Top tips for your TUMMY

Wise up about your gut and lower your risk of serious illness

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Experts have believed for years that a happy gut equals a healthy body and mind. Recently, a large-scale study has supported that. It shows that by following a healthy, plant-based diet, you are encouraging certain gut microbes to thrive – microbes that are linked to a lower risk of obesity, as well as a lowered risk of diabetes and heart disease.

‘The PREDICT 1 programme allows us to look at how we respond to food and what modulates the impact of food on our health,’ says Dr Sarah Berry, reader in nutrition sciences at King’s College London and one of the PREDICT 1

researchers. ‘Diet-microbiome-health research is rapidly expanding and we are starting to understand that our microbiome (the variety of good and bad microbes in our body) is intricately linked to our health – from cardiometabolic health to mental health. Those microbes may also impact long-term health and weight.’

We can decide

While the link between food, our microbiome and our health is stronger than ever, other factors still play a part. ‘There are many determinants of how we

respond to food, including what we eat, how and when we eat, plus sleep, exercise and our genetics,’ says Dr Berry. ‘Although the good news is we’re not prisoners of our genes and we’re more in control of our health than we realise.’ What’s