A Dynamic Duo for Good Gut Health
Over 2000 years ago, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, stated that “All disease begins in the gut.” While this may not be 100% true, your gut bacteria and the integrity of your gut lining strongly affects your health. Good digestive health is essential for many things, including:
Bacterial diversity is important to a healthy gut, and diet has a major impact on determining which microbes take up residence in our guts long-term. A Western diet, high in fat and refined sugars but low in fibre, is thought to reduce microbial diversity.[6]
In a 2016 study, when mice were fed a low-fibre diet for 4 weeks, the levels of 60 percent of microbial species decreased significantly. About half of these returned to normal levels when the mice were switched back to a high-fibre diet but even a short burst of such an unhealthful diet left long-lasting effects, or “scars,” on the microbial diversity. More importantly, the loss of diversity became permanently established within four generations when the mice continued to consume a low-fibre diet.[7]
A high fibre diet supports bowel health but can also provide other health benefits as well, such as helping to maintain a healthy weight and lowering your risk of diabetes and heart disease.[8]
Fibre is not absorbed in the large intestine but acts as food for probiotics. It is found in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains and while it contains no calories, vitamins or minerals, it is very important to your health. Fibre not only feeds your good bacteria, but it also helps to keep our digestive tract working optimally by promoting and maintaining regularity.[9]
When it’s difficult to get enough fibre and probiotics into your diet, Renew Life® can help.
Ultimate Flora® Critical Care is a daily multi-strain probiotic blend that provides 50 billion live bacterial cultures in a convenient once daily capsule. It contains diverse strains of live bacteria to help support intestinal and gastrointestinal health. It is contained in specialized acid-resistant vegetarian capsules to help protect the live bacteria from harsh stomach acids and is available in both refrigerated and shelf stable formats.
FibreSMART® comes in both capsules and powder. The powder is an easy-to-mix flax-based dietary fibre supplement that can be added to water or juice to help support daily bowel health. It contains both soluble and insoluble fibre and has additional ingredients for the intestinal tract such as Marshmallow Root and Slippery Elm Bark. It contains no nuts, gluten, dairy and soy.