Gut Health Foods

Gut health is important for overall health and immunity. An impressive 70 percent of our immune cells reside in the gut, alongside our gut microbiome (GM), and they’re in constant communication.

Dr. Megan Rossi, PhD, BHSc, RD, APD, is a Registered Dietitian, Nutritionist, and research fellow at King’s College London. Known as a world-leading gut specialist with a PhD in gut health and bestselling author, her most recent book How to Eat More Plants: Transform Your Health With 30 Plant-Based Foods per Week—and Why It’s Easier Than You Think is available now.

Let’s face it, we’re all more interested than ever before in bolstering our immunity. Whether it’s staving off the common cold and winter flu, protecting ourselves against autoimmune conditions (which are on the rise), or surviving a global pandemic, we want strong defenses. “How can I boost my immunity?” is probably one of the top five questions my clients ask. (Spoiler: We don’t actually want “boosted” immunity; if our immune system is overactive, it can lead to conditions such as autoimmune diseases, as I will explain.)

News headlines are forever proclaiming the next superfood or supplement that’s finally going to give us super-immunity. But what we don’t hear often enough is that immunity is powered by the gut.

The gut microbiome (GM) takes on a bit of a parental role, “training” our immune cells from birth. The microbes teach our immune system what’s worth reacting to (like disease-causing microbes) and what’s safe (like proteins found in certain foods). Without our GM, our immunity would be pretty inefficient—think amateur athlete versus elite athlete (I know who I’d rather have on my side).

So, one of the best ways we can support our immunity is by supporting our GM—keeping it healthy by keeping our diet diverse and plant-based. The alternative? A likely disturbed GM and a poorly trained immune system that overreacts to innocent bystanders (allergies and autoimmune conditions) and underreacts to the real culprits (cold- and flu-causing viruses).

Autoimmune conditions

There are more than eighty different autoimmune conditions (where the immune system turns on itself) and, although we still have a lot to learn, there seem to be three main factors that determine whether you fall into the 5 to 8 percent of people diagnosed with one:

1. Genetics
2. Our environment, where we live, pollution, lifestyle
3. Our gut microbiome (GM), the newly recognised player

Our understanding of the exact role of our GM is still in its infancy, but the research is fascinating. Reduced GM diversity has been observed in a series of autoimmune conditions, as we touched on earlier, but this type of research only demonstrates that there’s an association between the two, rather than one causing the other.

The first real clue that a dysbiotic GM plays a causal role in autoimmune responses was originally found in mice studies. Microbe-free mice (born into a sterile environment, so they have no GM) have been demonstrated to be protected against developing autoimmune conditions. Subsequent studies showed that transplanting the dysbiotic GM from people with autoimmune conditions into healthy mice (yes, a poop transplant, aka fecal microbiota transplant or FMT) could trigger autoimmunity, where the immune system turns on itself.

This finding has been translated into early-stage human studies, which have indicated that, in some people, FMT could be used to reverse ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease that involves autoimmune activation.

10 foods to boost your gut health

The following foods are filled with key nutrients and phytochemicals to nourish your immune system (vitamins A, D C, E, B6, and B12; folate, copper, iron, zinc, selenium, flavonoids, fiber, allicin, omega-3, and curcumin).

1. Walnuts
2. Garlic
3. Sun-exposed mushrooms*
4. Firm tofu
5. Carrots
6. Oranges
7. Wheat berries
8. Chia seeds
9. Turmeric
10. Broccoli

*For extra vitamin D, leave your mushrooms on the windowsill to absorb sunlight.

From an original article posted in Blue Zones, read the article here

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