Did you know that your entire body is filled with bacteria? It’s crawling on your skin, in your hair, and even in your stomach and colon! But don’t worry, these are the good guys.
Microbiota and Immunity
So what are microbiota? Microbiota refer to bacteria in or on your body that are “native”, meaning they belong to your body. These are the important bacteria that help fight against all the bad invading bacteria that you may come into contact with.
Microbiota assist in your immunity by many means, including fighting bad bacteria on your skin (that saltiness on you), cleaning dirty bacteria from a cut (leftover pus- gross!), and -what I think is the most important function- fighting invading bacteria inside of your body!
Why You May not have a strong immunity
You may not have a good amount of native bacteria due to an imbalance in your system. Either the bad bacteria outweighs the good or you may not have enough good bacteria to begin with to fight invaders.
There can be many reasons for a lack of these important microbiota including: taking a lot of antibiotics (which kill bacteria whether they are good or bad), getting them “flushed out” when sick (usually you’re running to the bathroom a lot in this case), or more commonly, they are underfed so bad bacteria have a chance to thrive.
So what do Gut Microbiota Eat Anyways?
The most important food that you can eat to keep your bacteria happy? You guessed it... vegetables!
But why vegetables? So it turns out that bacteria are total vegetarians. They need the non-digestible dietary fibers from breaking down your greens through a process called fermentation (in your small intestine) in order to thrive and survive (as well as discourage the bad guys).
How Can I Introduce More Healthy Bacteria?
So if you find your self lacking in the healthy bacteria department, you might need extra probiotics. Probiotics actually contain healthy live bacteria inside of them so that you can introduce them into your system.
Probiotics are found in yogurts, yeast, and fermented foods (yum!).
How Do I Boost My Own Bacteria?
Im sure you’ve heard of probiotics, but have you heard of a prebiotic? Something that has a prebiotic component, meaning good non-digestible dietary fibers, will feed the bacteria you have already. Lucky for us, dietary fibers are found in plants and whole grains. Some of my favorite high fiber foods are avocado, raspberries, chickpeas, and oats.
Prebiotics also come in supplement forms or fortified foods and drinks, but it is best to just get them naturally through plants!
So if you're looking to boost your immunity and gut health, add more fibrous plants to your grocery list! But if you don't have one, try this one here!
Yes, when I include enough greens in my meals I still feel full & also feel lighter & not “weighed down.” Cool, on the “corn & corniness” pun intended!
I’ve noticed that eating more greens for dinner has helped a lot for me. I feel more lively and don’t feel heavy when I go to bed.