In this Wellness Wisdom episode, we break down everything you need to know about gut health and the microbiome. We explore what the microbiome is, why gut health is essential for digestion, immunity, mood, and overall well-being, and how prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics all work together.  If you’ve ever wondered how to improve your gut or why it’s called the “second brain,” this episode covers the essentials in an easy, practical way.

We have a full transcript of the episode below

Wellness Wisdom Episode 9: Gut Health

Jonathan:  Hi, I'm Jonathan Tessier and we're back here with another one of our Wellness Wisdom episodes. And today we're going to be looking at gut health and your microbiome. I'm here with Rebecca as always. So how you doing, Rebecca?

Rebecca: I'm good, I'm good. How are you this morning?

Jonathan:  I'm doing pretty well. How's your gut feeling?

Rebecca:  Good. This morning I gave it some good healthy prebiotics. We'll talk about those.

Jonathan:  OK, that's that's good. That's good to know. So tell me, what is the microbiome?

Rebecca:  Yeah, that's a great question. I think we hear a lot about probiotics, but like, what does that mean? And what does the microbiome and what does it do for us? And why do we want to treat it so good? And hopefully we can teach you all of those things today. Um, but basically your microbiome is, um, a community. You're probably multiple communities of microbes and it's everywhere. So we mostly think of your gut microbiome for the most part. Most of those microbes are concentrated in your large intestine and your colon, but we have a microbiome all over our body, on our skin and our nose. In our mouth, you know, all over, all over the body.

So bacteria like, you know, these good bacteria that really are our friends, we just want to kind of keep them in balance and keep them working for us instead of against that.

Jonathan:  Yeah. So people always say, like, I have a gut feeling about that or like I trust my gut. So why is gut health so important?

Rebecca:  It's a great question. And now they're calling our gut basically our second brain. Like I think a lot of us have probably heard the statistics so far that 90% of serotonin, which is one of our happy hormones is produced actually in the gut, not in the brain. And that is true of a lot of neurotransmitters are actually produced in our gut instead of our brain and neurotransmitters and lots of different messages—the ones we like the most are of course the ones that give us that like dopamine and serotonin, those kind of happy calming hormones. So gut health does a lot of different things it has an impact on of course our brain health, but also our inflammation on our mood on our immunity is a really big one I think when we think of probiotics a lot of.

We're trying to make ourselves more resistant to like infections and viruses that are out there too. So gut health touches a little bit of everything. And when we can make sure that it's healthy and well supported, like we really do see the results of that. Better digestion, better resistance, like I said, to these viruses and bacteria, better mood. Which we all want. So it really, you know, extends pretty far.

Jonathan:  Absolutely. So we all know that like, prebiotics might be something that help your gut, but there's more than prebiotics. So what are post biotics?

Rebecca:  Post biotics. Yeah. So you've got your prebiotics, your probiotics. So your prebiotics are your food for your probiotics. So prebiotics + probiotics equal post biotics and so when you're feeding these good bacteria, they produce these great things for us. So lots of different things. So for example, short chain fatty acids, which do lots of different things in the body. Butyrate is one really good example. Your B vitamins, vitamin K for an example are produced by feeding your probiotics—they give us these post biotics, so lots of different benefits to those too supporting that equation, right.

Jonathan:  OK, so that's all about your microbes in your gut and everything. So what exactly do those microbes do?

Rebecca:  Yeah, a lot. I think we probably have only kind of got the tip of the iceberg of what has been studied so far but yeah, these microbes support us in lots of different ways. It's really interesting that they unlock a lot of our nutrients for us. So when we get into talking about fermentation, we can get into that a little bit more but these microbes, you know, so your stomach acid is helping you break things down, but it's getting a little bit further like I said, a lot of your bacteria is concentrated in your large intestine. So it's gonna further breakdown in that large intestine. It's kind of fermenting in your large intestine and they're unlocking these vitamins and nutrients for us.

So that's one thing that the microbes do, but they also help support us to prevent infection, reduce inflammation, support our brain health.

Jonathan:  So how often should we be eating fermented foods?

Rebecca:  Every day.

Jonathan:  Every day?

Rebecca:  Yeah, ideally, we're having, you know. I would say, you know, one serving on the side of every meal, you know, we can talk about kind of how to build a plate and we I think we have talked about this before. I bet you I left out that little serving of a fermented food kind of on the side of your plate is a really good idea. And you know, you can really mix it up depending on, you know, maybe you don't want kimchi for breakfast, but you know, that's where your yogurt can come in and we've got a ton of different options for different fermented foods.

And one thing you really want to look for, well, a couple of things. You don't want too much sugar and something to factor in, say when you think of like kombucha is it's going to have sugar in the label. But often a lot of that sugar has been eaten up by those bacteria already. So it's not the same just like you know, say a tablespoon of sugar or whatever, but you also want to make sure that it's not pasteurized because that's really killing a lot of those enzymes and those microbes that are present in fermented foods. So kind of look for unpasteurized on the label or make sure it does not say pasteurized.

That's where it's really nice. Often that will be in the fridge. There are some products on the shelf. It's, well, better unpasteurized, but a lot of times those foods will be in the fridge.

Jonathan:  So are is there anything to be cautious about when eating fried foods?

Rebecca:  Yeah. If it's not something that, you know, you regularly consume, you definitely want to start small. You don't wanna start off with a whole jar of yogurt or kimchi or whatever it may be to tablespoons even, maybe starting with that per day. It's a great way to start it and introduce and make sure you tolerate it well. Some people are really sensitive to histamine and a lot of fermented foods are high in histamine. So if you know you have a histamine intolerance, that may not be the best kind of route to go. You may find that you have a little bit of a flare up that way.

So starting small and being cautious of those things. And I always say listen to your body. Right. Be mindful, like if it doesn't go so well, sometimes it could be that you know, you've had too much, but it could be that you're just not tolerating tolerating that either specific fermented food, well, or fermented foods. And in that case, if you find that it may be good to chat with the practitioner about what kind of might be going on in your gut.

Jonathan:  Absolutely. All right. Well, I think that's everything for today, but, you know, we always have so many fermented foods here at Jo Anne's Place and we have so much, you know, educated associates who will let you know anything you need to know about gut health and they can recommend many different products and yeah, all that kind of good stuff. So thanks for watching. We'll be back soon.