What We Talk About When We Talk About 'Gut Health'
By now, you’ve probably heard a little something about gut health and how your gut can impact everything from your digestive system to your mental health and everything in between. But what does gut health actually refer to, and why is your gut such a powerful part of your body? Turns out, this trendy term encompasses far more than how our stomach feels or how bloated we are (although those definitely come into play!). We checked in with some experts to get the lowdown on what gut health actually is, why it’s so important, and what you can do to keep your gut healthy.
Your guts & you
First, let’s look at the legions of bacteria hanging out in our intestines. While we may think of bacteria as disease-causing agents that lead to doom and gloom, there are plenty of good microbes and other cells in your digestive that we actually need to maintain proper intestinal health.
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“There is now a […] consensus that the state of our bodies depends on our microbes just as surely as it depends on our nature and nurture,” says Dr. Kien Vuu, clinical professor of medicine at UCLA-David Geffen School of Medicine, who practices interventional and diagnostic radiology at UCLA-Olive View Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente.
Vuu notes that the term “gut health” actually refers to the balance between the good bacteria in the digestive tract and the bad and how everything works together to maintain our overall state of being. Our gut microbiome helps break down food and maintain our immune system and also helps regulate feel-good hormones that are primarily stored in our gut. “Maintaining good gut health means having a healthy diversity of good microbes in our gut that allows us to function our best and be free of inflammation and disease,” he explains.
Gut health & your health
It’s vital to have a good balance of bacteria to maintain — and even improve — our overall health. “Having an imbalance of these good [and] bad bacteria in the gut most often leads to malabsorption issues, chronic illness, and inflammation, causing diarrhea or constipation and even mental health disorders like depression and anxiety — referred to as the gut-brain axis,” says Taylor Engelke, registered dietitian at Nutrimental Healthcare.
What’s a leaky gut?!
“Leaky gut” is another term that’s often thrown around, but although it sounds like, well, someone’s leaking diarrhea everywhere, it actually refers to the health and status of the lining of your intestinal tract.
“The cells which line the gut are very tight together in a healthy tissue, but with leaky gut, these junctions between the cells start to become loose and pull apart, which allows particles from inside the digestive tract to enter the bloodstream, triggering an immune reaction to these foreign invaders,” explains Engelke. This can lead to a variety of issues, such as food sensitivities, and symptoms range from cramping, pain, diarrhea, and constipation to other non-GI symptoms, such as eczema (because yes, the health of your gut impacts your skin!).
How to maintain good gut health
Good gut health, as you might imagine, starts with the foods we eat. Dr. Joyce Faraj, nutritionist at Mountainside Treatment Center, notes that if you have more of a Western diet (more burgers, fast foods, low intake of salads, fruits and vegetables), you likely have more of the not-so-beneficial bacteria growing in there. This can be related to higher inflammation levels, which can affect mental health and increase risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
“Now, if you start feeding it the good things that it likes to eat, such as fiber-rich foods like fruits and vegetables and increasing your intake of probiotic-rich foods, such as yogurt, you’ll make your gut happy and boost the growth of good bacteria,” she explains. An anti-inflammatory diet is a great place to start when it comes to improving your gut health.
Probiotics, as mentioned, are a big part of a gut-healthy diet. Probiotics are what we call the live, good-for-you bacteria and yeasts that your body needs to stay healthy. You can consume them from both food sources and over-the-counter supplements, says Rebecca Lee, registered nurse and founder of Remedies for Me. (Most experts recommend food sources, which typically offer more probiotic variety as well as other beneficial nutrients.)
Good food sources of probiotics include yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, tempeh, natto, kombucha, and kimchi. If you do decide to go the supplement route, Lee suggests opting for supplements with strains like bacillus coagulans, lactobacillus rhamnosus, lactobacillus acidophilus, saccharomyces boulardii, bacillus subtilis, or another longer-surviving probiotic. She adds that quality supplements should contain at least 10 to as many as 30 different strains.
Get on your gut’s good side
Your gastrointestinal tract is a big part of your body — not just because of its enormous size (the small intestine itself is about 20 feet long!), but because of the hordes of microbes that take up space within it. If you make quality food choices and consume a good amount of probiotics, you can help fine-tune the nature of your gut health and tip the balance in your favor.
A version of this story was published February 2018.
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