The gut has trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungal crawlies – which is a good thing! These crawlies, or organisms, are the microbiome. They help you digest food, keep your metabolism regular, remove toxins, help your immune system and help with maintaining a good, healthy weight.
If things are out of balance bad bacteria can overwhelm the good bacteria and cause things to go haywire. If your gut ends up with more bad bacteria than good, which can be caused by chronic stress, using antibiotics for too long, having a diet in refined carbohydrates among other things, will give the gut an imbalanced microbiome. So, it is always good to take a probiotic and have a diet good in fiber to help that good bacteria not become overwhelmed.
So, what are good things to be eating? Legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains and prebiotic foods which are fermented carbohydrates and those kinds of carbohydrates feed the good bacteria. Eating probiotic rich foods or taking supplements is super helpful to helping that good bacteria as well.
Celiac disease is a little harder to maintain and though I do not live with that I was close to developing it had I not changed my diet. I actually did 23 and Me DNA and it came back as I was at a slightly increased risk which only verified that gluten really isn’t my greatest friend. If you have celiac disease, many people can continue to have gastrointestinal issues because the gut crawlies are still imbalanced. I’m not a doctor so I am not sure of exactly why this is but it could possibly be due to the easily digestible starches that tend to be high in a gluten free diet. There have been studies showing high amounts of small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in celiac people who still experience gastrointestinal issues even when following a gluten free diet. There is treatment and it usually involves an antibiotic, which has cleared up symptoms. Drug free ways involve a specific diet which excludes starches and is pretty strict but is similar to the diet I used, the Paleo Diet (which I will go into more on another page).
So, here’s the lowdown, if you have more of a sensitivity to gluten, like myself, stick to prebiotic and probiotic foods because these are naturally gluten free and are great for that good bacteria in your gut. Want a list of prebiotic and probiotic foods? Click here to go to that page.