Hero Ingredients from your store cupboard for Good Gut Health

from Dr Joan Ransley for Love Your Gut Week

It can be difficult to know what to eat to support your digestive health, but the good news is that many of the foods we already have in our fridge, freezer or cupboards are hero ingredients that can form the basis of a gut healthy diet.

Bananas, beans, berries, nuts and vegetables offer fibre – which many of us don’t get enough of[1] and which can help support digestion and prevent constipation[2], as well as prebiotics and other important nutrients. In addition, to offering a number of digestive health benefits, these foods also taste great and can be enjoyed in lots of different ways from breakfast to supper.

To help make stocking up on digestion-friendly foods easy, Dr Joan has picked out her top 6 store cupboard staple ingredients.

 Pulses 

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A pulse is an edible seed that grows in a pod. Beans, lentils and chickpeas contain both dietary fibre and prebiotics known as galacto-oligosaccharides which travel through the gut and reach the colon. Here, they are fermented by healthy gut bacteria producing important molecules to keep the immune system functioning efficiently and the cells lining the gut healthy and free from disease[3].

In addition, pulses contain soluble fibre, which supports bowel health. Studies have shown improvements in bowel health in people including chickpeas in their diet, including reporting going to the toilet more often and more easily, and softer stool consistency[4].

Bananas

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Bananas contain dietary fibre and a prebiotic called fructo-oligosaccharide or FOS for short. FOS cannot be digested in the upper part of the digestive tract so travels through the gut to be fermented in the colon, allowing healthy bacteria to thrive[5]. Dietary fibre has two important roles; it bulks the stool which can deliver nutrients to the most distal part of the gut and brings undigested food that can be fermented by bacteria in the colon thereby aiding gut health[6].

As bananas ripen their carbohydrate composition changes. Unripe bananas contain resistant starch, a form of carbohydrate resistant to digestion. When this starch reaches the colon it is fermented by gut bacteria and this in turn produces many bioactive substances, beneficial for gut health.

Green Vegetables  

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Green vegetables, such as spinach and kale, are a rich source of a group of chemicals called polyphenols. Polyphenols can act as antioxidants in the body – helping to neutralise harmful free radicals that can cause disease. When polyphenols reach the bacteria in the gut they are broken down into smaller by-products and used as fuel to produce chemicals that send messages to the immune system. They also actively encourage some species of healthy bacteria to flourish. One example is Lactobacilli, that gather together bind and remove lipid particles from the blood[7].

Kale contains substances called glucosinolates, which are broken down by chewing to form isothiocyanates. These react with the cell walls of the colon and may help to prevent cancer cells developing[8].

Berries

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Berries are rich in polyphenol compounds such as flavonoids like anthocyanins. In the colon, polyphenols are metabolised by micro-organisms/gut bacteria into smaller phenolic compounds, which can enter the circulation and reach the organs in the body. Polyphenols and their metabolites can modulate the microbial populations, leading to an increase in healthy bacteria such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli. Berries have also been shown to alleviate symptoms of gut inflammation and may help to prevent cancer in the colon[9].

Nuts

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Eating nuts, in moderate quantities, is associated with a number of beneficial health outcomes, such as helping to prevent heart disease and type 2 diabetes, which have been mainly attributed to their fatty acid profile. Nuts also contain prebiotic components including dietary fibre and other complex polysaccharides, which provide substrates for the gut bacteria to ferment and form new bioactive substances associated with the health benefits of eating nuts. Eating nuts, such as almonds, regularly over the course of several weeks has been shown to increase populations of healthy bacteria in the large intestine[10].

Cocoa powder

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Cocoa is one if the richest sources of polyphenols in food. Besides stimulating beneficial bacteria growth, laboratory studies have also shown that cocoa powder can help to inhibit the growth of pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Listeria. This is yet to be demonstrated in humans, however[11].

Virgin olive oil

Several studies have shown extra virgin olive oil to be good for gut health. This is because virgin olive oil contains polyphenols, which are well known for their antimicrobial activity on certain bacteria, as well as for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects[12]. Virgin olive oil contains more polyphenols than refined olive oil[13], so is a great choice for salad dressings and dishes where the quality of the oil will shine through.

Colourful vegetables

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Colourful vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers contain a range of phytochemicals (literally “plant chemicals”) that give them not only their colour but also their taste. Colourful vegetables contain both polyphenols and dietary fibre which can promote healthy populations of gut bacteria. In healthy subjects, these modulations generally lead to an increase in healthy bacteria such as Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli[14].

See our Love Your Gut Recipes for more inspiration!

References:

[1] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/good-foods-to-help-your-digestion/

[2] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-get-more-fibre-into-your-diet/

[3] Bridgette Wilson and  Kevin Whelan. Prebiotic inulin‐type fructans and galacto‐oligosaccharides: definition, specificity, function, and application in gastrointestinal disorders. Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. First published: 28 February 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/jgh.13700

[4] Murty CM, Pittaway JK & Ball MJ. Chickpea supplementation in an Australian diet affects food choice, satiety and bowel health. Appetite 2010; 54: 282–288. DOI: 10.1016/j.appet.2009.11.012

[5] Tandon et al. (2019) A Prospective Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Dose-Response Relationship Study to Investigate Efficacy of Fructo-Oligosaccharides (FOS) on Human Gut Microflora. Sci Rep 9(1):5473. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-41837-3.

[6] https://www.nutrition.org.uk/nutritionscience/nutrients-food-and-ingredients/dietary-fibre.html?limitstart=0

[7] Tim Spector. The Diet Myth. P82. Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2015

[8] Soundararajan P, Kim JS. Anti-Carcinogenic Glucosinolates in Cruciferous Vegetables and Their Antagonistic Effects on Prevention of Cancers. Molecules. 2018;23(11):2983. Published 2018 Nov 15. doi:10.3390/molecules23112983

[9] Laura Lavefve, Luke R. Howard and Franck Carbonera. Berry polyphenols metabolism and impact on human gut microbiota and health. Food Function, 2020,11, 45-65  https://doi.org/10.1039/C9FO01634A

[10] Lamuel-Raventos RM, Onge MS. Prebiotic nut compounds and human microbiota. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2017;57(14):3154‐3163. doi:10.1080/10408398.2015.1096763

[11] Calatayud M, López-de-Dicastillo C, López-Carballo G, Vélez D, Hernández Muñoz P, Gavara R. Active films based on cocoa extract with antioxidant, antimicrobial and biological applications. Food Chem. 2013;139(1-4):5158. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2013.01.097 

[12] Mohsen Gavahian, Amin Mousavi Khaneghah and José M. Lorenzo et al. Health benefits of olive oil and its components: Impacts on gut microbiota antioxidant activities, and prevention of noncommunicable diseases,Trends in Food Science & Technology,Volume 88, 2019, Pages 220-227,

ISSN 0924-2244, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2019.03.008

[13] Gorzynik-Debicka M, Przychodzen P, Cappello F, et al. Potential Health Benefits of Olive Oil and Plant Polyphenols. Int J Mol Sci. 2018;19(3):686. Published 2018 Feb 28. doi:10.3390/ijms19030686

[14] Tim Spector. The Diet Myth. P82. Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2015