The Gut Foundation

Gut Feelings – a healthy mind takes guts 

The issue

New Zealand is seeing rising rates of both depression and gut health issues such as inflammatory bowel diseases, especially among young people (1). The gut microbiome is now considered one of the key elements contributing to our health. Emerging research (2) on connections between nutrition and mental health is showing how diet and micronutrients can have an impact on mood, mental wellbeing and even anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders. Many people do not yet have much awareness on the role their gut microbiome may be playing in their overall health, and how their food choices can have an impact. 

The project 

Gut Foundation are focused on research and education about gut health for Kiwis, providing information to communities on how gut disease risk can be minimised with early intervention and good practice. To continue their mission to educate children from earlier ages about how they can keep their gut healthy and help their mental wellbeing, they are developing a new video called ‘Gut Feelings- A healthy mind takes Guts’. The video will be shared through their school program and on social media through a national campaign to educate children and their parents about the impact of good gut health. 

The impact 

Through the Gut Feelings video and their other educational videos, Gut Foundation aims to teach children and parents how they can feed their gut microbiome to grow good bacteria and help stabilise their mood, enhance their wellbeing and increase resilience to daily stress. 

References

(1) https://www.growingup.co.nz/growing-up-report/young-peoples-experiences-of-depression-and-anxiety-symptoms

(2) https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/08/1186092825/studying-the-link-between-the-gut-and-mental-health-is-personal-for-this-scienti