Guttural Instincts, Literally!

One of the hottest topics in nutrition over the past few years is the science of our gut microbiome. Our gut microbiome is comprised of a bunch of living microorganisms that are alive and working hard in the intestines of our bodies. These microorganisms are involved in bodily functions such as metabolism, immunity defense, as well as regulating brain function. Our gut microbiome is always growing and changing like other organisms in our world. Alterations to our gut microbiome can occur due to our overall health, diet, stress, environment and age.

Our gut microbiome has a major role to play inside our bodies and our minds. Inside our gut there is an enteric nervous systems, this system talks directly with our brains. The brain gut connection is a powerful connection that is still being studied by professionals today. Mental health is being studied as being affected by the diversity or lack of diversity of bacteria in our guts. Prebiotics such as this salad pictured are a great way to work on diversifying our gut microbiome.

Similarly our mental health can be driven by the types of bacteria in our intestines. If there is a lot of diversity in our bacteria, then our mental health is most likely within a balance. However if we start to lose diversity of bacteria in our gut, our mental health may begin to work less optimally.

The lack of diversity of bacteria in our gut could cause different individuals to feel real mental health stressors within their own mind. A recent study in 2021 by the American society of Nutrition focused specifically on their subjects using whole food diets to see how the diet affects the microbiome of each subject.

This study's approach is cutting edge and is providing promising results that support the connection of food impacting the diversity of the microbiome. The study mentioned that they're looking for additional data, especially from clinical cohort studies to accurately provide diet adjustments for mental health and brain regulation. I am hopeful that one day there will be enough data on using a whole foods approach to improve bacteria diversity to treat mental health with food, along side current clinical treatments.

- Ro & Wen

References:

Berding K, Vlckova K, Marx W, et al. Diet and the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis: Sowing the Seeds of Good Mental Health. Adv Nutr. 2021;12(4):1239-1285. doi:10.1093/advances/nmaa181

Cresci GA, Bawden E. Gut Microbiome: What We Do and Don't Know. Nutr Clin Pract. 2015;30(6):734-746. doi:10.1177/0884533615609899