The following Mark's Daily Apple articles were written by Marksissons and are narrated by Brock Armstrong.

Welcome to Mark's Daily Apple Best of 2014, Volume 3, Gut Health, featuring 16 things that affect your gut bacteria,

a primal primer, leaky gut, the definitive guide to resistant starch, and resistant starch,

your questions answered.

Sixteen things that affect your gut bacteria.

A while ago, we explored many of the ways our gut bacteria affect us, focusing on the lesser known effects like anti-nutrient nullification,

vitamin manufacture, and neurotransmitter production.

Today, we're going to discuss all the ways that we know we can affect our gut bacteria.

It turns out that the food we eat, the amount of sun we get,

whether we eat organic or not, the supplements we take, and even the kind of nuts or chocolate we decide to eat, just to name a few factors, can change the composition and function

of our gut microbiota for the good or for the bad. We may still have a lot to learn about this

gut stuff, but the bulk of the evidence says that we do have

the power and responsibility, if you care to be healthy, to affect the health of our gut microbiota.

Here are 16 things to do, eat, avoid, and or heed.

Frementable Fibers

I've discussed this variable to death, but it may be the single most important pro-gut

biome dietary modification we can enact.

Without fermentable fibers, our gut bacteria just aren't getting the food they need to

maintain the population, let alone grow it.

Fermented foods. From sauerkraut to pickles, to kimchi, to kifir, to condiments, to high meat,

fermented foods have been a consistent part of the human diet for many thousands of years.

And while its unlikely previous generations

...