Over the last few decades, a growing body of evidence has shown how important our gut microflora and gut bacteria are for our overall health.

‘Gut microflora’ refers to the millions of different bacteria that call your gut home. In fact, there are so many bacteria in the average gut that the human body actually contains more bacterial cells than human cells!

Good gut bacteria serve many important functions. These include helping to digest our food and protecting our guts from ‘bad’ bacteria that can make us sick.

There are many things that can harm good bacteria in the gut, leading to a less diverse gut microflora. This has been linked with many health concerns, including obesity and anxiety.

A recent groundbreaking article identified a microbe known as Blastocystis,  responsible for killing various good bacteria and previously thought to be harmless. In the study it was shown to kill Bifidobacterium, a good bacterium that helps to digest fibre.

The various dangers to good bacteria in our gut microflora has led to great interest nowadays in probiotics and prebiotics. Probiotics are supplements containing live colonies of good bacteria, to help populate your gut with these beneficial bacteria. Prebiotics are nutrients that selectively help to feed these colonies of good bacteria.

When taken together, prebiotics and probiotics can help to repopulate the gut microbiome. This leads to a more healthy and more varied gut flora. Our sense* for gut health superfood supplement powder contains multiple prebiotic nutrients, such as inulin.

To learn more about how our gut microflora affects our overall health, including our weight, mood and food cravings, read our article ‘Are We Controlled By Bad Gut Bacteria?’