18/06/2026
Most people have now heard about the microbiome, the ecosystem of bacteria living in your gut. Nutritional therapists have been talking about this for many years and it’s’ great that people are now switched on to it.
The microbiome weighs about the same as your liver and is what we call metabolically active – it plays a huge role in our health and wellbeing.
It helps breakdown our food
It plays a valuable role in our immune system
It synthesises some vitamins
It can influence our mood and our cravings
If it’s out of balance it can make us more prone to inflammation, weaken our immune system and make us more susceptible to allergies, hormonal problems, depression and mental health issues, cancers, autoimmune disease, even Parkinsons disease is linked to certain species of bacteria that can reside in our gut.
What you consume impacts whether you have a healthy microbiome or not, diet, alcohol, medications, and stress can all affect it for the better or worse…
My feed is full of things that help support a healthy microbiome, fermented foods being a favourite because they contain beneficial bacteria and other metabolites which support your bacteria friends living in your gut.
If you want to know more about what’s living in your gut so you know how best to support it then you might want to do a stool test. I work with private laboratories which do amazing tests that map out your microbiome – good and bad for you to understand more. These tests are not available on the NHS sadly.
Get in touch if you are keen to support your gut health and don’t know where to start. Check the link in my bio for the water kefir recipe which is perfect for the hot weather!
