BITESIZE | 3 Simple Dietary Tips to Improve Your Gut Health, Boost Your Energy & Reduce Inflammation | Dr Emily Leeming #575

0:00Today's Bite Size episode is sponsored by AG1, a daily health drink that has been in my own life for over seven years. Now, this is the time of year when our immune systems are under the most pressure. It's natural to look for extra ways to support our immune defenses. But most people don't want to juggle multiple pills. They want something simple, effective and easy to stick with. AG1 is a daily health drink that provides key immunity-supporting nutrients, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc, and selenium, all of which contribute to the normal function of the immune system. These nutrients are included in highly bioavailable forms, meaning they are much easier for the body to absorb and use.

0:50And the best thing, of course, is that all this goodness comes in one convenient, tasty daily serving. For a limited time only, get a free AG1 flavor sampler and AGZ sampler to try all the flavors, plus free vitamin D3 and K2 and AG1 welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription order. That's$87 in free gifts for first-time subscribers. See all details at drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 508 of the podcast with gut health expert and microbiome scientist, Dr.

1:47Emily Leeming. We now know that our gut health plays a crucial role in everything From our immune system and our ability to respond to stress To our skin and even our mental well-being In this clip, Emily shares some of the latest science Along with some simple practical tips For building more gut-friendly foods into your diet Why should someone care about the health of their gut? I think this gut microbiome is seen as a forgotten organ it's not just helping with our digestion it's influencing the rest of our body and very much having a really big impact on our health but in a way that's really useful for us to be able to understand because we can't change our genes but we can influence on change our gut microbiome giving us another tool to influence our health So think about how you feel in the here and now.

2:45And that's really, you know, is it your mood, your energy, your cognition? You know, that is what your health is giving you. And I think we've got to recognise that your gut microbiome is playing a key role in that. Of course, it's one piece of the puzzle. But the beauty of the gut microbiome is that we're able to change it. And therefore, we can improve our health by making changes to support our gut microbiome. 20 years ago most of us including many scientists didn't even know that the gut microbiome existed now 20 years later we you know we've had this evolution this tsunami of research papers coming out and a lot of that is due to the fact that we've had the technology to be able to understand not only who's there sort of these tiny living organisms that live in our gut but also now what are they doing and how are they impacting our health?

3:37So effectively, you've got 100 trillion microorganisms. So these are tiny living organisms that live in your gut. They are made of bacteria, viruses, yeast, fungi. You've got a whole collection of different communities in there. These communities are not just helping with your digestion by breaking down food, but they're also producing special molecules that can travel across your body. They can cross your gut barrier lining into your body, cross through your bloodstream to different organs and influencing your health. So this is a live ecosystem that's living in your gut that is directly responding to you and you're responding back to it.

4:19Now the interesting thing for me about gut health, for want of a better term, is that it seemingly sits at the heart of multiple different states in the body, multiple different diseases. So as a medical doctor, I've always been fascinated by root causes. So let's say inflammation, for example, we know that chronic unresolved inflammation underpins in some way, at least, many of the chronic diseases that we see, whether it be some cases of depression, heart disease, autoimmune illness, dementia. Although seemingly separate diseases, when you go back up the chain and look at root causes, we see that chronic unresolved inflammation is one of those root cause drivers.

5:10Yes, I know inflammation and gut health are strongly linked, but I think we can look at gut health in a similar way, right? That it actually lies at the heart of multiple different conditions. Absolutely. I mean, it's really considered to be, you know, this new cornerstone of health. and I think when we you know talk about the fact that we've got these kind of tiny and you know organisms invisible to the naked eye you know how can they be really that impactful for our health I get asked that you know quite often and I kind of laugh and I say yes it does seem quite fantastical but I think we've got to think about looking at it from an evolutionary perspective so actually if we go back in time before humans even existed on this planet this world was dominated and owned by microbes.

5:54Microbes are on every single living surface. They continue to be today. And effectively, we've then co-evolved with these microbes to the point that we have as many microbial cells as we have human cells. So just showing that we know throughout evolution, we have then relied on them and they've relied on us. And therefore, that is why they have such an influential effect on our health and not just helping with our digestion and therefore influencing all these different disease states, but also things in health as well, like your energy, your mood and your cognition. There's also this very powerful connection between your gut and your brain, so much so that we call your gut your second brain because they're physically connected through a long wandering nerve called your vagus nerve.

6:44Now there's multiple different ways that your gut microbiome is talking to your brain and influencing your brain. Again, this is really exciting kind of early research that we've only really started to kind of tap into in the last couple of years. What we're seeing is that, yes, we've got this communication. The most direct communication is through the vagus nerve. We think about that, that's like picking up the telephone to have a direct call. And then we've got the molecules, those metabolites that are produced by your gut microbes, they can also influence your brain. A great example of those are short-chain fatty acids.

7:18Only your gut microbes can make these short-chain fatty acids. Your body is not able to make it themselves. They make them by feeding on fibre from the food you eat. And these short-chain fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect, but they're also really important for your blood-brain barrier. This is a protective fortress around your brain that effectively has gateways in it that stop anything that's problematic like toxins or kind of harmful molecules from getting in but it also needs to be stay strong and healthy to let in those nutrients that your brain needs so that's an example of metabolites your microbes are also in tune with your immune system and signaling to your brain through immune cells as well so that might be changing shape and different formats, perhaps like sending a letter in the post where you give it to the postman and then it maybe goes to a few different sorting offices and then ends up at your door.

8:14That is also another pathway that your gut microbes are signaling to your brain. And then last but not least, we see this relationship with neurotransmitters and your gut microbes, early signs that they're helping to supply your brain with the building blocks that your brain needs to make things like serotonin, your happy hormone, and also dopamine, which is your kind of, ooh, I like it, do it again, neurotransmitter. And I think when we, you know, the fact we go back to our microbes making up, you know, 50 % of our cells, you know, they are heavily influencing pretty much every aspect of our body.

8:53So, you know, makes sense. They're not there by accident. They're playing a role. Yeah. Let's get some of your practical advice. You've got some really cool mnemonics. that I've read about in your book, I've seen you talk about in some of your videos. If someone wants to say, hey, Emily, listen, okay, I get it. You know, the gut microbiome is important for many aspects of my health. What can I do to improve my own gut microbiome with the acknowledgement that we're all unique and we have to personalize things for us? If you could maybe walk us through some of your mnemonics to help us take away a bit of practical advice, that would be useful, I think.

9:31Absolutely. So I think the real key piece, as you say, depending on what works best for you, but fibre is something that we're drastically missing in the UK diet. So we're missing about 40 % of that recommended 30 grams of fibre that we need a day. It's this forgotten nutrient that we need to be paying attention to. Now, what happens with fibre and your gut microbiome is that fibre fees your gut microbiome, specifically to specific types of fiber called prebiotic fibers. Now these are fibers that are found in beans, onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, lots of different other foods. And when your gut microbes feed on this fiber, they're able to make those short chain fatty acids, which have an anti-inflammatory effect and able to signal to your brain, and lots of other healthy molecules as well which support the health of your gut barrier lining and also are able to then travel into your bloodstream and going across your body to your different organs so fiber is something that i really feel quite strongly that it's had this um kind of boring reputation of just something that just kind of helps you go to the loo helps you do a poo um it is so much more than that so it needs new PR basically.

10:49It needs new PR, absolutely. You know, it helps with your heart health, it helps to soak up bad cholesterol for that to be removed from your body as waste. It helps to balance your blood sugar levels, giving you longer lasting energy. So it's not only just helping with your gut microbiome, it's having many other benefits in your body too. And when I talk about fiber, the key foods that I really want to talk about are what I call the BGBGs. So B-G-B-G-S. Yes, that's beans, greens, berries, grains and nuts and seeds. And in particular, what might surprise people is actually the highest fibre foods are whole grains, nuts and seeds and beans, much more so than most fruits and vegetables, which I think is quite counterintuitive for some people.

11:37I think, oh, well, actually, you know, lettuce, you know, I need to be eating salad for days, actually lettuce contains about 1.8 grams of fiber per 100 grams. In comparison, chickpeas has about five times, six times more than that. Something like the nuts and seeds, for example, let's compare that to flax seeds or chia seeds. That's about 25 to 30 grams of fiber per 100 grams. So really, really big jump. And what I really want to highlight with that is that it shouldn't feel stressful to add more fiber into your diet. It's about making these BGBGs an everyday or most day foods, I really say. It doesn't have to be every day, but kind of adding them to your essential shopping list.

12:21And that just gives you kind of an easy kind of fiber boost on a daily basis to feed your gut microbes and look after the health of your gut because a healthy gut also supports a gut microbiome. Why don't you share with us your five favourite high fibre foods? So I want to share the surprising ones, actually, because I think that's always quite fun. So avocado, I think we associate with being kind of this gorgeous, rich, kind of, you know, really good of healthy fats. One avocado contains about eight grams of fibre. And then dark chocolate is a great one. That's about 11 grams of fibre per 100 grams.

12:57So I usually go for something, you know, ideally 70 above in an ideal optimal world, kind of 65%. I am a huge fan of rye pump nickel bread, which, you know, is affordable, you can get it from the supermarket. And effectively, it's that really flat bread that contains a lot of kind of has a lot of seeds in it quite often as well. And I really like that because one slice of that is seven grams of fiber. So you know already that if you're having that for breakfast with some eggs, with your avocado that you're hitting probably about 10 grams, a third. At breakfast. At breakfast already, a third of your fiber.

13:34So those three foods are kind of surprising. I do think some really great ones to have are nuts and seeds. Again, I just want to kind of highlight the kind of chia seeds, flax seeds, you know, even something like a kind of dried coconut flakes, again, really high in fiber. What I like to do is have a jar of them by the kettle. And that means that I can see it. It's going to prompt me if I'm making a cup of tea, I can have them as a snack. But also they're really great to sprinkle onto breakfast in the morning or perhaps toast them, put them into a salad. Yeah, I love that. And just to circle back to something I said before, I think it's really, really relevant here.

14:14Over the course of my career, Emily, I have seen people thrive on a variety of different diets. Yes, there are some common principles. Minimally processed as much as possible. Whole food is close to natural form. Trying to not have excess added sugar. All those things for sure, like broad framework principles. But within that, I've seen all kinds of different things. So I've seen some patients thrive on a whole food plant-based diet, but I've also seen patients thrive depending on their state of health on a low carb diet. And so therefore I look back and go, okay, Ranga, what's going on here? Well, maybe there is no one perfect human diet that works for every single person.

14:59Maybe there are some principles to follow, but we have to personalize those principles for any individual. and fiber comes in a variety of different places right so I was telling you about someone I know very well a good friend of mine who is absolutely thriving on a very very low carb diet sure if you saw her as a patient you'd be like why would you change anything when you're functioning like this and your blood tests look like that, right? Now, I'm now thinking through to her diet from what I know. And although it's very low carb, she does have a lot of nuts. Okay. She does have quite a bit of black coffee.

15:51She does have tomatoes often with some herbs, right? She has olive oil, a few times which will have some sweet potatoes she has an avocado every morning there we go do you know what I mean so that's low carb but it's high fiber yeah right so what I'm saying is that we have a perception of what high fiber foods are just from what I've said to you there without knowing this lady's history and everything about her although on the face of it it's quite a low carb diet and it is, I guess there's probably not as much fiber there as you might want someone to have, but there is some fiber there and there are some plant foods that will be helping her microbiome.

16:39Is that fair to say? I think it sounds like she probably is having more fiber than we think because I think we associate fiber with being just like, you know, boring brown bread. We're able to list off high protein foods, you know, off the get-go. I say, I can ask anybody, you know, tell me three high protein foods. They know they can say, you know, meat, fish, eggs straight away. When I say the same for fiber, you know, people draw a blank. And I really think we need to change that and really recognize that, you know, fibers find a lots of different other, you know, so many different plants, you know, fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains.

17:15And then I think we've outsourced from our intuition far too much. And I think that then becomes problematic. And when I talk about your intuition, it's really listening to how's your body feel, but also things like your hunger and your fullness levels. You know, your body has a lot of wisdom and really being able to tap into that is really just a key pathway to understand what is right for you. There are definitely kind of guiding principles, I think, for most people in terms of, yes, we want to be eating kind of more fruits and vegetables and more whole grains. When it comes to I've got microbiome, you know, really thinking about foods that are kind of high in fiber, but very much starting from a place that is right for you and really thinking about where you're at in the here and now and then thinking, okay, what are the things that I can incorporate that are making me feel great?

18:07And I think a lot of the time with advice, it becomes too black and white. Actually, the most impactful thing you could be doing is just making a small regular change that you can keep up that you think tastes great that you enjoy that's equally important and that is incredibly practical as you say if you're finding a way of eating that works for you that you feel healthy or metrics or healthy you know realistically there's no perfect one diet for everyone as you say it's about finding the diet that you can stick to that has those healthy principles and i think we have so much kind of warring between all these different diets saying, well, this one's best and this one's best.

18:46I'm like, the one that's best for you is the one that you can stick to. That is what the best one is and that you feel great on. Yeah, no, I love that. I'm a huge fan of small changes done consistently. Start where you're at, see what is the right approach for you at this moment in time. It may change in the future. Okay, so fiber is one of these big things that you want to encourage people to think about? Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, there's other compounds that we can also think about when it comes to our health and for the health of our gut microbiome too, particularly talking about compounds called polyphenols.

19:19So polyphenols are these kind of compounds that give fruits and vegetables a lot of their pigment and colour. So that could be, for example, the deep purple of an aubergine, and then kind of comparing that to kind of another fruit and vegetable of a different color. And what these different groups of polyphenols tend to do different things for our health. So this is why we want this rainbow of foods. We want this variety of different colors for our health. What happens with our gut microbes that they feed on these polyphenols in a similar way to fiber. So that helps to also support the health of our gut microbiome.

19:55In the UK, most of our polyphenols come from coffee and tea. So coffee and tea are, great sources in themselves, but in comparison to herbs and spices, they're pretty low on the list. Other surprising foods that are really rich in polyphenols and incredibly affordable are things like beans, particularly black beans. And I like to say this because I think quite often when we think about kind of polyphenol rich foods, somebody might say, oh, I need to go and buy some wild blueberries, which cost an absolute fortune. But actually things like black beans contain about eight times more polyphenols than wild blueberries.

20:35And you're then getting something that is affordable, that's doing great for your health. And yes, you can still have those blueberries, but you don't feel like you have to go and spend three times as much to be doing it. Yeah. And I think that's one of the plus sides of thinking about a lot of these foods that we think are supporting a healthy microbiome, like the prebiotic fiber foods you were mentioning before, Or, you know, onions, garlic. These are relatively cheap foods. You know, I appreciate everyone's got different income levels and different levels of access, but they're not the most expensive foods, which I think is quite encouraging.

21:15If people are trying to make small changes to have an impact on their health, it's like, well, you could start there and you're going to start to see a difference. Absolutely. And I think we've, you know, overcomplicated gut health far too much. You know, it's been made out to seem that we need to have this supplement or kind of that latest new thing that's come out. And actually, it's those core key principles are doing the best things for your gut. And that is just, you know, maybe it's adding in some onions and garlic to, you know, if you're making a stew or a soup, perhaps it's sprinkling on some extra herbs or some nuts and seeds next time, you know, you have your lunch.

21:53Like really simple, practical things. Those are the things that are actually making the biggest impact for your health. Hope you enjoyed that bite-sized clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you want more, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest. If you enjoyed this episode, I think you will really enjoy my bite-sized Friday email. It's called the Friday Five. And each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five short doses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting research I've come across and so much more.

22:33I really think you're going to love it. The goal is for it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up for it free of charge at drchatterjee.com forward slash Friday Five. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long form conversation on Wednesday and the latest episode of Bite Science next Friday.