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Our gut and brain are tightly connected. It’s called the gut-brain axis and it’s very much a two-way street – each affects the other.

The gut and the brain are physically connected by the vagus nerve, which carries an extensive range of signals from the digestive system and organs to the brain and vice versa.

Chemicals, such as hormones and neurotransmitters, transmit messages between the gut and the brain.

These chemicals are produced in response to the food we eat, as well as in response to different environmental factors.

So let’s say you’re especially hungry and decide to go feast on a delicious pizza. 

As you’re enjoying your meal, a series of signals are triggered, all part of a reward system that’s responsible for cravings. 

The goal is to make sure you’ll remember this activity and repeat it in the future. The hormone dopamine has a major role to play in it. 

This pathway is connected to areas associated with memory and behavior. It exists to make you feel good when you participate in activities that are important for survival, such as eating, drinking, and sex. 

Our brains have evolved to respond to food whenever the opportunity was available, especially if the food was delicious. 

The reward mechanisms that control cravings are very similar to the ones in drug addiction.

Cravings for drugs and food, particularly so-called hedonic foods that are high-fat or high-sugar activate the reward-learning regions and dopamine signaling similarly. 

Signals from gut to brain influence our mood, as well as what we crave for.

Although the signals for cravings come from our brain, half of the dopamine in your body is produced in the gut.

And what’s truly stunning is that almost all (95%) of another so-called happy hormone – serotonin – is produced in the gut as well.

In a very real sense, cravings are amongst the most powerful psychological forces out there. 

They’re incredibly hard to resist – it’s harder to get off food than cocaine, heroin or amphetamine.

Cravings are closely tied to your blood sugar levels

Sugar cravings stem mostly from a blood sugar imbalance. 

When your body digests sugar, your blood sugar spikes and your body releases insulin to lower it to a safer level.

If the insulin brings your blood sugar level a bit too low, as often happens, your body starts to ask for quick energy, which is usually sweet, salty or extremely calorie-dense food.

Blood sugar response to carbohydrates (including sugar) is described by glycemic index.

Foods with a high glycemic index are rapidly digested, absorbed and metabolised and result in marked fluctuations in blood sugar (glucose) levels. 

Foods with low glycemic index produce smaller fluctuations in your blood glucose and insulin levels. 

Studies show that a diet that’s low in nutrients or with high glycemic index may cause you to feel hungry or experience cravings, even if you have otherwise eaten enough calories. 

Source: https://www.gisymbol.com/low-gi-explained/

Which foods cause symptoms similar to addiction?

The foods most commonly associated with addictive-like symptoms in humans are those that are highly-processed, high on the glycemic index, and contain large amounts of added fats and sugar. 

Although there is strong support for the addictive potential of sugar in animal studies, data from human studies suggests that the combination of sweet and fat is more commonly associated with addictive symptoms than sugar alone.  

How to combat cravings? 

Sugar addiction goes in a circle – when you feel low, you crave sugar and anything that gives you “fast” energy. You get the quick fix, and are soon back to feeling low again.

Instead of having quick fixes like afternoon donuts, your body really needs foods that allow nutrients to absorb slower. 

So your blood sugar won’t go up and down really quickly, but stays stable throughout the day. 

The best food for that is fiber-rich: 

• Whole-grains
• Vegetables
• Legumes
• Nuts and seeds
• Berries and fruits.

Fiberful food is low in glycemic index, meaning that it is digested and absorbed slower.  It provides energy for a longer time and doesn’t cause a quick crash after eating.

In addition to fiber-rich options, there are a lot of other small steps to take to eat less sugar and combat food cravings:

1. Start to read labels
   Discover what your food contains. Most people don’t realise how much additives, including sugar, they eat daily. Compare products and choose the ones with more natural ingredients and with less additives and sugar (including artificial sweeteners!) in it. You don’t need to leave any food groups out – just make slightly better choices.
   
2. Choose natural flavours over artificial sweeteners
   You like to bake? Start using banana and dried dates instead of white table sugar. The options are endless and you might find some new favourites. Using stevia or other sweetener substitutes doesn’t help with your sugar cravings.
   
3. Drink more water
   A lot of times our brain confuses dehydration with feeling hungry so instead of eating a handful of snacks, drink a glass of water. We mix thirst and hunger because the signals come from the same part of the brain and thirst signals are usually weaker.
   
4. Plan your meals and eat on regular times
   Accidents happen when you fail to plan. The worst thing you can do is go to the supermarket being hungry and tired after a long day at work. You don’t want to make a healthy soup or a vegetable wok that will take an hour to make. You probably will grab something sweet, savoury and fast, because that’s the easiest way. So plan your meals and be prepared to have a healthy snack when needed.
   
5. Let people around you know that you you are in a journey of overcoming your cravings and it’s important to you
   Unfortunately, a lot of people have a mindset that it’s ok to have a small amount of junk food daily and it can be hard to stay true to yourself if you are the only person in the room with that goal. So let people know that this time you are not having the cake and maybe you don’t need extra servings.

Do you ever think about whether it’s even possible to have and maintain a balanced life?

There are times when I feel my energy is completely gone, and there’s nowhere to get it from.

And there are times when I have the gnawing feeling that I’m capable of so much more. 

Who are these superhumans, who seem to consistently get it all right – who are organized, sleep enough, exercise regularly,  have fulfilling relationships, eat their veggies, build a career, and still have time to have fun…  Where do they get the time and energy from?

Back in 2015 I had no clear goals or solid systems. I was often carried away by what seemed the shiniest object at the moment.

One evening I was reading a book by Marshall Goldsmith “Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts”, and came across a tool called Daily Questions. The author claimed it has the potential to vastly improve all areas of my life, with a time commitment of just 5 minutes per day. 

He offered proof from studies, and described how after ten days their team followed up and asked, “How’d you do? Did you improve?” 

Of 79 studies with 2537 participants, the results were incredibly positive:

 • 37% of participants reported improvement in all six areas.

 • 65% improved on at least four items.

 • 89% improved on at least one item.

 • 11% didn’t change on any items.

“No way”, I thought. Still, I decided to try it out.

It turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 

Questions became an obsession of mine, and over the years I’ve experimented with a lot of different methods and tools, as well as adapted and developed frameworks of my own.

Let me ask you this –  What would happen if starting from today you wouldn’t need to constantly keep motivating yourself to make changes in your life? What if steady improvement became a natural part of your life? 

You would have…

• More time and energy for what’s important to you
• Meaningful results without overwhelming yourself
• Enjoyment from the process of change, instead of a frustrating uphill struggle

But how to achieve this?

Most people are very sceptical that it’s possible to easily take up and sustain positive habits.

Is it possible to have balance in all the arenas of your life? 

Are there repeatable and reliable methods you can follow that consistently produce clarity, results and fulfilment?

Yes, there are! 

I am going to share three tools with you. These are best practices from my favorite thought leaders in the fields of personal growth, habit formation, productivity and self-awareness.

These tools have helped me enormously and I’ll show you how I’ve implemented them.

Click here to get the resource guide to 5 of my top favorite thought leaders on personal growth

By the end of this article you’ll have a great roadmap to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible. 

You’ll learn:

• How to have and maintain a balanced life
• How to create positive lasting behavioural change
• How to improve the quality of your thinking by living into better and better questions
  

What’s the point?

It turns out most of us go through life unaware of how our environment shapes our behavior. Our surroundings are filled with triggers that shape our thoughts and actions, and push and pull us off the course. So, if you are not intentional about creating your environment, you will always be struggling. 

Moreover, most often we don’t have a problem with motivation – instead, it’s the lack of clarity that keeps us stuck.

OK, so what’s the answer?

Questions are the answer! 

The quality of your questions determines the quality of your thinking. 

Life isn’t about finding answers to questions, it’s about living into better and better questions

Or as Rich Litvin says – “You don’t rise to the level of your answers. You fall to the level of your questions.”

There is no magic pill that solves your problems. It takes a journey of learning by doing. 

Let’s get practical.

Tool #1 – Daily Questions

Here’s the process, step-by-step:

Step 1

• Choose any number of objectives you want to work on. It can be 3, or 13, or 33 – your choice.

For example I began with 7 questions, and over the years have had a list the size of 5-30 questions.

• Write down each objective in the format: “Did I give my best to …?”

This isn’t a list for impressing someone, and nobody will be judging your questions. Just make sure that the items are important in your life, and success on these items will help you become the person you want to be. 

Step 2

• Each evening take a few minutes to answer the questions by giving yourself a score. I use a simple 1-10 scale, but use whatever scale feels right for you.

The idea is to measure effort, and to stop the endless obsession with results. You should put your attention on your current trajectory, not on your current results.

The mere act of tracking a behavior can spark the urge to change it.

Look for tiny margins of improvement! We tend to dismiss small changes, because they seem irrelevant. Instead we want to take massive action to achieve massive results, and end up doing nothing. 

But the fact is that change doesn’t happen overnight. Success is the sum of tiny efforts repeated daily. And you have to take the responsibility for making these tiny steps. If you do, you will improve. If you don’t, you won’t. 

To illustrate this – if you get 1 percent better each day for one year, you are going to end up thirty-seven times better. 

Step 3

• Choose one person to consistently report the scores to. Either have him/her call you for 2 minutes, or send a message.

He/she can simply receive the results, or also take on the role of telling you when you’re falling off. Better yet, it can be someone who you can discuss personal growth topics at length.  

Or you can be your own coach. I’ve never been reporting daily to anyone. Instead over the years I’ve talked to a lot of people and showed them that this is what I’m doing, and this has helped me be accountable to myself.

Take a look at one example from the book:

Here’s an example of my questions from 2016/2017:

What if I’m struggling with some of the questions and making no progress? 

I know, the struggle can sometimes be very real.

Goldsmith sums it up well: “It is incredibly difficult for any of us to look in the mirror every day and face the reality that we didn’t even try to do what we claimed was most important in our lives.”

Let me introduce you to a world-class social scientist (PhD), named BJ Fogg. Last year he published a New York Times bestseller called “Tiny Habits”

When you’re struggling to get going with a new habit, he recommends that you ask yourself the Discovery Question: “What is making this behaviour hard to do?” The answer will involve at least one of five factors, which he calls the Ability Factors:

• Do you have enough time to do the behavior?
• Do you have enough money to do the behavior?
• Are you physically capable of doing the behavior?
• Does the behavior require a lot of creative or mental energy?
• Does the behavior fit into your current routine, or does it require you to make adjustments?

Having an answer to these questions, the next one to ask yourself is what Fogg calls the Breakthrough Question:

• How can I make this behavior easier to do?

There are only three possible answers to this:

• Make the behavior tiny
• Increase your skills
• Get tools and resources

Want to know more? A great summary of his book is here. 

Let’s recap!

Summary of Tool #1 – Daily Questions

• Step 1 – Write down the amount of questions you like  in the format of “Did I give my best to …..?”
• Step 2 – Each evening take a few minutes to answer the questions by giving yourself a score. Use whatever scale feels right for you. 
• Step 3 – Choose one person to consistently report the scores to or commit to being your own coach.

But what if you’re still struggling and there’s a row of zeros in your table week after week? In that case I found I need to ask myself – is this really important to me? Several times I found I had overextended with the amount of questions and diluted the focus. And if only struggle came along with the question, I rephrased it or deleted it altogether. 

Tool #2 – Habit Tracker 

Next, an integrated habit tracker that I’m currently using. The best way to measure your progress is with a habit tracker. Let me break it down for you. 

Step 1

• Choose a few habits that you want to track, and set success criteria for yourself. Tiny in the beginning, remember? This time it isn’t about the effort anymore, but you will simply tick a box each evening if you’ve met the criteria you set for yourself. The questions here are implicit, because I know what my criteria are. But of course you can write them down so they’re always somewhere where you can see them. 

For example:

 “Meditate” means doing my meditation practice for at least one 21-minute session earns a checkmark, but the vast majority of days I am doing the full intended amount, which is 21 minutes in the morning plus 21 minutes in the evening. Simply because the peace of mind and clarity I get from it is too valuable to let go of.

Implicit question – did I meditate at least 21 minutes today?

“Breathing” – a few different breathwork exercises for 5 minutes.

“Morning workout” looks very glamorous, and for years it meant in the Daily Questions format that I do 8-25 minutes of high-intensity workout, but for the last half a year it has simply meant 5 minutes of different stretching exercises

Step 2

• Set up a “don’t break the chain” tracker – in short d-b-t-c.  This idea is taken from  the “Atomic Habits” book by James Clear. The point being, it’s psychologically much harder to drop off a habit this way. 

Keeping a simple daily log gives you much more self-awareness. If you’re simply estimating how well you’re doing, you will generally overestimate the amount of work you’ve been putting in. 

Think of it this way –  if you miss a day, it’s an accident. If you miss two days, it’s already the start of a new habit.

• Add any extra parameters that you think would be fun to measure. I’m motivated to strive towards increasing the Longest Streak, and the % Completed Days tells me at a glance what’s the reality of how well I’m doing. 

Example: 

Step 3

• At the end of each day take 1 minute to tick the boxes.

Clear recommends recording each measurement immediately after the habit occurs. The completion of the behavior is the cue to write it down. I’ve found this too cumbersome and a waste of time – it doesn’t help me keep the habit significantly better.

Don’t forget to have a mini celebration each time you complete a new behaviour. It should be something that creates a positive emotion. A little mental pat-on-the-back, or saying “I did well!” out loud, for example. This helps you to wire the new behavior into your brain. 

Step 4

• At the end of the week, take 5 minutes to update the streaks and file away the week. I do it as a part of the Weekly Review process, every Sunday evening.
  
  Because we tend to remember the ending of any experience more than any other phase, I find it rewarding to wrap up the week with a small review and a mini moment of pride and satisfaction when taking the action of filing the week to “archive”, even though I know full well I won’t ever click it open again.
  

FYI the program I’ve set this up in is called Roam Research, which I wholeheartedly believe to be the next best thing since sliced bread, for Personal Knowledge Management. All you lifelong learners, techie nerds and systems optimizers, rejoice!

Summary of Tool #2  – Habit Tracker

• Step 1 – Choose a few (tiny) habits that you want to track, and set success criteria for Step 2 – Set up a “don’t break the chain” tracker,  and any other extra parameters that you think would be fun to measure
• Step 3 – Tick the boxes at the end of each day
• Step 4 – At the end of the week, take a few minutes to update the streaks and file away the week.

Next up – my favorite tool for having and maintaining a balanced life.

Tool #3 – Daily Questions Journal

Journaling is an age-old fantastic tool for self-awareness, and I can say with confidence that it’s making a huge comeback in the world. People have a knack for integrating the old with the new.

New tools for thinking and sensemaking are being developed each day. And writing is a form of thinking, not simply a way to put your thoughts down. Very often you have no idea what you really want to say or what you mean, before you’ve actually written it down. 

My journey of journaling reflects very well the mantra of “start small”. My first journal was literally a tiny notebook where I scribbled down random thoughts that I found interesting at the time. 

It was a total mess:

There were no dates, no regular time to fill it, nor any questions to answer. No system, no nothing. But over time the journal filled up, and I got a new and bigger one. And then a bigger one.

Then I really dug in and took a deep dive into Ira Progoff “Intensive Journal Method”, which turned out to be an awesome way to journal, but considering what a huge effort it was to follow the whole process I can’t imagine it ever gaining a large base of followers.

Next came guided journaling exercises in the U.Academy, and finally in the summer of 2020 when discovering the Personal Knowledge Management concept through Tiago Forte, I started to use Roam Research and integrated my journaling practice into the program. 

Now it looks like this:

I won’t get into the nitty gritty of the awesome things that Roam Research allows to do (e.g. my favorite Evergreen notes), and instead explain the gist of the journal:

• Twice a day journaling for 15 minutes – once in the morning, once in the evening. 
• A Pomodoro Timer to help keep track of time.
• The questions have evolved over time to include not only the intelligence of my mind, but also speak to my heart and gut, and reflect my values as well as they possibly can. 
• Some days I have great answers and even better new questions, and some days I’m at a loss for words. Some questions are for a brain dump, some for evoking emotions, and some for confidence and some for challenging me. 

A few suggestions for the journey:

• Experiment! 

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Start from anywhere, with tiny objectives, tiny habits, and move on from there. There’s no rush. Get rid of the absolutely useless mentality of all-or-nothing and take action! Start by journaling for two minutes, and answering one question in the process.

As the marketing legend Seth Godin says:”The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.”

• The process matters much more than the goals
  
  There’s huge value in building a system around anything you do in life. We are living in the era of systems thinking and systems awareness.
  
  In the words of James Clear – “You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems”

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Bonus: I can’t help myself – the balance of this article is getting way too skewed towards the practical, so I can’t resist the urge to share an excerpt from a philosophical comic strip about questions and answers.  

Check out the comic strip in full

——————————————————————————————–

Conclusion

Learning how to ask questions is life-changing.

Just be sure you follow these four steps to guarantee a steady improvement towards having and maintaining a balanced life. 

Step 1: Set the intention – pick questions. Remember: start tiny!

Step 2: Track your behavior daily by using any of your favorite tools outlined here. 

Step 3: Set some time aside to regularly take a step back and reflect on your process, questions and results. 

Step 4: Make small adjustments. Repeat steps 1-3.

Phew. That’s it guys. Congratulations for making it to the end! 

If you enjoyed this and want to keep in touch, click the link below to subscribe to our free newsletter. It’s where we share practical tools and key insights into what makes a healthy and balanced life, and how to improve gut health and create sustainable habits.

Subscribe to our free newsletter here

Oh, and one more thing. I’m always absolutely delighted to hear your feedback, comments, and coolest a-ha moments. 

Write to me at priit@elsavie.com

-Priit

We are a home for trillions of microbes — bacteria, fungi and viruses — our microbiota, whom we are tightly connected with. Our biological identity and health are intertwined with that of our microbial partners.

You might´ve heard that your gut plays an important role in your overall health & well-being. But I’m convinced that you aren’t even close to fully appreciating what the impact is for you. Every year more evidence keeps pouring in about the importance of gut health and the balance of gut microbes.

Think of it as a very complex highway system, with traffic going back and forth at high speeds on many different levels, directions and junctions. Our body affects the community living in our gut, and these microbes produce metabolites, the small compounds that regulate different functions in our body.

Firstly, the gut microbiota is tightly connected to digestion and metabolism. Gut microbiota helps break down food and absorb nutrients. Our own body can digest most, but not all of the food we eat. The food our body cannot digest, especially dietary fibers, makes its way to the end of the large intestine, which is packed with gut microbes. This is the most largely and diversely populated part, because the environment is stable and rich in nutrients.

In the colon, the end part of the large intestine, gut bacteria break down the undigested food that they use as a source of nutrients. Gut microbiota helps us to get approximately 10–15% more energy from our food — mostly from dietary fibers. While breaking down dietary fibers important metabolites are produced. For example, gut bacteria produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), which are important sources of energy for both human and bacterial cells. For example the cells that form the gut lining get up to 70% of needed energy from one of the SCFA, called butyrate. Gut microbes also produce essential K vitamins and different B-group vitamins from dietary fibers.

Secondly, about 80% of our immune system is located in the gut, where gut microbes play a central role in. The metabolites that bacteria produce, communicate also with our immune system both directly and indirectly. In addition, these compounds support the production of mucus in the gut, which forms a supportive and strong gut barrier. This barrier protects against pathogens and toxins that evoke inflammation. And of course diverse communities of microbes protect against the overgrowth of harmful pathogenic bacteria while competing for food and space.

Moreover, gut microbiota forms a linked axis with the brain and nervous system, prompting many scientists to refer to as “the second brain”.

We’ve all probably heard of the “happy hormones” serotonin and dopamine. We used to think these hormones are produced in the brain. But take a moment to really consider this: up to 95% of serotonin and about 50% of dopamine are produced in the gut. These hormones are responsible for controlling your mood and are associated with the feelings of happiness.

All this time we´ve been looking for happiness in the wrong places!

Scientists used to think depression and anxiety caused or contributed to gut problems, but now there is evidence to show it could be the other way around, that inflammation in the gut could influence the development of mental disorders such as depression and anxiety.

To meet the beneficial effects of gut microbes, it is important that the microbiota is diverse and balanced. Otherwise the effect can be the other way round — your allies can become the enemies. An unbalanced microbiota can promote the development of various diseases — metabolic diseases like obesity and type II diabetes, neurological disorders like anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorders, heart and kidney disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases and many other illnesses.

If you don’t have good relationships with the communities living in your gut, you´ll always be struggling to get into a balanced healthy state.

The past decade has shed light on the role of the gut microbiome in human’s overall health. Gut microbiome pertains to the collective bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in our gut. It has become clear that our health is intertwined with our microbes.

Think of it as a very complex highway system, with traffic going back and forth at high speeds on many different levels, directions and junctions. Our body affects the community living in our gut, and these microbes regulate different functions in our body.

Your digestive tract is one of the main contacts of your body to the outside world — all the food that you eat passes through it. Throughout the gastrointestinal tract reside different communities of microbes.

The digestive tract starts from the mouth, which is responsible for grinding the food into smaller chunks. Also the digestion of starch starts in the mouth. Mouth is home for about 20 billion microbes.

Next, food moves through the stomach, which is responsible for partial degradation of proteins. As the stomach is a very acidic environment, there are about 1000 times less microbes than in the mouth.

Then, food moves forward to the small intestine where degradation of macronutrients is finalized. Here the macro- and micronutrients also get absorbed to the bloodstream. The environment here is a lot friendlier than in the stomach, so it is home to about the same amount of microbes that live in the mouth.

However, the digestion is not finished in the small intestine. Food, or what’s left of it, moves forward to the large intestine. This is a perfect environment for microbes to live in. The food moves at a slower pace and it’s full of nutrients for microbes. Although most of the nutrients get absorbed already in the small intestine, there are compounds — the dietary fibers — that our own digestive enzymes are not able to degrade.

Fibers make their way to the end part of the large intestine — called colon. Here resides about 10 thousand more microbes than in the mouth and small intestine and more than million times more microbes than in the stomach. This is found to be the most densely and diversely inhabited part of the human body and most likely the highest microbial density recorded in any habitat on the Earth.

The microbes, living in our gut, compensate for what our own digestive enzymes cannot degrade. They help to increase the availability of energy from food. Without microbes we would get about 10–15% less energy from our diet.

But it’s not only energy. While degrading the fibers, gut microbes produce different molecules called metabolites that regulate essential functions in our body. For example, these metabolites strengthen the gut barrier — the only defence wall that prevents pathogenic microbes, toxins and other potentially harmful particles from entering the bloodstream and getting access inside our organism.

In addition, gut microbes produce vitamin K and group B vitamins, as well as modulate metabolism. It has been found that the gut microbiome composition differs between lean and obese individuals. This is well illustrated in studies conducted with mice who have been raised in completely sterile conditions so that they lack microbes. When transferring the gut microbiome of lean or obese human to such mice, then the mice quickly adopt the metabolic state similar to humans. Those getting the microbes from lean individual stay lean and those getting the microbes from obese person become obese.

Doesn’t it seem simple, that we could just get the microbes from lean people and become lean ourselves? Well, I’m afraid, I have to disappoint you. Yes, we could get a great push towards, but the food we eat influences who stays alive and permanently inhabits our gut.

Studies have shown that diet can make some shifts in the gut microbiome as quickly as 24 hours. However, to make a lasting change, you must eat a healthy diet consistently.

So, the communication between our gut microbes and digestion is two-way, as the gut microbes affect how our metabolism works and the food we eat affects the composition of that community living in the gut.

Not long ago we used to think that a good bacteria is a dead bacteria. We’ve been scared of the microbes and tried to build up a safe sterile environment around us. However this is not exactly what nature has intended.

During the past decade it has become clear that we live in symbiosis with the microbes living on and inside us — our microbiome.

Already during birth we are coated with microbes. This is the seed to the formation of our very own microbiome. And our microbiome is one of the fundamental building blocks of our immune system.

About 80% of our immune system resides in the lining of your gut, and the microbiome is in constant contact with it. A healthy, resilient gut microbiome relies on high richness and biodiversity.

Richness is the total number of different bacterial species in your microbiome

Diversity is the amount of individual bacteria from each of the bacterial species present in your microbiome.

Let’s compare these two concepts in a group of 30 people with different professions. Richness would be the sum of all the different professions we have — e.g teacher, doctor, scientist, police and lawyer. Diversity on the other hand shows how many of these different occupations we have — let’s say 2 teachers, 1 doctor, 5 scientists, 2 police officers and 20 lawyers.

Well in this group of people, the richness can be high, but the diversity surely is not, as the vast majority of people are lawyers. And in case of some accident, we do have 1 doctor, but this could prove to be not enough.

A rich and diverse microbial community is much more capable and resilient. All of the different species carry about 2–20 million genes necessary for producing metabolites — small compounds that all regulate different functions in our body. Some of these compounds are responsible for vitamin production, some for digesting the food or communicating with the brain, immune system or responsible for other crucial functions in our body. The larger pool of these compounds we have, the better we are equipped to face different situations.

Secondly, a diverse community is more stable because it prevents the overgrowth of harmful pathogenic bacteria. Let’s imagine that instead of these 20 lawyers we have 20 burglars. It would be very difficult for our 2 policemen to fight against all of the burglars. And when we think of the microbes, they reproduce very quickly meaning that instead of 20 burglars we’ll soon have 40 of them, against maybe 3 or 4 policemen.

Scientists have found that low microbiome diversity can lead to various chronic illnesses — digestion problems, bowel disease like IBD, metabolic diseases like obesity and type II diabetes, neurological disorders like anxiety, depression, Parkinson’s disease, heart or kidney disease and many other illnesses.

As David Attenborough says in his latest movie “Biodiversity is the key to balanced nature. And species can only thrive if everything else around it is thriving.” This is also perfectly true for our microbiome. A healthy microbiome is a diverse community of microbes and this can be achieved only by enabling our microbes a good environment to live in.

. . .

In upcoming stories we’re going to write more about how we can build up a healthy environment for our microbes. So, stay tuned to learn more about the importance of gut health and balanced microbiota.

We’re always waiting for your feedback. Let us know of your thoughts and questions. If you enjoyed reading this, make sure to click the “follow” button and check out our webpage www.elsavie.com

. . .

Sources and interesting reading:

• Diversity, stability and resilience of the human gut microbiota (Nature 2013)
• Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health (BMJ 2018)
• The Human Superorganism: How the Microbiome Is Revolutionizing the Pursuit of a Healthy Life (by Rodney Dietert)
• Gut: the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ (by Giulia Enders)

Most of the nutrients and energy that your body needs are obtained from the food that you eat. Therefore, your digestive system, and especially your gut health, is incredibly important. Your gut plays a crucial role in maintaining your entire body’s health, from digesting your food to distributing the nutrients to making you feel happy.

Your gut is full of microbes, which are essential to the body’s immune, metabolic, and neurobehavioral functions. The collective community of microorganisms in the gut is called microbiota.

When gut microbiota are in balance, that is, existing in proper ratios to one another, they are the good guys, helping you with digestion, immunity, and removing toxins from your system. However, too much of any of them and you are going to be sick. 

Gut microbiota starts to develop at birth and evolves throughout your entire life. Each person has a unique gut microbiota, which determines how their system fights infections and diseases, digests food, and even feels emotions or acts a certain way. It is affected by several factors, particularly diet and drugs.

Gut Microbiota

Here are the essential functions of gut microbiota:

» Gut microbiota helps you break down food and absorb nutrients.

Have you ever wondered how your stomach digests food? Well, that’s thanks to the bacteria present in your intestines. Gut microbiota affects your metabolism, helping you break down complex molecular compositions from the meat and vegetables that you eat. 

» It affects your immune functions.

You first get microbes from your mother’s cervix during birth, which is the initial point that your body learns to respond to microbes and potentially disease-causing organisms. It is called adaptive immunity. When microbe ingestion is disrupted early on, it can be linked to allergies and autoimmune conditions.

» Gut microbiota impacts your psychological functions.

Would you believe that your gut health can affect your mood and behavior? Gut microbiota is actually called the “second brain.” As your gut microbiota breaks down molecules from the food you eat, it triggers nerve functions, the release of hormones, and cognitive function. An imbalance can lead to bad moods, anxiety, poor quality of sleep, and depression, among others.

»It can help you fight disease.

One of the most important functions of your gut microbiota is helping you prevent and fight diseases. With a balanced composition of bacteria, you are protected against infections and illnesses. However, when the harmony is disturbed, it can lead to various gut conditions, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcerative colitis, indigestion, and metabolic syndrome.

What Makes Gut Microbiota Get Out Of Balance?

Gut microbiota can be disturbed by different factors, such as poor diet, stress, antibiotics, lack of sleep, drinking too much alcohol, and some drugs. Processed and unhealthy foods can affect your gut health, which is why it is important to be aware of the consequences of what you eat and drink. 

Repeated use of antibiotics can kill some of the good bacteria in your gut, causing an imbalance that impacts other body functions, such as metabolism. 

Studies have confirmed the link between gut health and diseases and conditions. Some of these are diabetes, obesity, malnutrition, eczema, cancer, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis, among others.

What Can You Do To Keep Your Gut Healthy?

Given the important role that gut microbiota plays in your overall well-being, it is crucial to keep it healthy. There are many ways you can do so, and the first and foremost is being mindful of what you eat. If you are regularly indulging in sweets and processed foods, a far healthier option is to swap them for whole and fiber-rich foods. Adding prebiotic-rich foods and probiotics in your diet will also be helpful to your gut health.

Aside from the food that you put into your stomach, it is also essential to engage in regular exercise, get enough sleep, and reduce your stress, or learn to manage it better. Given the uniqueness of each person’s gut microbiota, your nutritional needs may vary, and your optimal diet may have to be tailored to your gut microbiota. For instance, you may be allergic or intolerant to some foods, such as dairy, grains, or gluten.

There’s more to your digestive system than breaking down the foods that you eat to give your body the energy it needs to function. It is important to keep your gut healthy to maintain and improve your overall well-being.