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Welcome to this month's edition of Boost Gut Health. As Hippocrates, one of the fathers of modern medicine, observed: all disease begins in the gut.

Two Gut Healthy Habits

Eat for serotonin. We're used to thinking of the feel-good hormone serotonin as helping to boost our mood. But did you know that 90 per cent of serotonin is made in our gut and also supports digestion?

We make serotonin from the amino acid tryptophan, which is an important part of protein. Foods rich in tryptophan are chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, turkey, tuna, salmon, eggs and cheese.

The power of broccoli. Broccoli is an all-round superfood, packed with fiber and nutrients. So how about it in a soup?

Here's a great recipe for Cheesy Broccoli Soup from Michael Greger M.D., founder of Nutrition Facts, one of the best sources of science-backed evidence on the power of food: https://nutritionfacts.org/recipe/cheesy-broccoli-soup/​

One Lesson

What's good for the heart is also good for the gut. New guidelines on nutrition released this week by the American Heart Association emphasize the importance of eating whole foods, particularly plenty of fruit and vegetables.

So what does plenty mean? I think the clearest explanation is this visual of HALF A PLATE of fruit and vegetables from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The other half of the plate is whole grains and protein.

In my experience of talking to people everyday about their nutrition, it's rare to find someone who gets their two fruits and three vegetables a day, which is how the latest government guidelines summarize the minimum intake for good health.

We know that our gut bugs love fruit and vegetables as they are full of fiber, which feed our microbiome. So load up on the colors of the rainbow. The food on your plate plate should not be overwhelmingly beige!

Here are the latest recommendations from the American Heart Association:

​https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001435​

One Quote

"It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to life. Our objective must be to add new life to those years."

John F. Kennedy