Maintaining Gut Health for Calisthenics Athletes – Source of Strength

calisthneics gut health

Posted On December 10, 2019

Maintaining gut health for athletes a source of strength and well-being

 

Did you know living among our cells there are some 40 trillion non-human cells? That’s more non-human cells than human cells. And many of them live in our guts!

These cells are mostly bacteria and have evolved with us for millions of years. Collectively, we call them the microbiome or microflora,  and they live in symbiosis with us.

They have a variety of important functions including but not limited to: producing vitamins, assisting in keeping the immune system in check, preventing colonization by pathogenic bacterial species and producing short chain fatty acids that have a myriad of effects on our bodies!

Microbiota are a hot topic in current studies, and rudimentary links have been established between poor gut health and cardio-metabolic diseases including metabolic syndrome, diabetes and others.

Needless to say, it’s important to keep these micro-organisms happy and healthy. How do we do that you might ask? By considering diet.

Diet’s effect on gut health

 

The proportion of fibre in the diet has a huge effect on gut biodiversity (types of microbes living in the gut). Moreover probiotics (live bacteria) and prebiotics (bacterial sustenance) can change the balance as well. Yoghurts are a great way to top up on these good bacteria.

Highly processed sugars are well known to alter gut biodiversity, and rudimentary evidence suggests that artificial sweeteners could play a role as well.

It’s important to note that the gut microbiome is in constant need of being actively maintained, and changes can quickly be reversed by dietary lapses.

Studies in murine models suggest that metabolic changes achieved by dietary modifications could be a) abolished by anti-biotic intervention and b) transposed to other mice by fecal transplants. This is important as it a) isolates microflora as a significant metabolic player, not just an accessory to human metabolism and b) gives perspective to microfloral metabolic changes in the absence of dietary change.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5082693/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25231862

Written by Vic

Melbourne-based Personal Trainer, Calisthenics Athlete and the Founder of Street Workout St Kilda. Super passionate about bodyweight training and the art of movement.
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