07 Nov 2017 BANT Responds to the Guardian Article Regarding ‘Is Your Gut Microbiome the Key to Health and Happiness?”
A recent feature in The Guardian highlights the importance of gut health for a balanced mood and mental wellbeing. A link to the article can be found here.
Gut health, microbiota, microbiome, stool testing, are all favourite keywords in any BANT member’s vocabulary, and terms that functional nutrition practitioners have known for a very long time.
The feature highlights the key role that gut microbes play in mental health, and explores the concept of “psychobiotics”. BANT Chair Miguel Toribio-Mateas, who is exploring the connection between gut microbiota in individuals with cognitive decline and the severity of their symptoms as part of his doctoral research at Middlesex university said: “I’m delighted to see growing interest in the gut-brain connection. BANT members have been using stool tests for years and this new research supports BANT nutrition practitioners who wish to help those who have issues other than just gastrointestinal.
The human microbe community (microbiome) plays a key role in our health and is vital for digestion, vitamin production and regulation of our immune system and even our mood and appetite. As a result, understanding how the bacteria living in your gut affects you and what you can do to increase its diversity is vital for wellbeing.
Unlike other nutrition based professions, BANT registered practitioners have functional testing as part of their core curriculum clinical training and are, therefore, ideally placed to assess stool tests results and provide individualised recommendations to optimise a client’s health.
To find a BANT registered practitioner click here: https://practitioner-search.bant.org.uk/
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Daniel O’Shaughnessy
Tel: +44 870 606 1284
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT) is the professional body for Registered Nutritional Therapists. Its primary function is to assist its members in attaining the highest standards of integrity, knowledge, competence and professional practice, in order to protect the client’s interests; nutritional therapy and the registered nutritional therapist.
Nutritional therapy is the application of nutrition science in the promotion of health, peak performance and individual care. It is a progressive approach to health optimisation. Registered Nutritional Therapists are recognised by the Professional Standards Authority to be as competent as other traditional healthcare providers. It has been recognised that they can make a difference by working together with healthcare providers as part of multidisciplinary teams under NHS commissioning.
