Feeding Your Microbes_Final
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>> Hi, welcome back.
Now that you know all about microbes, in this lecture,
we're going to provide you with concrete recommendations
on how to keep your gut and its bugs happy and healthy.
Hungry for more information?
Great.
Let's get right to it
and discuss ways to feed your microbiome.
A healthy microbiome is one without disease.
It is full of diverse bacteria
that produces essential vitamins,
short chain fatty acids, and immune regulating molecules.
We don't know which is the chicken and which is the egg,
whether a healthy microbiome is the result
or a cause of a healthy gut.
But the goal is the same either way, optimal health.
An imbalanced microbiome can contribute to many precursors
like insulin resistance, weight gain, inflammation,
or excessive hunger,
which can lead to more serious conditions.
We're going to go over ways to keep the microbiome healthy
before severe symptoms develop
that may require specific treatment.
Let's start with diet.
There are two elements to a microbiome balancing diet.
What you can remove from your diet or lifestyle
to limit harm and destruction to your diversity
and what you can positively do to increase diversity
and feed your microbes.
Let's apply the garden analogy.
We want to provide proper soil
for the healthy growth of bacteria
while limiting stress and toxins that can harm the soil.
When overgrowth and dysbiosis is in full effect,
like in your garden, you must weed first
before working on the soil and then planting.
With that said, here are five ways
to weed the garden of your microbiome
to reduce bad overgrowth and dysbiosis.
One, limit the use of NSAIDS.
This includes limiting your use of over-the-counter,
non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs,
NSAIDS for short, such as a leaf, an ibuprofen.
If you use NSAIDS like these
for more than a few days in a row,
they can significantly impact your microbiome
in the gut lining.
Your bacteria reflects your food and drug use,
and NSAIDS can increase your risk
for inflammatory bowel disease,
leaky gut, and other gut conditions.
Two, reduce the use of antibiotics.
Another way to preserve good gut bacteria
is to reduce the use of antibiotics.
Now we're not saying don't take antibiotics
when they're needed.
Just be aware that they're often over-prescribed
and not always necessary.
The average American is prescribed
four to five rounds of antibiotics every year.
Even one round can do some pretty harsh damage
to your gut microbiota.
Have you ever reached for antibiotics
just to get over something faster
that maybe could have run its course?
Or what about for a cold or flu?
Rebuilding your gut and immune system
is the best preventative measure towards illness.
This is even more incentive towards addressing
mild conditions proactively
rather than blasting your body
with another round of antibiotics.
Three, discontinue using harsh antibacterial soaps
and cleaning products,
instead wash your hands
with plain soap and water or vinegar.
You can make your own cleaning agents
by combining white vinegar, baking soda,
and essential oils that are antibacterial.
Natural antibacterials can be less harsh
than chemical solvents.
Sometimes you may even want to forgo the soap
and washing altogether.
Make it a priority to wash off chemicals
but maybe not natural dirt.
Four, don't overdo it on meat.
Overall, it's best for your microbiome
to limit your meat intake
as well as eating only organic and ethically grown meat.
Avoid animals that have been fed hormones and antibiotics.
The bacteria that flourishes on a meat-heavy, low-carb diet
tend to be the bacteria also present
when inflammation is high.
By limiting meat,
I mean, keeping it as a more of a side dish,
a few times a week instead of the main course every night.
Five, avoid artificial sweeteners.
For a healthy microbiome,
encourage your clients to limit artificial sweeteners.
They may not have calories, so to speak,
but it's now being shown that glucose intolerance is induced
by the gut microbiome when these sweeteners are consumed.
Turns out, they're not so sweet after all.
So to recap,
the five best ways to stop waging war on your microbiome
are to limit use of over-the-counter NSAIDS,
only take antibiotics when necessary,
ditch the antibacterial soaps,
eat a moderate amount of organic meat,
and avoid artificial sweeteners.
Now that we've talked about the five ways
to weed your garden,
let's talk about the five ways to feed your garden
by improving the quality of your soil
and growing a healthy gut.
One, eat lots of soluble fiber.
First, let's talk about feeding your microbes.
Their food of choice is fiber, particularly insoluble fiber.
This means your clients will want to eat
fresh fruits and veggies as often as possible,
and if tolerated, legumes, and whole grains too.
A dynamic married duo, Dr. Justin and Erica Sonnenburg
are two microbiologists out of Stanford.
They have created what they called a MAC diet,
which stands for Microbiota-Accessible Carbohydrates.
There are two ways that MACs reach your microbiome.
The fiber is lodged inside food particles
that are too large to enter earlier in the digestive process
or our human genes
don't have the ability to break them down,
leaving the food for the bugs and the large intestine.
The average American eats 100 grams less fiber a day
than some tribes in civilizations
untouched by Western practices.
And the average American consumes only 15 grams
out of the recommended 29 to 38 grams of fiber per day.
When we look at aboriginal diets compared to our own,
what's missing?
Tubers, roughage, and generally, bulk.
Each vegetable has various types of fibers.
Some get digested slowly,
others like inulin
aren't digested by the small intestine at all
but by the bugs in your gut.
In general, the best thing for your gut
is to eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables.
Fruits and veggies are filled with a type of soluble fiber
called oligosaccharides
that can help reduce inflammation and endotoxins.
Soluble fiber also dissolves in water
and is broken down by bacteria
making for safe and efficient passage.
Our microbes love soluble over insoluble fiber.
And when we feed them,
they also help reduce the risk of obesity.
Some studies say that for every 10 grams of fiber consumed,
4% of belly fat can be lost.
A good trade-off.
With that said, you're probably wondering
which foods have soluble fibers.
The top sources are vegetables, fruit, beans,
oat bran, and barley,
plus flaxseed, split peas, lima beans, and black beans.
Inulin, mentioned a moment ago,
is a specific type of soluble fiber.
Sources of inulin include onions, garlic, leeks,
jicama, asparagus, and Jerusalem artichoke.
These fibers also protect against insulin resistance.
They seem to be worth a little bad breath or VPIs.
Again, when the bacteria feed on the fiber you can't digest,
they produce vitamins and short chain fatty acids
that nourish your gut lining.
In contrast,
when you don't give your gut microbiome enough fiber,
they start to eat the mucous lining.
This can create a whole host of problems
including inflammation.
Ironically, a high-fiber diet may be counter-indicative
for many gut conditions.
However, it can be irritating for several conditions,
which we'll go over in this course.
The key distinction to remember at this point is that
if you're healthy, it's best to bulk up on fiber.
Think of it as preventative medicine.
Two, eat whole grains.
You're likely wondering,
"What about grains as a source of fiber?"
When it comes to grains these days,
we lose a lot of dietary fiber in flour
through our modern milling process
because, guess what,
the wheat germ which contains most of the fiber
shortens shelf life.
This is why we have processed flour
so the product can sit in your pantry longer
without going rancid.
Long shelf life for a short life?
Is that what we get in return?
The bran, another great source of fiber,
is also milled out
to make our favorite white all-purpose flour.
And here is a final downside to our modern grain process.
The finer the powder, the easier to digest,
meaning it gets digested earlier
and never reaches the microbiome in the colon.
Now you can explain to your clients
why it's better to eat grains whole and unprocessed.
The same idea comes into play when we talk about
juicing versus eating whole fruits and vegetables.
Bottom line, the fiber we don't want
is white, processed, and refined,
not even your microbiome wants those leftovers.
These are the so-called empty carbs
without the healthy fiber.
Three, consume fermented foods.
Another part of the MAC diet is eating fermented foods.
These are foods that are bacteria-filled
such as sauerkraut, kombucha, and kefir.
There are millions of various kinds of bacteria
that can be found in fermented foods
as opposed to the limited selection in probiotics,
although both have value.
If possible, it's great to eat fermented foods
in addition to taking a probiotic.
We'll cover how to choose the right probiotics
later in this course.
Four, include healthy fats in the diet.
It's important to our microbiome for us
to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy fats.
The right combination of fiber and fats
is your best medicine.
The Mediterranean diet
is looked at as a balanced microbiome diet
because it includes 40% fat and around 40 grams of fiber.
This combo is also helpful for protecting against
conditions like colon cancer.
Healthy fats include unsaturated plant-based fats.
Things like coconut, olive oil, avocado or walnut oil,
also sesame oil, and ghee contain high levels of butyrate.
Good fiber is even more potent
when combined with healthy fats.
No matter what diet you subscribe to,
it's beneficial to eat meals
that center around fresh veggies.
Five, buy local.
In order to increase your microbe intake,
shop at the local farmers' market
or as close to the source as possible.
Bacteria is present everywhere,
and many fruits and vegetables carry bacteria
that help us digest our food.
We miss out on the bacteria
when we eat non-organic or sprayed produce
that is treated to last longer on supermarket shelves
or to look shiny.
The best way to collect natural bacteria
that may be present on the farm
is to buy as high up on the food chain as possible,
better yet, grow some of your own.
Think of it as an external garden for your inner one.
To recap,
the five best ways to increase your microbiome diversity
and feed your microbes are to eat
lots of soluble fiber, whole grains, fermented foods,
and a good ratio of healthy fats,
as well as just shop locally
or grow your own fruits and veggies if possible.
All right, now let's put it all together.
Soluble fiber is the cornerstone
of a healthy microbiome diet
because this is what your gut bacteria eat.
When you feed your microbes lots of soluble fiber,
they reward you by producing nourishing byproducts.
It's a win-win situation.
The Microbiota-Accessible Carbohydrates or MAC diet
focus on foods that feed your gut.
It is a good dietary guideline for people
who don't have existing gut health issues.
A microbiome balancing diet also involves
avoiding substances like NSAIDS, antibiotics,
and other substances that damage the microbiome.
The goal is to keep the mucosal lining strong
by feeding the bacteria fiber.
This way, they can feed the lining
and in turn ward off more bad bugs.
Do you consider feeding your microbes
when choosing a meal or a diet?
Share your thoughts and experiences with us
in the Facebook group.
I look forward to hearing from you.
We'll see you soon.