Part 9 – Optimising your microbiome

Part 9 now in our mini-series on the human microbiome and gut health, from my friend Dawn at NewDawnHealth.co.uk and this is probably my favourite so far, all about how to optimise your own microbiome.

I love the opening line – seed it, feed it and weed it, that’s a brilliant analogy.
If you could see the inside of your own gut (eugh, yuk! Poop in the making! lol) under a microscope, you’d see filaments stretching down into the ‘soil’ of digesting food and bacteria, not unlike the way a tree sends its roots down into the soil beneath our feet. It’s very similar, if on a different size scale, and it’s a great way to think of our health and our approach to a healthy gut. If you planted a tree in unhealthy soil, you would grow a small, weak, sick tree. Well if your body plants it’s “nutrition seeking roots” into poor “soil” (that’s junk food, crappy ‘beige’ processed carbs, pesticide residues, alcohol, sugar, artificial sweeteners and additives, etc.) then what’s that going to do for you??

Read this, think about what you are feeding your body, the ‘soil’ you are giving to those roots, and remember “you are what you eat.”

Final part in the series tomorrow!

To your good health!
Karl.

p.s. and please, show my friend Dawn some love, go on over to her blog and give her a Like or a Follow, show some thanks for letting us share these! Thanks Dawn x

New Dawn Health

Caring for our microbiome is like tending to the soil in our vegetable garden. We need to weed it, seed it and feed it.

1. We can weed-out, kill-off, or out-compete any unbeneficial species
2. Then we can seed it with fermented foods and probiotics
3. We need to make sure to feed it with the right diet including prebiotic foods
4. We need to tend it with a nurturing healthy lifestyle

The dietary changes that you make will have a rapid effect on your microbes. Within days of improving your diet, your microbes will respond. You will need to be consistent to maintain the changes though. Here are some top tips.

Feed your microbiome lots of fibre from vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds and wholegrains (if you eat grains). Fibre rich vegetables are apples, artichokes, avocados, beans, berries, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, greens, figs and kale, to name a few.

Eat a raw…

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