Inside the human digestive tract, there inhabits over 100 trillion microbial cells, all of 1000 bacterial species—these microorganisms are more specifically called the gut microbiota. This community largely impacts human nutrition, physiology, metabolism, and immune function. Because gut microbial communities are inside our intestine tract, a behavior that can alter the microorganisms is what kind of food we consume. Eating food such as fruits and vegetables, eating foods with high polyphenol levels, and fermented foods that contain microbes. Polyphenol change microbiota composition by influencing their growth or metabolism. By eating fermented food, you are adding probiotic bacteria into your intestinal flora, thus increasing the health of your gut microbiota.
Additionally, lifestyle factors, diet, and exercise heavily influence the microbial community within the intestine tract. In “Role of the gut microbiota in health and chronic gastrointestinal disease: understanding a hidden metabolic organ,” it was mentioned that the gut microbiota of lean and obese individuals has different proportions of Firmicutesand Bacteroideters. Studies have shown that the more Bacteroideters you have, in comparison to Firmicutes the leaner you will be.
