How To Improve Your Gut Health
Did you know that the gut isn’t just for digestion?
Your gut influences all aspects of your health, including your immune system, energy levels, weight, mental health, and emotional resilience.
Additionally, many symptoms you may experience- whether bloating, fatigue, sugar cravings, mood swings, or brain fog- are all connected to the health of your gut.
And if you find that you’re often getting sick or always catching the virus that’s going around, it could be because up to 70% of your immune system is housed in your gut, which is another reason why your gut health is so crucial.
To understand it all better, it’s important to know what “gut health” and a healthy gut mean.
Your gut refers to your entire digestive tract, from your mouth to your colon. In fact, your digestion begins as soon as your food enters your mouth because your salivary glands produce amylase, which breaks down starches. Your gut microbiome, on the otherhand, is referring to the trillions of bacteria and organisms in your intestines (which is where your gut is).
A healthy gut = better nutrient absorption, fewer toxins, more consistent energy, leveled moods, and improved resilience.
Nutrition’s role in your gut:
Food plays a large role in the health of your gut, and certain foods support a balanced gut and certain foods destroy the good bacteria and create a poor environment for a healthy gut.
Foods that heal:
Fiber-rich foods: This includes the more obvious ones, like fruits (specifically apples, bananas, kiwi) and vegetables (especially leafy greens, broccoli, avocado), but also oats, chia seeds, flax seeds, nuts, and legumes.
Fermented foods: This refers to certain foods that have gone through a process that converts the sugars into other products and alters the nutritional content. Fermented foods include yogurt, kefir, kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha and sourdough bread.
Prebiotics: Prebiotics are necessary because they feed the probiotics, or healthy bacteria, in your gut. You can eat your prebiotics by incorporating garlic, onions, bananas, and apples (pectin) into your diet.
Hydration, as always is crucial, as it helps support digestion and keep the fiber flowing and to keep digestion moving
Foods that harm:
It’s important to be mindful of the foods your consume when it comes to your gut health, and the following are foods that can wreck havoc on your gut, especially when eaten regularly and consistently:
Excess sugar (this could be cookies and cakes or salad dressing and ketchup)
Highly processed foods (foods with a long list of ingredients, sugars and oils really mess with your gut health and cause disruptions to your digestion
Artificial sweeteners- while there might be an appeal to have fake sugars as a way to avoid eating too much sugar, these artificial sweeteners are mostly chemicals going into your system, which you can imagine how your gut might react.
Low-fiber diets- Considering the importance of fiber for a healthy gut, it’s somewhat obvious that a low fiber diet can harm your gut health, however, many of us don’t realize that we’re not getting quite enough fiber throughout the day.
Excessive alcohol- We know that alcohol is not exactly on the list of healthy choices for weight loss, however the most important thing to know is that an excessive consumption of alcohol will mess with the bacteria in your gut and lead to an imbalanced micrbiome.
The great news is that dietary changes can shift gut bacteria in just a matter of days, so starting to make healthier, more gut-friendly choices today will pay off sooner than later.
Additionally, you can support your gut health
