YOUR GUT IS THE TRACT TO A HEALTHIER YOU!
What we eat and drink has a major impact on our health. Many people think it’s limited to weight gain or loss or maybe even cardiovascular disease. But it’s a little more… ok actually ‘a lot more’ complicated than that.
Our dietary habits have a profound impact on our intestinal homeostasis and our overall health. The ‘stuff’ we have in our intestines strongly affects our health and plays a crucial role in keeping away diseases.
No Guts… No Glory
That stuff or better known as the flora, in our digestive system consists of numerous different microorganisms, which include bacteria, viruses, archaea, and fungi are all colonizing in our bodies. The gut is dominated by this bacteria and it plays an important role in every individual’s life.
So, why is the gut and all this bacteria so important to us? It is because our GI tract is the essential barrier between the outside world and the inside of our bodies. What we put in our mouths can either be good for our bodies or really bad. This is where a huge portion of our immune system is located here as well.
Follow The Small Intestines
This is where nutrients are absorbed into our bodies. We want the good things to go in and the bad stuff to move right along and make their way out. Here is where protein gets broken down to amino acids, fats get broken down into fatty acids and carbohydrates get broken down into monosaccharides… simple sugars. These nutrients have to pass through layers of the small intestines and then go to all the cells in our body.
Our gut has layers called the gut barrier and the first layer is the mucus layer, it’s really just a thick layer of mucus made by goblet cells. The next layer is the enterocyte layer, most of our nutrients are absorbed here but unfortunately, pathogens and other substances can still get through. This is where our immune cells are as well.
The Lymphoid System
Our GI tract is the largest part of our lymphoid system, this is the body’s first defense when invaders enter. Large amounts of T-cells and B-cells are here to fight off these little suckers that we don’t want to be absorbed and going to other parts of our body. Like our brain, heart, liver… all those really important parts of ours!
The Pathway To Inflammation
Think about the foods you eat and how they affect your overall health. When we consume foods over and over that our system just can’t handle, like sugars, or for some people, it’s gluten or dairy, our gut barrier gets damaged. Once it gets damaged, pathogens and other invaders start entering our system. And then the damage starts!
When this happens, for some of us, our immune system goes into overdrive. The immune system doesn’t know what to attack and goes after innocent cells, along with the invaders. This is how inflammation begins and moves through the rest of our bodies.
The Loop Of Diet And Immunity
Our bodies rely so heavily on what we put in our mouths. Unfortunately, many of us are eating foods that are contributing to poor health and even an autoimmune disease.
As we start eliminating foods that break down our gut barrier and our immune systems, we can begin to heal. That’s the great thing about these bodies we have, with what we eat, we have the ability to fix our body and overall health.
So what foods can you eliminate for optimal health?
Our diet has a direct impact on our body’s inflammation and has a connection to autoimmune disorders.
