Marika Day: How a happy gut can foster better health and wellbeing

Optimal gut health is important for everyone. If you’re healthy, you probably don’t need to worry about changing your habits; just care for your gut through a balanced diet. The research around gut health is still in its infancy, but the way that it intersects with so many facets of holistic health is fascinating.

There are many studies investigating the bidirectional communication between the brain and the gut; some research shows that the gut may have a much larger role to play in conditions like depression and anxiety than we anticipated. For example, up to 95% of serotonin – the happiness hormone – is found in your gut.

Your gut is also essential to your immunity, and may affect appetite and obesity as well as the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The more we investigate, the more important the gut seems to be to our overall health.

Our digestive tract is a vast ecosystem of bacteria. A lot of those bacteria are good, and are essential to functions across the body. One of the major things that they do is break down and ferment fibre; during this process they also produce beneficial by-products in the form of short-chain fatty acids.

If you’re concerned about your gut health, be aware of any changes to the frequency or consistency of your stool. Going to the bathroom more than three times a day, or less than three times a week, isn’t a great sign.

Severe bloating, excessive wind, pain, and cramping are also associated with poor gut health. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, the first step would be to rule out serious problems like coeliacs or Crohn’s disease. Coeliac NZ have an online test you can take here.

Then, build up a healthy and diverse microbiome by including a range of fibre-rich foods in your diet – I recommend eating 30 different plants per week. This is because each bacteria variety in your in gut has a preference for certain types of fibre. If you’re only eating broccoli and potatoes, you’ll have an overrepresentation of the bacteria that feed on those fibres – and you’ll miss out on a host of other bacteria.

A big factor in gut health is stress, but it’s important to address what might be causing your symptoms before trying to heal it with supplements or pills. If you don’t deal with the underlying root of stress or anxiety, it can be hard to see an improvement.

Certain antibiotic medications can impact your gut microbiota, too. They’re designed to kill harmful bacteria, but they can often wipe out good bacteria as well.

The role of probiotics and prebiotics comes up when you’re discussing gut health. Probiotics contain the live bacteria that live within your gut – they’re normally marketed as supplementary capsules. Prebiotics contain the food that those bacteria feed on – the fibre. Both are extremely beneficial to the gut.

Supplementation isn’t usually necessary if you’re eating an adequate amount of both. Achieve this by incorporating lots of fibre-rich foods in your diet, like onion, garlic and leeks (prebiotics), and cultured yoghurt and kefir (probiotics).

To find out if you’re at risk of coeliac disease, take the online assessment through Coeliac NZ now.

And if you’re keen to learn more about gut health, download Marika Day's four-part Love your Gut Month series now.