Did you know that thousands of organisms live in your intestines and can tell you a lot about your health? Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria that make up your microbiome, along with viruses, yeasts, and fungi. It may seem impossible to get to know all these little critters, but with the InnerBuddies Stool Kit you can gain insight into the wonderful world of your microbiome – and influence it with tailored nutritional advice. I’ve tried it.
That’s why you want to get to know your microbiome
The diversity of intestinal bacteria contributes to many health processes, but also plays a role in disease and recovery. In this way, your microbiome provides a direct defense against pathogens, strengthens your immune system, breaks down indigestible food into digestible food and ensures the production of beneficial substances. Because it interacts with our immune system, metabolism, and brain, it also plays a role in our mood and weight. You can’t imagine it being crazy without your gut playing a role in some way.
My personal experience
All my life I have suffered from gut-related complaints such as bloating, intestinal spasms and flatulence, but also acne. Over the years, I have compiled a list of “no-go products” that I was afraid to eat after a bout of stomach pain or a flare-up on my skin, but even though I have consistently banned these products from my diet; The complaints always came back in waves. A healthy gut flora is truly key to physical and mental health, so I’m very curious to see what InnerBuddies can tell us about my microbiome.
This is how you can improve your intestinal flora
You can improve your gut flora by feeding your microbiome with gut-friendly foods — and InnerBuddies can help you with that. The thing is, the good bacteria in your microbiome are working hard on your health every day, while the bad bacteria have less good intentions for you. Therefore, it is important that you provide the right bacteria with their favorite foods. This way you can increase (for good bacteria) or decrease (for bad bacteria) your current bacteria levels in just a few days, but first you need to get to know your microbiome. InnerBuddies screens your stool for the 35 most common bacteria known from the literature so you can gain insight into the bacteria in your gut.
InnerBuddies tube set
For 185 euros you get a test kit for home use. Gut microbiome testing is easy to perform, but it requires some attention and precision. You must first keep a careful food diary and complete a questionnaire before you can take a scoop from your poop. For three days, you enter what you ate, at what time – breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack – and how many grams you consumed.
Scoop of tube
After completing the food diary and questionnaire, the party can begin. I know some people would rather get their big message across as quickly as possible without looking back, but if you want to learn about your microbiome, you have to dare to confront your own excrement. But believe me: it’s not that dirty and you will get a lot of useful information in return.
Results: This is what you can expect
After 6 to 8 weeks, you will receive the results via an electronic dashboard containing the results as well as additional explanations and nutritional advice. This is pretty comprehensive, so I’ll take you step by step through the top findings.
Dietary intake
Your dietary intake is based on your three-day food diary and tells you – based on the values used by the nutrition center – how many carbohydrates, fats, saturated fats, proteins, dietary fiber and salt you consume daily and whether or not this is correct. Enough or too much. According to these values, I eat very few carbohydrates and consume very little salt (sorry salted popcorn). Cravings). So there is work to be done!
Diversity of your bacteria
Using 3 different scientific calculations, InnerBuddies can discover how diverse the bacteria in your gut are. For example, they look at how many different types of bacteria are in your gut and how diverse and evenly distributed they are throughout the microbiome. My sample shows that I have a high diversity of bacteria. This is good news, because the diversity of gut bacteria contributes to many health processes, but bacteria can be good or bad. Bacteria levels can tell us more about this.
Your bacteria levels
From your bacteria levels, you can see how diverse the gut microbiome is for each bacteria. InnerBuddies has selected the top 35 most common and important bacteria and divided them into good, bad, and other related bacteria. The scores for each bacteria describe the numbers and contain the ranges “observed,” “normal,” and “great.” For each bacteria you’ll receive an explanation of its function, but to get a better idea of your personal situation, you should pay special attention to the exclamation marks under “Intestinal Health,” “Fiber Breakdown,” and “Intestinal Challenges.”
Gut health
Gut health shows which bacteria contribute positively to certain functions within the intestines. They are divided into three subcategories: “Immune Strength,” “Gut Wall Strength,” and “Weight Loss Support.” If you are in the “caution” range with one of these bacteria, you will receive nutritional advice to improve the situation. Maybe I will pay more attention to fecal bacteria – which ensure the strength of the intestinal wall. InnerBuddies has provided me with a food list of products I can eat more of.
Fiber breakdown
The breakdown of fiber can say something about gas production, which can cause unpleasant complaints such as intestinal cramps and flatulence. Surprise: the bacteria levels were higher than usual. This explains a lot of my complaints. Although there are no scientific guidelines for getting rid of bloating, InnerBuddies has listed tips and tricks that can help. Really amazing!
Intestinal challenges
With intestinal challenges, you will gain insight into “potential intestinal problems,” “infection alarm,” and “fat alarm.” I have an exclamation mark on my fat alarm and this is actually very strange. My fat anxiety is usually caused by a high-fat diet, while I eat very low-fat. Fortunately, the InnerBuddies team is available for anyone to ask additional questions and clarifications about the results. So they are still looking for an explanation for me. In the meantime, I can start with nutritional advice on which products I need to increase or decrease.
Additional explanation
Can’t get enough of it? Then you also have an additional explanation. This will take you step by step through the results and provide you with further information and additional nutritional advice. This is not only interesting, but also very useful! Sometimes, you just need to make very small adjustments to improve your health. For example, adding more cocoa or cinnamon to your oatmeal breakfast can make a difference. Sounds good, right?
GOOD TO KNOW: At Women’s Health, we like to be transparent. We received this test set in exchange for an honest preview. Do you also want to learn about your microbiome and improve your gut flora? You can order the test kit for home use for 185 euros. Whether you have complaints or not: I can recommend it to everyone.
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