The gut: another faddish focus?

We live in a world where fads come and go. Trends become wildly popular, then for one reason or another fall by the wayside and become a distant memory. Sometimes they attempt to make a comeback--like Dr Atkins...and legwarmers!

This goes for all areas of life, but especially the health industry. It is possible to find data to support almost anything. It can be confusing and overwhelming to find what is really worth pursuing.

Currently, one of the subjects that is currently being talked about is the gut. Ever heard anyone talk about "the gut is the second brain", "the gut produces neurotransmitters," "healing the gut," "leaky gut," "inflammation in the gut," "gut feeling," "it's all in the gut"? In the areas of nutritional study that I tend to frequent, I hear it a lot. The thought has more than once crossed my mind, "Is this yet another fad that has come and will fall away?" If it is, the more I study, and the more I am aware of the state of our culture in a dietary sense, then I feel it is a fad worth becoming more permanent.

Just for fun, I Googled neurotransmitters and the gut. When I did this, I was shocked. What came up was not just the random "quacks" trying to sell their business. The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, a PubMed peer-reviewed journal article came up. Here's a quote (and picture) from the Wall Street Journal. The article is titled, A Gut Check For Many Ailments (January 7, 2012):

"Dr. Gershon, professor of pathology and cell biology at Columbia, has been studying how the gut controls its behavior and that of other organs by investigating the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Low serotonin levels in the brain are known to affect mood and sleep. Several common antidepressants work by raising levels of serotonin in the brain.

Yet about 95% of the serotonin in the body is made in the gut, not in the brain, says Dr. Gershon. Serotonin and other neurotransmitters produced by gut neurons help the digestive track push food through the gut.

Work by Dr. Gershon and others has shown that serotonin is necessary for the repair of cells in the liver and lungs, and plays a role in normal heart development and bone-mass accumulation."

Hmmm, interesting. This is only a small piece of information. There is way more to the neuro-aspects of the gut than this.

Food vs Food-like

So if the things we are putting in our mouths harm our digestive tract (our Gut), do you think maybe that can affect the state of our mental health? If we eat food-like products, are we going to get the nutrients we need? Could this have a bigger impact on the state of our health than we are aware? 

So, with this knowledge, what do we do? 

I know I am going to think twice about what food I am going to fuel my body with. Nutrition is an area that I am going to study. I am going to work on rising above those addictions (yes, addictions is more than drug, alcohol and cigarette related). If I give in to the cravings, I am going to not give up or beat myself figuratively over it, I am going to pick myself back up and keep trying. I say this because I am the kind of perfectionist who tends to avoid or give up on something I have messed up on.

So, as I study this subject, I am sure I will have more to share on the subject!