You Are What You Eat

Most of you have heard about the importance of having a “healthy gut”. It’s being talked about and written about everywhere! The gut has been called our “second brain” and “the seat of the immune system”. It turns out that each of us has a unique “microbiome” (mix of good bacteria in the gut); sort of like how your fingerprint is a unique identifier. Your gut “mix” gets partly determined by your mother’s microbiome (the environment you’re exposed to at birth), partly what you were fed as an infant and child, and partly from your diet and lifestyle choices as an adult. I know we have been trying to wipe out bacteria for years, but it turns out there are both bad ones and good ones and our bodies are already loaded with trillions of them. The good bacteria play a critical role in our overall health. It's so important that research suggests your gut bacteria are tied to your probability of whether or not you end up with conditions like diabetes, obesity, depression and cancer.

Everyone knows that the gut is responsible for digesting whatever we feed it, but did you know that over two-thirds of your immune system lives there? Having a highly functional immune system depends on having a healthy gut, it’s that simple. So any impairment in gut health means that your immune system is not well set up to protect you from disease. Did you also know that more than 90% of the body’s serotonin (a neurotransmitter that drives mood, sleep, memory, temperature regulation, appetite, sex drive, and more) is produced in our gut? It's no wonder that we really are what we eat!

So here’s the “BIG THING” I want you to know about gut health. You can have an unhealthy gut with absolutely NO digestive symptoms! The signs that your gut health is less than great can include the digestive symptoms we usually think of (gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, Irritable Bowel, etc.) but may not actually include any of these at all.

In blogs to follow I will give you more info about gut health...what to look for and how to turn it around. I will also post some recipes that promote a healthy gut. Listen up because this may be the very most important thing I can talk to you about!