The Love Your Gut Glossary:
Learn to Listen to your Gut with the Top Ten Terms to Know
This year, Love Your Gut Week is helping empower people to learn how to listen to their gut, by demystifying some of the common terms frequently used but not necessarily understood.
Ten essential terms for understanding your gut health
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Bacteria
Bacteria are among the smallest living things. A single bacterium consists of just one cell, yet it can carry out all seven life processes: movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition. There are trillions of bacteria in your digestive system and having the right mix of bacteria here is vital to help digest food.
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Digestion
This term describes how the digestive system breaks down food into smaller nutrients to help them be absorbed into the body to provide us with energy and keep us healthy.
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Fermented Foods
Fermented foods may be beneficial for gut health by encouraging the growth of live microbes, sometimes referred to as “good bacteria”. The scientific definition of fermented foods is “foods made through desired microbial growth and enzymatic conversions of food components’. Or, in other words fermented foods are produced by increasing the content of microbes such as bacteria or yeast. “One of the ways to consume fermented foods is dairy products that contain live microbes such as: yoghurt, fermented milk drinks, sour cream.
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Gut
Also referred to as the digestive or gastrointestinal tract. From start to finish, the entire gastrointestinal tract is formed of the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, rectum and anus.
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Gut Microbiota
Our bodies are full of trillions of bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Collectively, these micro-organisms are known as the gut microbiota or gut flora. Like a fingerprint, your gut microbiota is unique to you, meaning no two human gut microbiotas are the same.
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Gut Microbiome
The combination of all the different microbiota living in the gut, their collective genomes (DNA) and the substances that they produce is called the microbiome. The microbiome is the collection of all the different micro-organisms (e.g. bacteria, viruses, fungi) and their genes living in the gut. The gut microbiome not only influences gastrointestinal health, but also immunity and cognitive functions including learning, consolidating memory, mood, mental processing, attention and concentration.
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Microorganism or microbe
These describe the microscopic, individual bacterium, viruses, archaea and fungi inhabiting the gut.
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Prebiotics
Prebiotics do not contain live microorganisms and instead act as a “food source” for the beneficial bacteria already residing in the gut, which provide health benefits to your body. Most fibres are prebiotics and they can also be found in some foods in small amounts such as Jerusalem artichokes, onions, garlic, apples and bananas.
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Probiotics
Probiotics are live microorganisms (“good bacteria”) that can benefit our health by improving the balance of the gut microbiota. They are available in many different forms such as yoghurts, tablets, capsules and sachets.
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Synbiotic
A term used when probiotics and prebiotics are combined.
Love Your Gut is also home to a wealth of other content, including free-to-download resources such as the Digestive Health Assessment, Eating Well Guide and Food, Mood and Symptoms Diary.
For further information, and to join in the conversation, visit Facebook @LoveYouGutOnline and X (formerly known as Twitter) @LoveYourGut.