A Few Words on GT (Gastrointestinal Tract) Health.

It is common knowledge that our physical body, its health, and its well being, is important for the overall quality of our lives. That is why I would like to write a few words about one of the building blocks of a strong immune system – the GT (gastrointestinal tract), because  gut microbiota play a key part in human immune homeostasis (1, 2).

The evolution of the human body goes together with the evolution of microorganisms within and on our body – we coexist and evolve together. Every human being has their own unique microbiota (community of microorganisms). Scientists argue that this community is ginormous and its quantity may be greater than the total number of cells (3) in our bodies (4).

To have a good symbiotic relationship with this community would be highly beneficial (5) for us. These friendly microbiota have their own food preferences. Thus, it makes perfect sense to treat these wonderful helpers with something that they would benefit from on a daily basis. Hence, the question is: What do they like to eat most? 

On Prebiotics, Probiotics and the Resistant Starch.

You can dive into that ocean of data on your own. I did my exploratory search and found enough information to facilitate a few first steps down the road and to plan well for the journey, ensuring an adequate food supply every step of the way for ourselves and for our friends.  Learning, understanding, and acting upon just a few key ideas makes it possible. 

Currently, we witness the exponential growth of the research in nutrition. Many studies were devoted over the years to the human gut microbiome. A simple Google search will provide you with a great number of links (6) on the subject. Each source leads to a great number of other sources (7) – The amount of information is overwhelming. 

We need to plan for prebiotics and probiotics (8), which help us maintain a healthy balance of beneficial bacteria in our bodies. “Good bacteria” help us break down and digest food more efficiently, optimize our body’s vitamin production, and even get rid of harmful bacteria and cells (9). We are all at least somewhat familiar with probiotics (10), which we consume in food products like yogurt; labels on such items usually inform us that said product contains live cultures.

Prebiotics are basically food for our gut bacteria and the so-called “ Resistant Starch” is one of the best food items on the menu for your microbiota.

”Prebiotics are specialized plant fibers. They act like fertilizers that stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut.

Prebiotics are found in many fruits and vegetables, especially those that contain complex carbohydrates, such as fiber and resistant starch. These carbs aren’t digestible by your body, so they pass through the digestive system to become food for the bacteria and other microbes.” (11)

To summarize, probiotics are live microorganisms (bacteria and yeast) which help us stay healthy, while prebiotics are food components that cannot be digested in the human stomach and are destined to become food for “good bacteria” in our guts. They stimulate activity and promote the growth of the beneficial microorganism population ( 12).

You may find some of the healthy microbiome-supporting dishes from my repertoire in the following posts: one cold soup (13) recipe, one fermented beverage (14), and one salad/side dish (15).  

But there is so much more to share! I have been familiar with a great variety of prebiotics and probiotics since long before I even learned of this notion. It has always been an integral part of my family tradition. Over the years I have also been reevaluating my food experience from the nutritional point of view. And now I would like to share what I discovered, learned, accommodated, and made an integral part of my food tradition.