All4Fitness article //

The Low Down On Gut Health

For many years,research has shown that gut health is critical to overall health, and that an unhealthy gut contributes to a wide range of diseases including diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, autism spectrum disorder, depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.

The human gut contains 10 times more bacteria than all the human cells in the entire body, with over 400 known diverse bacterial species. In fact, you could say that we're more bacterial than we are human. Woah!

Bacteria can be classed as either harmful or helpful. Beneficial bacteria come and go so we don't have a permanent supply. So for a vibrant gut "economy," we need to continually replenish them via diet. Beneficial gut bacteria help manufacture vitamins (B12, K, B6, B5, B3, folate and biotin), enhance absorption of minerals, fight off pathogens, digest food, and metabolise drugs. They even influence total body metabolism!

Unfortunately, several features of the modern lifestyle directly contribute to unhealthy gut flora:

Antibiotics and other medications like birth control and NSAIDs

Diets high in refined carbohydrates, sugar and processed foods

Dietary toxins like wheat and industrial seed oils that cause leaky gut