The Semi-Complete User's Guide To Your Gut

When you eat, hundreds of different species of microbes chow down, too. So you need a diet to keep them happy — or everything from your mood to your immune system could pay the price. Luckily, science is here to help.

- WORDS: KEVIN DUPZYK

What Do Microbes Even Do?

GUT PROTECTION

“Our bodies are quite clever,” says Jack Gilbert, a microbiologist at UC San Diego and the director of the Microbiome and Metagenomics Center. The enzymes our bodies make help us digest what we’re able to, then we rely on microbes – mainly bacteria in the colon – to digest the rest. Like you, microbes ‘poop’ out byproducts they can’t process. Depending on what they’re eating, these byproducts can cause gas and other issues, or their ‘waste’ can be useful things, such as vitamins B and K. A messed-up microbial mix is linked to common digestive ailments as well as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

MOOD STABILISATION