How Food and Stress Affect Your Gut Health
What is gut health?
Gut health describes the function and balance of bacteria of the many parts of the gastrointestinal tract. Ideally, organs such as the esophagus, stomach and intestines all work together to allow us to eat and digest food without discomfort. However that's not the case for the estimated 70 million people in the US who suffer from digestive issues like IBS, G.I., and others.
Additionally, there have been links found between your gut health and your immune system, mood, mental health, autoimmune diseases, endocrine disorders, and skin conditions. The term gut microbiome refers specifically to the microorganisms living in your intestines. A person has about 300 to 500 different species of bacteria in their digestive tract. While some microorganisms are harmful to our health, many are incredibly beneficial and even necessary to a healthy body.
Why you need to pay attention to it
All food is ultimately broken down in the gut to a simple form that can enter the bloodstream and be delivered as nutrients throughout our bodies. However this is only possible with a healthy digestive system. A healthy gut contains healthy bacteria and immune cells that ward off infectious agents like bacteria, viruses and fungi. Hence why having digestion issues and an unhealthy gut can lead to other diseases and illnesses. A healthy gut also communicates with the brain through nerves and hormones, which helps maintain general health and well-being.
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Digestion and your gut
The digestive system is made up of the gastrointestinal tract—also called the GI tract or digestive tract—and the liver, pancreas, and gallbladder. The GI tract is a series of hollow organs joined in a long, twisting tube from the mouth to the anus. The hollow organs that make up the GI tract are the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, and anus. The liver, pancreas, and gallbladder are the solid organs of the digestive system.
Bacteria in your GI tract, also called gut flora or microbiome, help with digestion. Parts of your nervous and circulatory systems also help. Working together, nerves, hormones, bacteria, blood, and the organs of your digestive system digest the foods and liquids you eat or drink each day.
Why is digestion important?
Digestion is important because your body needs nutrients from food and drink to work properly and stay healthy. Proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water are nutrients. Your digestive system breaks nutrients into parts small enough for your body to absorb and use for energy, growth, and cell repair.
Stress and your gut
When presented with a potentially threatening situation, the sympathetic nervous system, a part of the body’s autonomic nervous system, which regulates bodily functions like the heartbeat, breathing, and blood pressure, responds by triggering a fight-or-flight response, releasing the stress hormone cortisol to make the body alert and prepared to face the threat.
Stress causes physiological changes, like a heightened state of awareness, faster breathing and heart rates, elevated blood pressure, a rise in blood cholesterol, and an increase in muscle tension. When stress activates the flight-or-flight response in your central nervous system, it can affect your digestive system by:
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Causing your esophagus to go into spasms
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Increasing the acid in your stomach, which results in indigestion
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Making you feel nauseous
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Giving you diarrhea or constipation
In more serious cases, stress may cause a decrease in blood flow and oxygen to the stomach, which could lead to cramping, inflammation, or an imbalance of gut bacteria. It can also exacerbate gastrointestinal disorders, including:
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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
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Peptic ulcers
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Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
Although stress may not cause stomach ulcers or inflammatory bowel disease, it can make these and other diseases of digestion worse. So it’s important to take measures to be in control during stressful situations and find ways to keep yourself calm.
Symptoms of a stressed out gut
Poor quality sleep
Our gut microbiome, home to good and bad bacteria, is regulated by circadian rhythms. It releases many of the same sleep-producing neurotransmitters as the brain - serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin. Therefore, a healthy gut can lead to healthy sleep. When stress affects your gut, this can negatively impact how you sleep. If the circadian rhythms are disturbed, the number of healthy bacteria in the microbiome drop and long term can lead to obesity and diabetes.
Digestive issues
Stress can trigger or exacerbate digestive issues. The stomach and intestines have more nerve cells than the spinal cord and these nerves run directly to the brain. When the brain is stressed, the hypothalamus releases hormones such as the corticotropin releasing hormone that can disrupt the whole digestive system. This hormone directs the adrenal gland to make the “flight” chemicals steroids and adrenaline. Short term, these hormones and chemicals can affect our appetite, cause stomach aches, nausea, and diarrhea. Longer term, chronic stress can aggravate diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome and heartburn.
Skin conditions
Our gut is in continuous conversation with our skin via the microbiome and it is suspected that this connection, named the gut-skin axis has a critical role to play in our skin health.
It is believed that when there is an imbalance in gut bacteria (when bad bacteria overrule) our immune system fights back which contributes to inflammatory skin conditions such as acne. Additionally, a poor diet and food allergies may cause certain proteins to leak out of the gut and irritate the skin, causing conditions such as eczema.
Furthermore it can cause hormonal imbalances that makes skin more sensitive and reactive, and our cortisol levels rise. This imbalance may trigger or aggravate existing skin disorders such as acne, rosacea, hives and eczema. Prolonged stress can also make it harder for skin problems to heal.
Ways to calm a stressed gut
No matter the stressor, it’s important to consider the impact of stress on your health and well-being. After all, too much stress can take a mental and physical toll on your body, this includes wreaking havoc on your gut and digestion.
The effect stress has on your gut depends on the length of time you’re experiencing stress:
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Short-term stress can cause you to lose your appetite and your digestion to slow down.
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Long-term stress can trigger gastrointestinal (GI) issues, like constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, or an upset stomach.
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Chronic stress over extended periods of time may lead to more serious issues, like irritable bowel syndrome and other GI disorders.
If you find your stress levels are affecting your digestion, below are some tips to help improve your gut.
Practice yoga
To boost and support digestion, make sure you’re getting enough physical activity on a consistent basis, like walking and running. Exercises like Hatha or Iyengar yoga, which focus on alignment and posture, may also alleviate gastrointestinal symptoms and improve stress outcomes.
Try mindful meditation
A mindful meditation practice, where you develop an increased awareness of your daily life, may help. Meditation along with deep breathing techniques may lower inflammation, a marker of stress in the body. In turn, this may relieve an overstressed digestive system.
Before your next meal, try sitting up straight away from distractions, and take 2 to 4 rounds of deep breathing. Breathing in for a 4-count, holding for 4, and exhaling for a 4-count. Do this each time you sit down to enjoy a meal to help your body relax and get ready for digestion, the rest and digest mode.
Eat prebiotics and probiotics
When it comes to your diet, reach for foods that promote good gut bacteria, like prebiotics and probiotics. Fruits and vegetables with inulin, like asparagus, banana, garlic, and onions, contain prebiotics. Fermented foods, like kefir, kimchi, kombucha, natto, sauerkraut, tempeh, and yogurt all contain probiotics.
Prebiotics and probiotics can alter the bacteria makeup in the gut microbiome and create the ideal environment for more good bacteria to flourish and support digestion.
Practice stress management for better digestion
Finding a stress management routine that works for you can do wonders for not only your digestive health but also your mental and physical health. Stress management activities can be anything that works for you, from face masks to bubble baths, exercise, socialization, or reading, the options are endless.
If you find that you’re struggling to create a routine like this on your own, know that you can always reach out to a wellness coach or a mental health counselor to help you cope with stress.
Food & your gut
Eating healthy food will create a healthy gut. The gut needs what the gut needs and surprisingly, your gut requires bacteria. Bacteria is required for digestion, and before you find that appalling, realize that our bodies are full of bacteria. It is the bad bacteria in the gut that has been linked to certain poor health conditions. For instance colon cancer, diabetes and even depression can be the results of the bacteria that are located in the gut. However, your gut bacteria are unique to only you.
Like fingerprints, no two persons have the same gut bacteria and a healthy person’s gut is different to that of an unhealthy individual. The goal is to be healthy, right? The best way to have a healthy gut is to consume nutritious foods that combat the bad bacteria that attack the gut.
Foods to look out for
Fiber rich foods assist in providing a healthy gut. Fiber rich foods include whole grains, vegetables and fruit. A high fiber diet regulates bacteria in the gut and the result is proper digestion. Additionally, refined sugars are the gut’s enemy as are processed foods. Cut down on artificial sweeteners, too. They don’t help at all in the reduction of bad gut bacteria.
Refined sugars, and artificial sweeteners actually limit damage to gut bacteria as they reduce inflammation. Eliminating the refined and processed foods and increasing fruit and vegetables feed the good bacteria in the gut and starve the bad.
Add lentils, wholegrain breads and rice, both brown and wholegrain to your diet. The soluble fiber foods are definitely advantageous for gut health. Other food sources that affect gut health are sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir and other fermented foods, such as pickles, miso, tempeh, goat milk and unpasturized raw cheese. Speaking of dairy products, probiotic yogurt is your gut’s best friend.
How to help better your gut
While the tips below are a good starting point, it is imperative to keep in mind that learning how to support your own unique digestion is a process. It’s also important to remember that it will take some time to fully figure out what works for you.
Eat enough fiber
It’s recommended that men and women receive about 25-30 grams of fiber per day. You can get fiber in your diet from whole foods such as beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.
If you’re not used to consuming these fibrous food items daily, take it slowly. Add in a small amount of these items daily and work your way up. You don’t want to overload your digestive system. Additionally, if you find that you’re specifically having trouble with beans or legumes, feel free to soak these before preparing them to aid digestion even more.
Eat foods that improve digestion
There are several foods that can support digestion for different reasons. If you’re finding yourself having trouble digesting, try incorporating some fruits for digestion and vegetables for digestion into your week and noticing if they help aid digestion.
You can also add some apple cider vinegar to your meals, dressings and marinades to help improve digestion as well. Apple cider vinegar contains acetic acid, which has been shown to help aid digestion in those lacking stomach acid. This may be particularly beneficial for those struggling with acid reflux.
Drink plenty of water
As a general rule of thumb, aiming to consume about half of your body weight in fluid ounces per day is a good place to start. Depending on the amount of physical activity you are participating in, you may need a bit more or less than this number.
Reduce processed foods
Processed foods should play a very small role in your diet to promote optimal digestion. Opt for whole foods that are naturally packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals as much as you can. From whole-grain varieties to lean protein, nut butter, seeds, fruits, and vegetables, there are so many options out there for you to incorporate.
Eat balanced meals to ease digestion
Whenever your preparing or purchasing a meal, aim to get a combination of protein, healthy fat, starchy carbohydrates, non-starchy carbohydrates, and a flavor factor. This will help to keep you feeling full after meals, energized for your day, and will improve your digestion.
Eat the right amount for your body
Learning to understand your hunger and satiety cues can be exceptionally helpful with this. The more mindful you are with your eating, the better you can nourish your body and nurture your digestion. Sometimes acclimating yourself to your hunger and satiety cues just isn’t as easy as it sounds. However there are ways in which you to do this in a healthy, realistic way.
Identify food intolerances
If you find that your digestion is only disrupted after certain meals or when you eat specific food items, food intolerance may be to blame. A great way to determine whether or not you have a food intolerance is to use a food journal. This will allow you to track your signs and symptoms in accordance with your intake. Over time you’ll be able to find patterns. Once established, you can perform an elimination diet to determine the root cause of your digestion issues.
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Good gut health all goes back to eating lots of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains, as well as managing your stress. Eat processed foods in moderation and limit added sugars, salt, artificial sweeteners and alcohol to keep your critters happy and your risk of chronic diseases low. Additionally, it’s imperative to remember to partake in stress relieving activities like yoga or meditation in order to keep your stress low.
Extra tips for gut health
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Eat nuts daily, but in moderation. A small handful is enough.
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Avoid diet drinks and sugar-free, low-fat foods. Artificial sweeteners can cause bloating, and low-fat foods do not satisfy hunger and can promote overeating.
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Drink water throughout the day. Try adding a lime and a pinch of salt to your water to replenish electrolytes.
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Try using a food diary to see if there is a link between any of the foods you might be eating and any digestion issues you might be experiencing.
