Erin O'Hara: naturopath and wellness expert explains how additives are affecting your gut microbiome

Additives are added to processed food to keep it fresher for longer but these might unexpectedly affect the health of the microbes in our guts.

A diverse microbiome is key for our overall wellbeing, as it influences everything from our mood to our metabolism and our brain health, and processed food can have a harmful impact.

Naturopath and wellness expert Erin O'Hara explained further. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'd be okay. So after those fried duck livers with
port and cream, let's talk wellness. And I'm joined now
by Aaron O'Hara. Good morning, Good morning. We are going
to talk about additives and how they affect our gut microbiome.
And of course we're all about our gut at the
moment and looking after it, aren't we erin we are?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
We are, and additives are kind of addited to everything.
But I'm sure that Mike's recipe that he just shared
probably didn't have any additives in it. Is he's all
about cooking from scratch and that really helps you to
cut back on additives added to your food. Now, if
you're unsure what additives are, pretty much in any processed food,

(00:52):
so they can be from artificial sweetness, colors, flavors, and
emulsifiers that just make the texture of food better, last longer,
and have a better shelf life as well. So the
pretty much in most of our market, in anything that's
in a box or a packet to make it shelf stable. However,
the effect of all these additives that actually there's lots

(01:15):
more research, particularly in the last ten years on the
effect it's having in our gut, because most of the
emulsifiers are really only tested for their toxicity effects and
the ability to induce DNA damage, but not really tested
on the gut. So there's lots of new research just
really in the last few years on the effect it's

(01:35):
having on the gut.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay, and our gut's important because it influences pretty much everything, doesn't.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
It Absolutely everything in the body, from your mood to
your overall well being, your health, your mental health, your sleep,
everything gets effected from your gut, and that's actually the
main place you're uptaking all your nutrients, so you want
to make sure looking after the environment within your gut.
It's like a little ecosystem, and when we're eating a

(02:00):
lot of processed food, it actually lowers the diversity within
the gut, which has a huge, huge effect on your
overall health. But there's actually some of the research that's
been done recently shows that it's reducing the beneficial bacteria
within the gut, but also eroding the protective intestinal layer
within the gut, so causing what's known as leaky gut

(02:23):
so it's weakening the lining, which is actually then creating
a trigger of inflammation within the gut as well. And
that's where some of the studies have been done on
irritable bowel syndrome or IBS as well as inflammatory bowel disease,
So things that are causing inflammation within the gut lining

(02:43):
that's actually having a huge effect on your overall health.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Do we know what sort of mechanisms are allowing the
additives to disrupt the microbite.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
It's just the effect of that ultra processed kind of
toxicity basically as chemicals. It's like a science experiment adding
all those chemicals into your food, and then what effect
is that can coox or cocktail effect having within the
gut Because the chemicals are basically keeping the food more

(03:13):
chaff stable, but also destroying the bacteria within the gut
that a she creates a change within the microbiome environment.
And really, if we're wanting to cut back on those additives,
it's really been aware of what's in your food. And
if you're walking around the surf market starting with you know,
just reading the labels, looking at what's in the packet

(03:35):
and all the ingredients. Less if it's something you don't know.
It's not meant to be a science experiment. Reading package
packet food, I understand you should be knowing what it is.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, I've been using the coiwise app and you can.
You can download it for free and it will tell
you what food editive is in it, but it translates
for you and gives you really good explanations. So it
could be. But frightening, can't it when you suddenly realize
what's in your food?

Speaker 3 (03:58):
So how do we how do we reading everything?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
How do we reduce that intake?

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, that's where just start reading the packets. Start more
whole foods where you can cooking from scratch. Maybe you
jump on Mike's website Good from Scratch, dot Coto and zet.
I'm sure he's got plenty of recipes on there that
don't have processed ingredients in and that will help you

(04:23):
cut back in your oval intake of additives, coloring flavorings,
because if you cook your own food, generally you don't
start adding those sorts of things into the foods. And
that's where you can really notice if you're making your
own bread or cakes that they don't last as long
because they don't have all those additives in, but they're
actually better for you too.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Thank you so much. Erin really love to catch up
with you. That was Erin O'Hara.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio