Welcome back to another episode of health hacks.

I continue to talk about gut health, and this is episode five of this series. So if you haven't heard any of the others, please do go back and listen. And today, I want to talk about the role of diet on our gut health. Now, our microbiomes are as different as our fingerprints, because no two of us have ever eaten the exact same foods every single day for every day of our lives. And another interesting fact for you is that our microbiome is goes back four generations on our mother's side, so we're talking about our great, great grandmother. And the microbiome is actually a best formed during birth when the baby comes out through the vaginal canal and is getting mom's microbes all over him or her during the birth that is the foundation of a healthy microbiome is those microbes. Now today, for C section births, you can ask the doctor to actually swab the baby in mom's microbes as well, although that is relatively new, that we can do that because we just didn't know previously, and so C section babies microbiomes in the past weren't as healthy as those who were born vaginally. Now, going back four generations on mom's side to your great great grandmother, look at the type of food that they were eating back then compared to the type of food that you are eating right now, and that can be a clue as to how healthy your microbiome is. You might have moved countries, or your grandparents or your parents moved countries, and so the food available to you might be very different to what the foundation of your microbiome is used to. And then, of course, in the last you know, 50 years, the growth of the processed food industry and the significant amount or increase in sugar intake and artificial sweeteners has all negatively impact the health of our microbiomes as a human population overall, because all of those things actually harm our gut versus food that heals is That's our whole food foods, are fibrous, foods are fermented foods. And again, going back in time, almost all cultures had a fermented food that they would use to support their gut health. And in modern times, there's much less of that, although, of course, sauerkraut is a great option, as is Korean kimchi and Japanese natto and miso. Kombucha, as long as that, kombucha isn't laden with sugar and any other foods that you choose to ferment yourself can be very helpful and healing to our gut, and it is very important to also have variety and diversity in our diet, in the colors of the foods that we're eating, in the type of foods that we're eating, in order to maintain a healthy microbiome, rather than eating the same foods all the time. So the more variety of our vegetables that we can be getting is very, very helpful. So that's why I love to start my day with a the daily vegetable blend from equilife, because it has 22 organic fruits and veggies and berries in that and there's no way in any given day that I would actually be able to eat 22 different varieties of food, and so starting my day that way and giving that to my body allows me to know that I'm giving my body that diversity that it needs, even as I choose to eat healthy the rest of the day, I still am not getting 22 different types of fruit and vegetables into my diet. So think about how you can do that for yourself as well, to increase the diversity of what you are eating. And again, if you want support with this, feel free to reach out to me, Melissa at your guided health journey.com and I'd be happy to have a conversation and chat with you around supporting your gut health, because it is so important to your overall health.