12 Mar 2024

Gut Health

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Can you believe the gut microbiome, our ‘second brain’, is made up of over 100 trillion microorganisms that include bacteria, viruses and fungi. Some of these are good for us and some are bad for us, with ‘gut health’ all about getting the balance right. To complicate matters even further, our microbiomes are unique to us – no two people are exactly the same – and we start developing our unique microbiome before we are even born (3), (4)! A recent study (2) found there are more than 1,500 links between microbiome-related outcomes and factors such as diet, medications and disease.

Despite our individual gut biome differences, most of us understand what gut flora is and that a healthy gut relates to a healthy mind (1). However, what we’re not so good at understanding is how microbiomes specifically impact on our health – that’s not surprising because it’s pretty complicated and wide-ranging.

Nonetheless, there are lots of things that we can all do to improve our gut health and eating good, clean food is right up there. Urban Forager stock and broth concentrates contain up to 79% real organic vegetables which are full of the fibre that acts as a prebiotic in our gut. Prebiotics feed your microbiome and can have a range of health benefits including reducing complications from diabetes (5). Not only can they help maintain good gut health, they’ve also been shown to restore a disturbed gut (8). You might see them on an ingredients list or even on the front section of a food label, shouting out ‘with prebiotics’. Brands are making this claim because most of us know prebiotics are important for our gut health and they hope we might spend a little extra for this goodness. These ‘pre-biotics’ in commercially produced food are often just powdered, high fibre vegetables. We can easily consume our own dose just by eating a good range of whole fruit and vegetables in our everyday diet.

There are so many benefits to be gained from eating ‘cleaner’ food – and it’s as much to do with what you are NOT eating as it is to do with what you are eating. A good example of what NOT to eat, or at least what to reduce in your diet where possible, is emulsifiers. Emulsifiers are found in a huge range of foods, including mayonnaise, dressings, sauces, chocolate, icecream, bread, baked goods and margarine. Sadly, they’re also often in stocks and broths. These additives have the potential to worsen digestive processes, resulting in things like bloating, abdominal discomfort, and bowel-movement changes. Many of them also cause inflammation and contribute to a leaky gut. There’s a risk that these additives could affect your weight and disrupt your blood-sugar and insulin regulation (7), and there’s a demonstrated link between the consumption of emulsifiers and bowel disease and metabolic syndrome (9). There’s a correlation between emulsifier consumption and Crohn’s disease (11), and a study showed marked improvement in symptoms and quality of life measures for people with Crohn’s who drastically reduced their consumption of emulsifiers (12). Suffice to say, we should probably put emulsifiers into the ‘sometimes’ category of our food list and choose emulsifier free products where possible. Hopefully it goes without saying that Urban Forager products don’t contain emulsifiers.

You can learn more about the association between thickeners and increased inflammation in our Immune System Health blog. And you can find a really helpful list of additives including thickeners & emulsifiers at the Food Intolerance Network (10).

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