3 Ways To Boost Your Gut Bacteria.

“Microbiome” is a buzzword that’s taken over the nutrition world in the last few years. 

No, it’s not that Pauly Shore movie from the 1990s. (That’s Bio-Dome.) Microbiome refers to the vast and complex populations of bacteria that live on and in your body.  

At first, research suggested that one class of bacteria—probiotics—helped people improve digestion. But eventually, researchers discovered that there’s much more to it.

“These bacteria in our gut are wired into our immune system, our metabolism, and even our brain,” says Erica Sonnenburg, Ph.D., a microbiota researcher at Stanford University Medical School. 

“I think if you have allergies, asthma, weight issues, diabetes, and even depression and anxiety, it could mean that your gut is not in an optimal state,” she says.

In the words of Ron Burgundy, your microbiota is “kind of a big deal.”

Sonnenburg speculates that we are only as healthy as our bacteria. 

“If you count up all the collective genome that our microbiota provides and compare that to our human genome, humans are actually 99 percent microbe and only 1 percent human,” she says.

So how do you benefit? It starts with your diet.

Maybe you’ve heard that you should be eating more fermented foods—stuff like kombucha, kimchi (keep reading for a recipe below), yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut—to introduce more good bacteria into your gut. 

But you also need fiber in order to help feed new and existing good bacteria. So on top of fermented foods, you should also be taking in fiber-rich vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and grains. 

Second, stop applying hand sanitizer more often than Kim Kardashian updates her Snapchat. New research shows that frequent hand sanitizer application kills good bacteria living on you, increasing your risk of illness. 

And, lastly, limit antibiotic use to only when absolutely necessary.  

“Antibiotics don’t help fight off viral infections, which are the bulk of the infections we deal with,” Sonnenburg says.

While all this may seem complex and mysterious, the great news is that your microbiome is under your control. And with these simple dietary changes and health practices, you can improve your microbiome within a few days.

Article Source