Understanding Gut Bacteria
A healthy gut contains around a thousand trillion living, breathing, eating, mainly beneficial bacteria that live off specific non-digestible carbohydrates, more commonly known know as prebiotics. These come from the food we eat but as we can’t digest them, they pass through the digestive process untouched and reach the colon, where they are utilized by beneficial bacteria who in return perform a whole range of jobs including helping the gut absorb and utilize nutrients, working with our immune system to protect us against disease and illness and protecting, maintaining and fueling gut cells.
It might seem a bit spooky having lots of microscopic organisms moving around inside us but the type and quantity can have a huge impact on your body’s ability to function effectively. The concept of good and bad bacteria is a little simplistic as it depends on the ratio and the area they inhabit. The digestive system allocates specific areas where it can contain specific bacteria as it may be beneficial here but not so good elsewhere. Numbers also have to be regulated because as with everything to do with health, to be beneficial it needs to be balanced.
Good vs Bad
Unfortunately because the gut is such an advantageous place to live, other opportunistic but considerably less beneficial micro-organisms such as virus, parasites and unwelcome bacteria also want to live there. To them this is the most sought after area of real estate especially if you eat a not untypical western diet, high in refined carbs, high fat animal protein and low nutritious, high calorie processed food. This diet is very low in prebiotics, the food of healthy bacteria and high in foods bad bacteria love. With so much food, warmth and space it’s an ideal place to settle and reproduce, rapidly. One of the most obvious ways good bacteria protects is by populating extensively areas in the gut. By filling every available space there is no room left for potentially harmful invaders and they get flushed out with everything else.
The problem is the gut environment is very unstable. It is constantly on the move, changing and adapting to deal with whatever is thrown into it. Maintaining a healthy balance is a constant battle making the gut vulnerable to even small negative influences such as a minor stomach upset or a boozy night out. But it also means that positive actions such as eating more vegetables can impact on gut health relatively quickly.
Avoiding Bad Bacteria Overload
The gut micro-environment can be easily compared to our own. Living in a happy, healthy environment encourages good things to happen but bring in something bad and everything seems to go wrong. It probably comes as no surprise that all the things we class as healthy such as fruit, vegetables, exercise and feeling happy also make our good bacteria flourish. And no surprise that all the things deemed unhealthy such as stress, inactivity, diets high in sugar, fat, salt, alcohol, smoking and all the usual suspects undermine the health of our body, in particular the gut flora. Diets low in vegetables and fruit are not only likely to be low in essential nutrients, they will also be probably low in the prebiotic food for beneficial bacteria. This enables less beneficial or even harmful species to colonize and spread their negative influence right through the body, pushing your health further out of balance, into a declining negative state. If you suffer from low energy, bloating, wind, poor skin or just feel generally run down or unhappy this could be the first sign of bacterial imbalance.
Top Good Bacteria Benefits
They colonize in the gut leaving little or no space for bad bacteria or pathogens to move in and take over.
They help keep gut epithelium healthy by protecting and feeding it with additional nutrients.
They utilize nutritional components missed by the digestive process.
They manufacture short chain fatty acids, fuel for gut cells.
They reduce ph, creating an unhappy environment for bad bacteria and some pathogens.
They offer support and help to the immune system.
They break up potentially toxic molecules that could irritate the colon.
Basically you are the landlord, you can take steps to create a prime location for good gut bacteria and evict the baddies before they cause too much trouble.
Give your gut a break and follow our “Steps to Good Gut Health”