Guts Got Your Goat?
As a Gen-Xer (and coming from a protected and oppresive religious background), I grew up knowing the meanest thing one could think or say about someone was that you hated their guts. I can’t even fathom how many boys’ guts I wished ill upon in the 70s and 80s. But here I am at 52, a huge fan of guts, hating none of them, but questioning how and why they misbehave for some folks and not for others. Over the next several weeks I plan to share a handful of suggestions to give your gut some TLC, along with some whys (because I love a good why).
First up, plants:
Eat at least 30 different plants a week
This is one of my favorite tips (I’ll probably say that on every post of this series, so a grain of salt, please). One of the nicest things you can do for your gut microbiome is to eat 30 different plants a week. Sounds intimidating, right? The great news is, you’ve probably already had several today. A coffee bean comes from a plant…so does a peppercorn. Yes, spices, herbs, and of course your standard fruits and veggies count too. So if I were to look at what I consume most days by 8 am, I have had coffee, a waffle with peanut butter + cinnamon sugar, and an apple. The grain from the waffle, peanuts, cinnamon, (even sugar comes from cane or beets, but we’re not going to count it as it is heavily processed), and the apple (along with the coffee) and I’m already at five.
Why do even tiny amounts of plants count toward gut health, you ask? Your microbiome craves diversity. The wildly diverse friendly critters that outnumber our cells 10:1 appreciate novelty. Each type of bacteria performs a different job, and each strain likes a different kind of plant food. So the more diverse plant foods we feed our gut bacteria, the more diverse they can become and the better they are able to:
train our immune cells (of which 70% live in our gut!)
increase our resilience to infection
strengthen our gut barrier
produce vitamins and help regulate our hormones
communicate with our brain
balance our blood sugar, lower blood fats and help prevent against many diseases . And we want the friendly bugs to run our gut-vernment (sorry, not sorry) so there is less of a chance for an insurrection (not all bugs are good bugs).
(and that’s just the tip of their responsibility iceberg!)
For the science behind these claims, check out The American Gut Project that demonstrated that people who eat at least 30 different plant-based foods a week had more diverse gut microbes than people who ate less than 10.
