In order for the gut microbiota to function optimally, there has to be sufficient prebiotics, which are the compounds that help to support the healthy bacteria as well as the probiotics, which are the bacteria themselves. Prebiotics include both soluble and insoluble fibres that are found in whole unrefined grains as well starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut, pumpkin, beetroots and carrots AND those indigestible fibres that are found in green leafy vegetables. Dietary trends that encourage ‘keto-type’ diets, such as the very low carbohydrate, high-fat diets promoted by many endocrinologists and physicians, may impact the health of gut microbiota in a negative way if insufficient of these vegetables are not eaten on a regular basis. If you do follow a low carbohydrate or keto-type diet, then you will need to supplement with fibre and one of the best recommendations I can make is AIM Fit n Fiber.
