The gut microbiome is the environment within your gut. This environment is made up of trillions of bacteria. These bacteria perform all kinds of tasks like food digestion, detoxification, hormone production, immune support, mood regulation, and so on. Gut bacteria is often referred to in the scientific community as gut flora. Note that not all bacteria found in your gut is beneficial, some bacteria can be actively hostile.

Most people think of probiotics as a supplement that you can take with a meal in the form of a capsule, but probiotics are the type of bacteria that is good for your gut and provide all of the health benefits I mentioned earlier. They can be consumed in supplement form, or grow on their own given the right environmental conditions.

It’s important to know that taking probiotics in supplement form can definitely help, but you have to make sure that you’re getting a high enough amount due to the fact that a lot of the probiotics won’t survive in the stomach.

Probiotic supplements are measured colony forming units (CFU). Your dosage of CFUs should range from 20-60 billion, with 7-10 of the probiotic strains.

Here’s a great vegan probiotic supplement that I recommend.

The bacteria in your gut microbiome fit into two groups, good or bad bacteria. When the population of bad bacteria grow in your gut they release toxins that cause all sorts of damage to your cells. This can lead to anything from leaky gut syndrome to autoimmune disease.

Right now there’s a battle for dominance over your gut between these two groups. If the population of your good gut bacteria shrinks the bad bacteria thrive; the reverse also happens.

This is where food choice and lifestyle really decide what happens. Everything you eat will either feed one group or the other.

• Plantbased whole foods rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are what feed your good bacteria.
• Animal products, processed sugary foods, oily/fried foods are what feed the bad bacteria.

You should maintain a positive balance in your gut where good gut bacteria is dominant. This will create an environment that suppresses not just the bad bacteria, but also any viruses, parasites, or harmful fungal growth.

There are 6 key things you can do to balance your gut flora.

1. Exercise daily using a combination of resistance training/high intensity days and low intensity yoga and low intensity cardio days.
2. Get to bed by 9pm or 10pm at the latest to maximize recovery, digestion, and body detoxification.
3. Eat an oil free whole food plantbased diet following the calories, macros, and meal structure in this course.
4. Take a good probiotic supplement daily like the one I listed earlier for at least 12 weeks.
5. Eat 1-2 servings daily of probiotic rich foods to help grow and sustain the probiotics in your gut.
6. Eat 1-2 servings daily of prebiotic rich foods to feed your good gut bacteria.

Here’s some of the benefits of applying these 6 keys to your lifestyle.

• Improves digestive health & nutrient absorption
• Improves energy level and sleep quality
• Improves weight loss and muscle growth
• Reverses chronic illness
• Improves skin, hair, and nails

Probiotics can form on and in food during fermentation. Fermented foods are foods that have been through the process of lactofermentation where natural bacteria feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic acid. This process preserves the food, and creates all kinds of beneficial enzymes, b-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of probiotics.

The natural fermentation of foods has also been shown to preserve nutrients in food and break the food down to a form that’s easier to digest. This, along with the cultures of probiotics created during the fermentation process, is why the consumption of fermented foods leads to the improvement of gut health and digestion.

Simply put, fermented foods are nutrient dense foods that end up being a lot easier to digest and absorb because of the fermentation process.

If you decide to go to the store and get some of this stuff, make sure you get it unpasteurized because pasteurization kills the good bacteria. Look for it in the refrigerated aisle.

Prebiotics are a type of fiber that serves as the food source for probiotics. All plantbased foods have varying amounts of prebiotic fiber. Some sources are more ideal especially when consumed raw being that some of the prebiotic fiber is lost during cooking.

Working these raw greens into your diet may be a bit inconvenient especially if you can’t tolerate the taste. An easier solution would be to take it in a powder supplement form. A good supplement that I recommend is one created by hyperbiotics.