What Is Your Gut Microbiome? | Activia Canada

What Is Your Gut Microbiome?

Your gut is home to a vast community of microorganisms collectively known as the gut microbiome. In this article, we explore what the gut microbiome is, how it is defined scientifically, and how this microbial ecosystem interacts with your digestive system.

Microbiome Definition: What Is the Gut Microbiome?

What Does “Microbiome” Mean?

First and foremost, you want to understand your gut health better, but what does “microbiome” even means?

The gut microbiome refers to the collection of microorganisms living in the digestive tract¹ including their genetic material and the environment in which they interact. These microorganisms include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes² — including many bacteria that live in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

The human intestine hosts a vast community of microorganisms, estimated at around 100 trillion microbes, forming one of the most densely populated ecosystems in the body and illustrating the role of the microbiome in digestion and other body processes.

To summarize, a simple definition of the term microbiome would be the collection of microorganisms and their genetic material living and interacting within a specific environment, such as the human digestive system.

Microbiome vs Microbiota

The terms microbiome and microbiota are closely related but have slightly different meanings, which helps when differentiating the terms microbiome and microbiota.

• Microbiota refers to the microorganisms themselves³; the bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes that live in a particular environment, such as the intestine. These organisms are the members of a microbiota, forming a specific group of microbiota like the human gut microbiota.

• Microbiome refers to the microorganisms together with their genetic material; including their gene content; and the ecosystem in which they interact, such as the human gut microbiome.

Another key characteristic of the human gut microbiota is that it varies between individuals, meaning each person has a unique microbial community.

What Microorganisms Live in the Gut?

The gut microbiome is the collection of microorganisms and the genomes of microorganisms living in the digestive tract. This ecosystem forms a unique gut bacterial community in every individual. While the exact composition varies from person to person, considering the composition of microbiota shows that many people share similar microbiome functions within the digestive system.

Your gut microbiota is essential to your health, helping with digestion of food and absorption of nutrients.

How the Gut Microbiome Interacts With the Body

Microbiome and Digestion

One of the main ways the gut microbiome interacts with the body is through digestion. Certain gut microbes help break down components of food that the human body cannot digest on its own, particularly dietary fibres.⁵

During this process, microorganisms ferment these compounds and produce molecules known as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)⁶, including:

• Butyrate

• Acetate

• Propionate

These fermentation products interact with cells in the intestine and are part of the many biochemical processes taking place in the digestive tract, which are also studied in microbiome based research exploring digestive conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.

Connections With Other Body Functions

Microbiome researchers agree that microorganisms in the gut interact with several physiological systems in the body.⁷ The digestive tract and its microbiota are connected to functions such as digestion, metabolism, and interactions with the immune and nervous systems, which may affect our overall health.

Because of these connections, researchers continue to explore how differences in the microbiome may interact with biological processes, including:

• Metabolism

• Immune responses

• Communication between the gut and the brain

These interactions remain an active area of research, as studies continue to investigate how microorganisms and the human body influence each other.

How the Gut Microbiome Develops

The gut microbiome does not remain the same throughout life. Instead, it develops and changes over time as the host and its associated microbiota evolve together, with different members of the microbiome establishing themselves from early life onward.⁸ ⁹

Several factors may influence how the microbiome develops in early life, including:

• Birth delivery mode

• Breastfeeding

• Feeding

• environmental factors (nutrition, antibiotics)

Your gut microbiota is unique and identifies you as an individual, but this composition is quite dynamic. As a result, the composition of the gut microbiome is considered dynamic rather than fixed, and understanding the microbiome and microbiota and provide insights into how microorganisms interact with the body and respond to environmental changes.

Factors That Influence the Gut Microbiome

The composition of the gut microbiome can change over time and is influenced by several factors. Diet is considered one of the most important influences, as the foods we eat nourish both the body and the gut bacteria living in the digestive tract, which are members of a microbiome.¹⁰ What you eat can impact the gut microbiota within 24 hours of a dietary change.¹¹

Fibre-containing foods, plant-based foods, and fermented foods are often studied because they interact with this microbial ecosystem. Fermented foods (yogurt, kefir, kimchi) supply live microorganisms that can positively influence microbiome balance. It is worth noting, however, that not all fermented foods contain probiotics. All yogurt is fermented, but only some yogurts have additional probiotic strains added beyond the bacteria used for fermentation. A probiotic yogurt is one that contains specific, studied strains added intentionally, and that distinction matters when choosing a yogurt for its potential contribution to digestive comfort.

Plant-based polyphenol-rich foods (berries, olive oil, green tea) selectively support beneficial bacteria.¹²

To summarize, certain types of foods are particularly good for your gut: fibre-rich products such as artichokes, onions, broccoli or bananas act as nourishment and can provide nutrients for our microbes, they are called prebiotics. Meanwhile, fermented products like kimchi, and probiotic foods, like yogurts with added probiotics, can provide live good bacteria to our gut.

But the impact of food will not be exactly the same from one person to the other.

Other factors that may shape the microbiome include:

• Medications, especially antibiotics or vitamins deficiencies

• Physical activity

• Sleep patterns

• Stress

• Genetics

• Age

• Disease

• Lifestyle

• Genetic

Because these factors vary between individuals, each person’s gut microbiome develops in a slightly different way over time. A rich and diverse human gut microbiota is often associated with a good health status and microbiota resilience, meaning that it can return to a healthy state after a perturbation. Tracking your gut health may be a way to follow that evolution overtime and support your digestive routine. And to add diversity to your microbiota, you could:

• Include dietary fibres that can be metabolically used by gut microbes:

  cooked and cooled potatoes, legumes and root vegetables, onions, garlic, bananas, chicory root, and artichokes.

• Add probiotic foods to your diet:

  such as fermented milk, yogurt, kefir with added probiotics…etc.

• Eat a variety of animal and plant-based proteins:

  plant-based (beans, lentils, nuts, seeds) and animal-based (meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, and dairy products)

• Include foods rich in omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids:

  walnuts, flax seeds, salmon and tuna for omega-3 per example; avocado, nuts, seeds and plant-based oils for omega-6.

• Eat plenty of vitamins and minerals:

  found in a variety of animal foods, in fruits and vegetables, wholegrain cereals, nuts and legumes, such as beans and lentils.

Understanding Your Gut Microbiome

The gut microbiome is a complex community of microorganisms that lives in the digestive tract and interacts with many processes in the body. While each person's microbiome is unique and still being studied, understanding how this ecosystem works can help explain the growing scientific interest in digestion and microbial communities.

We are all actors or our own health. Through life and environmental changes, our gut microbiota stays with us. A well balanced diet, rich in varied sources of fibre, is a good basis for a diverse and rich gut microbiota.

If you’re interested in supporting your gut health with probiotic yogurt, do not hesitate to explore Activia products.