My daughter, who survived on salty, cheddar-dusted Goldfish crackers, now devours kimchi when she craves a snack. She may be onto something.
Turns out kimchi, a spicy Korean cabbage dish, is one of many foods that may help keep our insides healthy, which in turn may be good for our overall health. Our gut - the GI tract - is home to a vast ecosystem of trillions of microbes, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. Scientists call this teeming world inside us: the microbiome.
For years, researchers largely saw the gut as a digestive tube - a place where food is broken down, nutrients absorbed, and waste moved out. Now we understand that the microbiome conducts a far broader, more complex operation. It’s packed with immune cells that quickly identify and fight off troublesome microbes in food and in other foreign materials that come by — while leaving beneficial ones intact. It is the immune system's most important frontline.
Where the microbiome may do some of its finest work is near the far end of the digestive tract, in the colon. Beneficial organisms there break down the fiber we eat and turn it into compounds that nourish the mucous membrane lining the colon. A well-fed lining forms a strong barrier, which helps keep harmful microbes and inflammatory substances from crossing the colon wall and triggering trouble elsewhere. When that system is disrupted, the lining can weaken, inflammation can occur, and immune signaling can start to go awry.
Scientists are even investigating whether this kind of disruption may play a role in autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
This microbiome really is a big deal, even if you never heard of it.
A healthy microbiome may even help protect the heart. Early studies suggest that compounds produced when gut microbes break down fiber may help lower blood pressure and otherwise support cardiovascular health.
There is also evidence that the microbiome and the brain communicate through nerve signals, hormones and other pathways, forming a gut-brain axis. Some studies have linked the microbiome to mood and emotional health. There has been a lot of hype around this but the research is still too new to draw firm conclusions.
What is better established is that we need to take care of our microbiome so it can take care of us.
Here’s where diet plays a huge role. Our microbiome thrives on fiber-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains. It also likes certain carbohydrates called resistant starches. They “resist” digestion higher up in the gut and arrive in the colon ready for microbes to feast on. These special starches are found in chickpeas, lentils, oats, and cooked rice or pasta that has been cooled.
Fermented foods such as kimchi and yogurt may help too, in part because they deliver live, beneficial microbes directly to the gut. So aim to eat more of these, too, even if you start small. You can, like my daughter, try kimchi. Or if that’s too much of a leap, for your next meal, toss in some nuts, seeds or beans.
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