Eating a well-balanced, diverse diet – Eating a variety of unprocessed, clean, well-balanced foods would be beneficial to our microbiome. A variety of different colored vegetables, fruit, and other food groups would provide needed nutrients, protein, essential fatty acid, vitamin, and mineral requirements to promote good health in our bodies. A diverse diet would promote more diverse microbes in our guts. A healthy and diverse diet will also promote protection against certain diseases.
Taking probiotics – Probiotics are made up of “good” bacteria and promote a healthy balance of bacteria in our gut. Probiotics can aid digestion, help maintain gut health, and boost our immune system. Probiotics can be taken as a dietary supplement or a from food sources. More studies need to be done to reveal if they are effective for older adults, however. And while many types of probiotics are on the market, not all have been well studied.
Limiting antibiotic usage – While antibiotics are a useful medical treatment, overuse of antibiotics influences antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotics have the potential to kill microbes useful in our gut and have the potential to make them resistant to medications. This is worrisome when one may become infected with a potentially antimicrobial-resistant pathogen.
