Many people are now more aware of the importance of their gut microbiota than ever before. Exciting research is exploding and making headlines world-wide.
As awareness on this crucial aspect of human health increases, so does the number of businesses trying to cash in on this niche.
Many products are sold as ‘gut-healthy’, without being able to provide any evidence to back up the claims, and the increase in ‘probiotic supplements’ for sale is nothing less than astounding— especially considering that research does not back up the claim that they’re in any way beneficial.
Your gut microbiota is as unique to you as your fingerprints, with trillions of microbes working with you to maintain a healthy internal environment.
The biodiversity in your digestive tract can be compared to the biodiversity of fynbos.
So picture this: you find a bare patch somewhere along the Garden Route, where fynbos is supposed to thrive, but now it is mostly barren, and the few plants that are there are battling. So, you get a packet of ‘genetically modified seeds’, without a good understanding of what will grow from the seeds, and you sprinkle them in this area at random. You don’t water them, you don’t feed them, and when nothing comes up, you sprinkle more of these same seeds every day.
Should these seeds actually sprout, the chances are good that they will outcompete the fynbos that was supposed to grow there in the first place.
This is more or less what happens when you take commercial probiotic supplements for your gut.
Many people know that commercially produced probiotics are identical, lab-grown microbes, so they look for the beautiful green labels which read ‘natural’. This is, in my opinion, the most ‘evil’ of all the hijacked terms of the ‘health’ industry.
As a quick thought experiment, list in your mind 5 things that are natural but not safe. Did you get there easily? Did you get to more than 5 without trouble? Exactly. “Natural” does not equate to safe, nor beneficial.
To fix the health of your gut microbiota, the environment they live in must first be nurtured and protected. This cannot be achieved through anything you will find in a capsule, tablet or supplement solution.
It starts with the basics: avoid ultra-processed foods, remember to eat fiber, enjoy fermented foods, fast intermittently, stay active, and always question health information that comes with a price tag.
Probiotic-rich food
Probiotic-rich food— or, in other words, fermented food— is a completely different story. When we eat probiotic-rich food, it is always as part of prebiotics (food for our microbes).
Prebiotics include a range of carbohydrates that we don’t digest very well as humans, but which serve as nutrients to our microbiota. When we eat probiotic-rich food, these microbe-safe ingredients form an automatic food source for our existing microbes.
Additionally, all the microbes in fermented food will need to survive a complex digestive process, and only those deemed beneficial by our body and our microbe family will be allowed to stay. In probiotic supplements, in contrast, the microbes are shielded from the digestive process.
This is why humans have consumed fermented foods as part of a healthy diet for millennia. Fermented, probiotic-rich foods serve to improve both our body and mind. They help us absorb several nutrients better from our food, assist in neurological health, help prevent lifestyle diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and protect us from the invasion of pathogens.
These fermented foods are usually best made at home and can include a huge range of plant-based ingredients (such as grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruit), as well as milk-based ingredients, and on rare occasions, egg- and fish-based components.
It is an exciting time we are entering, as we bring health back into our own hands, into our homes and gardens, and into our kitchens. As we continue to learn about our bodies and minds, we can make informed decisions about what they need to thrive in this over-consuming world. The key is to approach health information critically, focusing on whole foods, natural fermentation processes, and lifestyle choices that support our gut microbiota. This way, we can nurture our internal ecosystems and fundamentally improve our overall well-being.
For links to recent research on the harms of probiotic supplementation, please send your request to: [email protected]
Our health and wellbeing are so important to us that, unsurprisingly, they get a disproportionate amount of our modern marketing budgets.
Whenever we discover a health intervention that really works, it seems to be commandeered to sell quick fixes and empty promises in nice packaging.
Whenever we discover a health intervention that really works, it seems to be commandeered to sell quick fixes and empty promises in nice packaging.
One word which has been usurped is “mindfulness”. This buzzword is being used to sell anything and everything: mindfulness tracking apps, mindful skincare products, mindful snacks, mindful home décor, meditation mugs, and so much more.