Gut Health

All of the nutrients our body needs to stay healthy are absorbed through the intestines. Apart from digesting the food we eat to provide the body with essential nutrients, the intestines also remove waste materials and toxins. Keeping our gut healthy is essential in order to keep our body healthy.

The gut or Gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a tube that runs from our mouth to our anus. The inside of this tube is coated with a thin layer of sticky, viscous mucous. Covering this mucous and imbedded in it are millions and millions of bacteria.

Just as there is a direct link between intestinal disease and bad bacteria, there is also a positive role beneficial gut bacteria play in our health and well-being. Gut health is becoming increasingly important as we are more inclined to consume a diet that is high in fat and low in fibre. This type of diet creates an imbalance of “good” bacteria versus “bad” bacteria in the gut, which has been shown to have a direct link to the rise of chronic diseases.

An Inside Look

In the course of our lives, the bacteria or micro flora in our intestine live, grow, carry out their metabolism, and excrete beneficial and nonbeneficial compounds into the gut. The intestinal micro flora consists of:

• Health-promoting (“good”) bacteria
• Potentially harmful or pathogenic (“bad”) bacteria

Maintaining a healthy digestive system depends on keeping a balance among the billions of bacteria that live in the intestines. On top of digestion and absorption, interaction with the body’s immune system is one of the most important functions gut bacteria play.

When the number of good bacteria outnumber the bad bacteria, our immune system is at its optimal level. These good bacteria form a protective barrier to keep harmful bacteria out, which helps maintain a healthy intestinal tract and stimulate the body’s natural defenses. There are over 400 to 500 strains of bacteria living in our intestines. Of this, a handful is classified as harmful. These bad bacteria have the potential to cause disease and illness.

Harmful bacteria can enter the body via the diet or the environment. Salmonella, E-Coli, Listeria and Clostridia are foodborne pathogens. It is widely believed that diets high in red meat and fat can increase the chances of contact with these harmful bacteria. The main types of beneficial bacteria include Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus and its substrains. The more good bacteria in the intestines, the less space there is for harmful strains to stay and cause health problems. If the balance between good and bad bacteria is disturbed, the body may become less efficient in absorbing the nutrients it requires, which may lead to digestive and health problems.

Factors that affect the balance of intestinal bacteria include:

• Stress
• Changes in eating habits
• Travelling
• Smoking
• Alcohol consumption
• Over-the-counter medications
• Antibiotics
• Infections
• Aging

Understanding Probiotics and Prebiotics

PROBIOTICS
Live organisms that help improve the environment of the intestinal tract

• Help maintain microbial balance in the intestines
• Help inhibit growth of harmful bacteria
• Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus are probiotics

PREBIOTICS

Food sources that stimulate the growth or activity of beneficial bacteria in the intestines

• Influence intestinal bacteria by helping probiotics to grow
• Not digested by the human digestive enzymes, hence they pass unchanged into the intestine, enabling probiotics to utilise prebiotics as food sources
• Can be derived from non-digestible fibre e.g. inulin, raffinose, galactooligosaccharides or fructooligosaccharides

• Fructooligosaccharides:

1. Refer to short chains of oligosaccharides, which comprise D-fructose and D-glucose
2. Resistant to digestion in the upper GI tract
3. Stimulate growth of Bifidobacterium bacteria in the large intestine

Lactobacillus
Helps decrease the number of harmful bacteria e.g. Listeria, Salmonella and Campylobacter, which are all foodborne pathogens, by producing lactic acid to alter the intestinal environment, making it unsuitable for pathogenic bacteria.

• Studies have shown improved lactose digestion with consumption of probiotic organisms like Lactobacillus Acidophilus, which breaks down milk sugar lactose by helping to metabolise the enzyme lactase. Hence, Lactobacillus Acidophilus may be helpful for people unable to digest milk products.
• Helps relieve diarrhoea resulting from changes in eating habits or stress.

Bifidobacterium
The body’s first line of defense against harmful bacteria like Salmonella and E-Coli.

• The predominant organism in the large intestine that helps the body maintain a
• healthy balance of intestinal bacteria by producing organic compounds e.g. lactic acid, hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid.
• These acids decrease the pH of intestines, making the environment unsuitable for and suppresses the growth of harmful bacteria. By decreasing harmful bacteria,
• Bifidobacterium helps suppress production of harmful toxins and substances, which not only reduces the amount of toxins going into the liver, but also helps protect intestinal cell integrity and maintain good intestinal health.
• Helps produce immunostimulating properties by increasing phagocyte activity i.e. cells that engulf or digest foreign harmful substance.
• Helps decrease incidences of diarrhoea and maintain or re-establish the balance of
• intestinal bacteria.

Streptococcus
Long used as a culturing agent in dairy products, as it ferments quickly.

• Helps reduce lactose intolerance and reduce incidences of diarrhoea.
• Supports digestion of dairy products.

Potential Users

Who needs to have a healthy balance of good bacteria in their intestines? Everyone!
Especially those who:

• are interested in increasing their intake of prebiotics and probiotics
• wish to support their immune system
• have poor diet habits with tendency to consume high fat and low fibre diet
• experience changes in their diet
• are frequent travellers or vacationers
• experience stress
• experience lactose intolerance
• take medications like antibiotics
• wish to maintain the bacteria population in their intestines at a healthy level to enhance
• their health
• are aging, as the aging process changes the pH of their intestines

Benefits of Good Gut Health

Better stress management
One of the more common symptoms of a body under stress is diarrhoea. In fact, stress
is said to be a leading cause of Digestive Stress Disorders. Stress depletes the immune system, which is inextricably linked with digestive health. When one isn’t functioning optimally, it would inevitably influence the other and become the precursor to health problems.

Stronger immune system
Incorporating a probiotic supplement in your diet helps to enhance your immune
system as a weak digestive health would cause a decline in the immune system,
leaving the body more vulnerable to illnesses, allergies and more prone to fatigue and slow wound healing, among others.

More energy
When your body is functioning at its optimum, it takes 80% of your energy to digest and eliminate your food. The figure will increase in times of stress or illness, leaving less energy for the body’s other important functions. Probiotics can bring this figure back to the normal level, giving your body enough energy for other important functions, for instance, the rest and repair mechanisms.

Getting over antibiotics
Antibiotics not only kill off the bacteria that cause an infection, but also eliminate
healthy bacteria from the digestive tract. Supplementing the diet with a probiotic will
help to restore the balance and put the good bacteria back in control.



also check out: Why Prebiotics are Essential to Your Heart Health & Immune System