Your Microbiome
You may have heard of the gut microbiome by now - but what does it actually do?
Your gut microbiome influences your health in many ways - it’s where 70-80% of your immune cells live, which makes sense as it’s how the outside world gets in, through your mouth!
Your microbes also produces neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, GABA and glutamate.
Your microbiome also produces B vitamins, vitamin K, short-chain fatty acids, and neurotransmitters in the gut - this is because the genetic material in our gut microbiome outnumber our own genome by over 150 fold, so even though we can’t synthesise some of these nutrients ourselves our gut still can - isn’t that amazing?
As you may know, our neurotransmitters are the messengers that help cells communicate with each other, and are responsible for functions like your mood, stress response, sleep, memory, muscle movement, heart rate and many, many more - so you can see why it’s so important to take care of your microbiome!
So, how do you support your microbiome?
Your microbiome works best when you consume a whole foods predominant diet. The microbiome thrives when you eat prebiotic-rich foods - that means eating lots of fibre! Your friendly microbes help break down the fibre that your digestive juices can’t, using it as a source of food. Examples of prebiotics include:
Bananas (the greener the better)
Garlic and onion
Jerusalem artichoke
Chicory root (caffeine-free coffee replacement)
Asparagus
Whole grains such as oats or barley
Apples
Leafy greens
Avocado
Lentils
Chickpeas
Basically every fruit, vegetable, legume, or grain will have prebiotic goodness, so following a whole foods based diet will naturally encourage your microbiome.
