How your gut microbes shape your health | BBC Global

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inside our gut there's a bustling

community of trillions of cells that

influence almost every aspect of our

health welcome to the gut

microbiome it weighs as much as 2 kg and

is vital for our metabolism and our

immune function a healthy gut microbiome

has numerous benefits such as a stronger

immune system reduced risk of heart

disease diabetes asthma and depression

gut microbes even influence the brain

and how we think while a disrupted

microbiome is linked to a range of

health issues including inflammatory

bowel disease obesity and

diabetes the good news is we can all

improve our gut health with a few simple

steps one include a huge variety of

fruits vegetables nuts pulses and

seeds two avoid highly processed

foods three introduce probiotics and

fermented foods such as sarraut and

kimchi four use extra virgin olive oil

over other fats as it has the highest

number of microb friendly

panals five sleep well as disrupted

sleep can impact your

microbiome exercise is important too a

new study adds to the growing evidence

linking exercise to gut

health participants completed an intense

9we cycling program after which

researchers found positive change to

their gut microbiome though the

researchers acknowledged that

high-intensity exercise might prompt

people to choose healthier foods in

other research done in mice germ-free

rodents were more anxious and less

sociable so it's now believed that

cultivating a healthy gut could help

with our mental health too while a study

on humans found that a diet high in

fermented foods reduce stress all this

shows that it pays to be mindful of

feeding the microbes in our gut the

foods they need to thrive