Healthy gut, healthy mind

You may have noticed the emergence of drinks like kombucha or kefir on the shelves of supermarkets. What you may not have realised is the link between these ‘trendy’ drinks and mental health.

Traditionally, emphasis is placed on treatment such as therapy, medication and mindfulness when it comes to mental health. However, we may have been missing an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle – the gut.

Present day research shows that commensal, probiotic, and pathogenic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract can initiate the central nervous system and affect neural pathways (Foster and Neufield, 2013). Further, neuroactive substances such as serotonin can be produced by gut microorganisms which influence mood (Evrensel & Ceylan, 2015).

Recent interventions have started to integrate the use of fermented foods and drinks (such as kefir and kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi), pre and probiotics to influence mental health (Dash et al., 2015). These so called ‘Psychobiotics’ exert anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) and antidepressant effects (Sarkar et al., 2016).

So, now we are starting to understand more about the links between gut health and mental health, what can we do to help support this so called ‘gut-brain axis’?

Diet is one of the easiest and most important ways to ensure a healthy and balanced gut microbiome. ‘You are what you eat’ is becoming more evidence based than ever before and research suggests restoring microbiome composition can be done rapidly through dietary alterations (Singh et al., 2017).

Although we still don’t fully understand the link between mental health and the gut microbiome, there are some safe and effective ways to support your gut health and expand your taste buds at the same time.

The Mediterranean diet is held in high regard for various health benefits, rich in fruits and vegetables, it also supports good gut health (Lassale et al., 2018).

Introducing pre and probiotics into your diet can also help to balance and feed good bacteria in the gut. The difference between pre and pro biotics can sometimes be confusing, however. Simply put, probiotics are the helpful bacteria found in supplements or foods. Prebiotics are specific fibres that feed the helpful bacteria. A useful metaphor explaining the difference could be a garden. The probiotics being the addition of seeds and the prebiotics being the fertiliser and water which helps the seeds thrive and grow.

According to research these are a few probiotics that have been shown to be helpful in promoting a healthy gut:

  • Kefir, a fermented milk drink (Leite et al., 2013)
  • Sauerkraut, fermented raw cabbage (Orgeron et al., 2016)
  • Kombucha, a fermented tea (Aslam et al., 2018)
  • Tempeh, a popular meat substitute made from fermented soybeans (Sudargo et al., 2013)

And here are a few prebiotics that have been shown to be beneficial and often lacking in the modern western diet:

  • Lentils, chickpeas and beans
  • Oats
  • Bananas
  • Garlic
  • Onions
  • Nuts

As well as promoting gut health through adding in key foods and nutrients to the diet, it is also important to try and avoid certain things that have shown to be potentially detrimental to gut health.

Research suggests that the following can negatively influence gut health:

  • Drinking large amounts of alcohol (Mutlu et al., 2012)
  • Antibiotic use (Dethlefsen et al., 2008)
  • Lack of physical exercise (Monda et al., 2017)
  • Smoking (Biedermann et al., 2013)
  • Lack of sleep (Benedict et al., 2016)
  • Stress (Konturek et al., 2011)
  • Large quantities of sugar in the diet (Kruis et al., 1991)

 

Guest blog written by Hannah Galloway, BSc Psychology, MSc Abnormal and Clinical Psychology

 

N.B. We would always recommend consulting with a dietician, nutritional therapist or other professional before introducing these new food sources into your diet. The benefit of both pre- and pro- biotics will also vary depending on the composition of your individual gut microbiome.

 

For more information about how to support your gut health, we recommend the evidence based approach of Dr Megan Rossi https://www.theguthealthdoctor.com/

 

(References available on request.)