Achieve Better Gut Health?
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This headline - 3 Simple Practices to Achieve Better Gut Health in 2021 - caught my attention as I’ve been talking about gut health for a few years now among corporate clients, family and everyone in between. Gut health first showed up in our annual Foodscape top metatrends (that’s the trends of the trends) about three years ago. That's partly why I'm always drawn to headlines like this one directing consumers on ways to “achieve” better gut health.
According to this particular consumer piece, these three things really matter:
Take a daily probiotic
Get outside
Prioritize daily movement
Seems reasonable enough, though I would add some critical details.
Daily Probiotic
Keep in mind probiotic supplements are transient. They come in to the gut microbiome and pass through just as quickly. It's the long-term resident microbes that really matter, and those buggers need FIBER. Curiously, EAT MORE FIBER did not make this list. A big miss IMHO.
Get Outside
Given we remain in the middle of a global pandemic, if you are able to “get outside” each day, then please do so. I personally walk with my dog about 2-3 miles daily. It does wonders for my mental health. With respect to the gut, what's interesting about "get outside" is evidence that growing up on a farm around the crops and the animals does wonders for gut health. I suppose we could reframe this one to "go play in the dirt” though admittedly as a grown adult living right downtown in a large city with no yard, this is difficult.
Prioritize Daily Movement
As to daily movement, it is important to keep the gut contents flowing, literally. If the waste stream is in contact with the cells of the gut wall in the large intestine too long, this can cause problems. My grandma used to ask "did you have your BM today?". She was old school and not wrong in asking despite my total embarrassment at discussing one’s poop like we would discuss the drills we ran that day in basketball practice or what I wanted for my after school snack. Either way, total body movement does help with gut movement (aka, gut motility).
The Net?
Get some probiotics (this could be kimchi ya know!). Eat more fiber. Get outside. Get moving.