When we use the term “gut health,” we’re largely talking about the health and diversity of the gut microbiome—all of the microorganisms that live in your gastrointestinal tract. This community of gut bugs doesn’t just affect your GI health, it makes a big impact on your overall wellness.
“Recent scientific research supports the idea that a balanced, healthy microbiome plays a role in nutrient digestion and absorption, hormone generation, neurotransmitter production, your metabolism and immune system and more, says Tami Best, M.S., a registered dietitian nutritionist with Top Nutrition Coaching who specializes in gut health.
One way to support a healthy gut is through nutrition, particularly by eating a diet rich in plant foods and probiotics. But what does this actually look like? To give you an idea, we’re going to start with dinner. We talked to gut-health experts about how to create a gut-healthy dinner, what they recommend, and how to eat it to support your microbiome. Keep reading.
You can find probiotics in foods such as kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, miso, kefir and some brands of cottage cheese. Yogurt is another great probiotic-rich food that can be incorporated into dinner, and it can be used as a base for a dressing or marinade or dolloped onto a bowl of soup, recommends Diana Mesa, RD, CDCES, founder and owner of En La Mesa Nutrition.
Prebiotic Fiber
Fiber is great for gut health—especially if it’s a specific type called prebiotic fiber, which acts as food for the healthy bacteria in your gut, allowing them to thrive.
“The bacteria in your gut ferment prebiotic fiber, releasing byproducts such as gases and short-chain fatty acids,” says Mesa. “Short-chain fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties, which are not only beneficial to gut health but to overall health, too,” she explains.
The prebiotic foods that Best recommends include whole grains, peas, legumes, artichokes, garlic, honey, asparagus, banana, dandelion greens and onions. Mesa says she loves incorporating potatoes, legumes or plantains in her dinners for prebiotic fiber.
Plant Foods
For a gut-friendly dinner, make sure you’re packing in the plants. A 2020 study in Nutrients found that people who followed a Mediterranean diet rich in plant foods had significantly more diverse gut microbiomes than those who ate a typical Western diet low in fiber and high in added sugars and animal products. Researchers believe antioxidants—found in abundance in plant foods—may have something to do with this.
A Low-Stress Environment
Gut health is about more than just the nutrients you eat. It’s also about how you eat. Mindful eating can promote nervous system regulation and help your body enter “rest and digest” mode for optimal digestion, per a 2019 study in Integrative Medicine.
Try eating dinner in a low-stress environment. That means setting aside enough time for the meal so that you don’t have to rush, and eating regularly throughout the day so you don’t show up to dinner extremely hungry. Doing so will allow you the opportunity to chew your food thoroughly. “Digestion begins in the mouth, and in the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day, you might find yourself eating pretty quickly,” says Mesa. Slowing down means chewing food thoroughly, which can improve your digestion and make eating a more pleasurable experience, she says.
The Best Dinner to Support Gut Health
For a healthy gut microbiome, we recommend our Roasted Salmon with Smoky Chickpeas & Greens. It has almost one-quarter of the Daily Value of fiber (6 grams) in each serving, and it’s packed with plant foods that provide prebiotics and antioxidants. Plus, salmon is a high-quality source of protein that’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids to reduce inflammation.
If you want to add a grain, we recommend going with a whole grain like quinoa, wild rice or barley for added prebiotics. However, if you’re just starting to increase your fiber intake, you may want to start with a grain like white rice, which has less fiber. This recipe is already an excellent source of fiber, and adding too much fiber too quickly can cause GI issues like bloating.
Here are three reasons why we love this dinner for gut health:
Rich in Prebiotic Fiber
This dinner includes one of Mesa’s favorite prebiotic sources—legumes! The chickpeas are tossed with oil, paprika and salt and then roasted for a crispy accompaniment to the salmon and kale. If you have leftover chickpeas after making this recipe, you’re in luck. They work great as a snack on their own or as a salad topping for lunch the next day.
Besides the chickpeas, this recipe incorporates kale, another great source of prebiotic fiber. The recipe instructs you to cook the kale on the stovetop for a warm meal, but you could always serve it cold if you want something more refreshing.
Contains Probiotics
This recipe includes a creamy green dressing to top the salmon and greens. One source of the dressing’s creaminess is buttermilk, an ingredient that sometimes (but not always) contains probiotics. (Check the label for live and active cultures.)
If you’re not sure if your buttermilk contains probiotics, it’s also easy to add probiotics by using plain yogurt instead of buttermilk or mayonnaise in the recipe. Or, you can swap the dressing and make this Creamy Yogurt-Dill Sauce instead.
Anti-Inflammatory Ingredients
This recipe incorporates a few anti-inflammatory ingredients that Best recommends, including green leafy veggies, fatty fish and extra-virgin olive oil. “Anti-inflammatory foods help keep intestinal cells healthy,” says Best.
Plus, the chickpeas are seasoned with paprika, a spice that may have anti-inflammatory benefits due to its capsaicin content. Capsaicin is responsible for the spicy flavor of foods like paprika and chile peppers. A 2022 study in Biomolecules found that capsaicin may help reduce inflammation and stimulate mucin production in the colon, which supports the growth of healthy gut bacteria.
The Bottom Line
For a healthy gut, it’s important to eat prebiotics, probiotics and anti-inflammatory foods like fatty fish and leafy greens. The best dinner that fits the bill is our Roasted Salmon with Smoky Chickpeas & Greens. To support healthy digestion, experts recommend eating it slowly in a stress-free environment, too. Besides, with a dinner this good, you’ll want to savor and enjoy it.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
