Kids Need Healthy Bugs in Their Stomach

photo credit: truth about health

[Ed Note:  This is a guest post from Dr. Susan McCreadie of NourishMD.com]

I often feel like a broken record in my office:

a healthy digestive tract is essential for health.  

A little background on this topic - then I'll talk about how sugar throws off a healthy balanced gut.

We are living organisms and hosts to billions of microorganisms [bugs]; they are on our skin, in our respiratory tract, and line our gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems.  

100,000 billion bacteria live in our digestive tract - 

that is 10 times MORE than ALL the cells in your body!

What are all these bugs doing there?  They are stimulating a healthy immune system, decreasing inflammation throughout the body, and promoting an effective gut barrier (keeping the disease causing organisms and more out).  The beneficial bacteria can also help lower cholesterol, reduce allergy symptoms (eczema, asthma, hay fever, food allergies).  But there's MORE - beneficial bacteria also help prevent diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and lactose intolerance.

The question is:  Does your gut have plenty of these healthy bacteria?

The food we eat dictates the type of flora in our intestines.  For example, breastfed babies have mostly bifidobacterium (1 type of beneficial bacteria), and after food introduction, the flora changes.  By 2 years of age, a child's flora is similar to an adult.  

Fruits & veggies are important to keeping beneficial bacteria counts HIGH

You knew it had to be true - yes it all comes down to eating lots of fruits & veggies.  The reason why one of the risk factors for colorectal cancer is a diet high in meat and low in fruits & vegetables is because with higher meat consumption, other bacteria such as bacteroides predominate.  

It's all about balance.  Which brings me back around to sugar.  Like meat, sugar isn't bad - it's just too much sugar throws off this healthy balance of beneficial bacteria.  Other critters like some forms of yeast and non-beneficial bacteria may become a problem with too much sugar in one's diet.

The goal is to tip the balance in favor of beneficial bacteria/yeast; this makes it difficult for the harmful competitors to survive!

Hip-hip hooray to veggies! In my family I make sure to prep veggies every week so they are always available for snacks and meals.  Some of the veggie prep I do regularly includes washing and chopping cucumbers,  celery and carrots; steaming broccoli and baking sweet potato fries.  Spending a little time each week doing this means my three girls (and I) will be feeding those healthy bugs inside every single day!

Dr. Susan McCreadie is a board certified pediatrician who practices holistically.  You can find her along with Angelle Batten, HHC, MEd, at www.NourishMD.com.  She shares her expertise and her own parenting journey – not always pretty, but always REAL!