What shifts your gut
Dietary fibre
Fermentable fibre (so-called MACs) feeds the bacteria that make butyrate. The effect builds over weeks, not days.
Dietary fat (type matters)
Saturated fat blooms bile-tolerant bacteria and lowers diversity; omega-3 fats do the opposite. The kind of fat matter…
Added sugar & refined carbs
Simple sugars feed Candida while starving fibre-fermenters — lowering diversity and butyrate.
Iron
Iron is a growth-limiting nutrient pathogens scavenge efficiently. Excess — especially oral supplements — favours path…
Circadian 24-hour rhythm
The whole community keeps time. About 60% of gut microbes rise and fall on a ~24-hour clock, and roughly a quarter of …
Chronic stress
Via cortisol and stress hormones — which some pathogens can even sense and feed on. Much of the evidence is from anima…
Exercise
Regular activity is linked to higher diversity and more butyrate producers — an effect partly independent of diet. End…
Antibiotics
Powerful and cross-kingdom: by clearing bacteria they remove colonization resistance, letting fungi and C. difficile b…
Brain-wave / EEG coupling
An early, active research area. Microbial signals reach the brain via the vagus nerve and short-chain fatty acids, and…
Poor sleep & circadian disruption
Shift work and short sleep are associated with reduced diversity and a flattened daily rhythm. The link is real but th…