This is part of my 30 a week Microbiome eating plan to help keep my microbiome healthy.
Your microbiome is unique to you. It’s like your gut fingerprint and no two people have the same one. What works in my tummy may not necessarily work in your tummy, but if we pay attention to how we feel when we feed and nourish our bodies we may start to notice what works, and what doesn’t.
This week I listened to a podcast on Olive Magazine, they were interviewing Clemence Cleave, a registered nutritionist in the United Kingdom about the Microbiome. It was a facinating chat
My takeaway from this podcast is that the microbiota needs to be fed in order to stay healthy and strong and in good balance. The bigger the better certainly helps in this regard. What we eat obviously affects the microbiota and diversity happens to be a key influencer. We used to be encouraged to eat “5 a day” vegetables but research is leaning towards encouraging a “30 a week” proposition. Can it be done? Well that’s what I set out to do when making this broth. I certainly don’t buy 30 different vegetables a week. There are 18 different plant based ingredients in this broth so you are more than halfway there already. Just remember variety is what is important here so play around with the options.
The microbiota or colony feeds on fibre. You find that in foods like lentils, beans, barley, oats, herbs, nuts, seeds, vegetables, brown rice, basically any plant based food. They also enjoy probiotics, which is important for their stability and growth and proven beneficial to the functioning of the microbiota. Fermented foods along with various stains of probiotics are also hugely beneficial.
What plays havoc with our Microbiome? Environmental factors shape our biome. High levels of stress, lack of sleep, lack of exercise and smoking are negative influences. The types of foods a western diet encourages also has a negative impact. Western diets are largely based on processed food and not full of vegetable alternatives. Junk food and highly processed foods are more common in a western diet. Our biomes struggle to find their source of food in these diets. If they are not fed properly they can’t do their work of effectively and efficiently keeping our gut healthy. The entire digestive system becomes laboured and sluggish. We’ve all been here, this is not a huge revalation.
Another interesting connection is the Gut Brain Axis. The communication happens from the gut to the brain via the microbiota colony. The Smile Trial is a reference to a study linking depression to the microbiome. This is a whole new post for another day. In the meantime try to observe how many different plant based options you nourish your body with, which includes herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, legumes, beans and of course the obvious fruits and vegetables. Just be mindful of the sugar content in fruit. I wouldn’t recommend only fruit here. Remember 30 different ones per week.
1 small onion,
40g of fresh coriander
One small chilli
two cloves of fresh garlic
120g Olive Oil
juice of half a lemon
A quarter teaspoon each of chilli powder, organic cardamom, onion powder, cayenne pepper, ground, ginger, turmeric, mace, ajwain seeds, she’s inward investment
1tsp curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper to taste
200ml coconut cream
Method: –
Place all the ingredients in NutriBullet, and blitz on high until smooth paste has formed. Decant into glass bottle and store in the fridge for 1 week. Alternatively, freeze in ice cube trays and pop out ice cubes as needed.
Add 2 tablespoons or more to a cup of hot water and drink whenever you feel hungry, cold or bored.
And please remember, I’m not a medical practitioner; this is my blog about what I have learnt from listening and applying it to my life. Please seek out medical advice should you feel inclined to research the subject matter further.