The ‘gut’ has been a bit of a buzzword around the globe for a while now. Sometimes buzzwords aren’t helpful. 🤔 This is a good one though because it’s made people more aware of how a happy, healthy gut is crucial for their wellness.
What Is The ‘Gut’?
Overall the term refers to the digestive system. This is made up of the gastrointestinal (gah-stro-in-test-i-nal) tract and the liver, gall bladder and pancreas.
Our food and drink journey through the GI tract whenever we eat. After we chew and swallow whatever we’ve ingested goes on to be digested and absorbed before being excreted as poop.
Thanks to Pexels for this image
Most of us think of the digestive system as the stomach and the large and small intestine. However, overall it encompasses the hollow organs which are the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small and large intestine, rectum and anus and the solid organs which are the liver, gall bladder and pancreas.
What Does Microbiome Actually Mean?
It’s become common knowledge that 70 per cent of our immune system is in the gut. So if it’s not firing on all cylinders we’re in trouble and it all goes back to the microbiome. We have trillions of bacteria, fungi and viruses (also called microbiome, microbes or gut flora) in the gut, far more than we have cells in the body. This bacteria is made up of both good (friendly) guys and bad (unfriendly) guys. The key to optimum health is keeping both of them happy so they live in harmony. When they fall out (as friends sometimes do) they get out of balance. This discord leads to something called gut dysbiosis which can be behind conditions such as weight gain, bloating and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
How Can You Take Care Of Your Gut?
As it’s all to do with digestion eating well is essential. You can crank it up a bit by adding a good probiotic to your daily regime. Fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, olives and gherkins are a good addition too as both tools help support the ‘good’ bacteria in our digestive systems.
Interesting research:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337124/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3983973/
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!
YOURS IN HEALTH & HAPPINESS 😀
Main photo by Frank Flores on Unsplash
