Tackling Gut Health with Sources of Butyrate: The Why, What and How

If you often experience gut-related symptoms such as bloating, gas, pain, diarrhea, and constipation, you’re not alone – many people suffer from a poor gut health and are unaware of not only its root causes but also how they can improve it by making simple adjustments to their daily food intake.

Beyond embarrassing and uncomfortable physical symptoms, our gut is also our “second brain”- our enteric nervous system that is made up of millions of nerve cells that line our GI tract. Besides helping with digestion and the absorption of food and nutrients, these cells are also directly connected to our brain. Therefore, an unhealthy gut can directly affect our brain’s health, moods, and ability to handle stress and our immune system in general.

What Are Some of the Root Causes of an Unhealthy Gut?

The gut-related symptoms that we experience are commonly caused by the lack of healthy microflora (also known as gut bacteria) within the gut. These good bacteria flourish when we feed them their “food” – that is, prebiotics. This is where butyrate steps in – it is a byproduct of your gut microflora breaking down prebiotic fibers. When we consume prebiotic foods, our gut bacteria ingest these foods and produce short chain fatty acids – which have been linked to benefits such as reduced cancer risk, weight loss, reduction in hypercholesterolemia, improved electrolyte/mineral absorption and a healthier immune system.

Integrate More Sources of Butyrate into Your Diet

Many of us do not include sufficient butyrate sources in our diet, which lacks fiber – specifically, prebiotic fiber. Some good butyrate sources to include in your diet would be beans, muesli, cooked plantains, unripe bananas, cooked potatoes and cooked rice, as they upregulate the production of butyrate in your body. On the other hand, butter and ghee are directly ingested sources of butyrate and thus highly recommended for use in cooking!

Balance Your Gut Health with the Right Supplements

Everyone’s gut microflora and hence its ability to breakdown and metabolize foods are different; thus, in addition to eating foods that are rich in butyrate, it is a good idea to consume butyrate supplements. The increasing research being conducted on the benefits of butyrate has encouraged the medical world to take a closer look at the gut microbiome. Findings have successfully linked butyrate to the prevention of/improvement in gut-related diseases such as autoimmune diseases, obesity, and colon cancer.

So what are you waiting for – add more butyrate to your diet now! At Five Journeys, we are committed to your health and stock the butyrate supplement – contact us to purchase the supplement; for more details on the benefits of butyrate and how to increase its intake through your diet; or generally for health tips, recipes and more!