6 Quick Tips for a Healthier Gut

Your gut health is a crucial component to your over all wellbeing and can either make or break your health. Its primary function is to eliminate waste and toxins from your body. With out its proper functioning, toxins would remain to wreck havoc in your system. This is also the place where we assimilate and absorb our food particles that go off to make varies parts of our body. I’m sure you can see how if this system isn’t working correctly, it can cause big problems for us in the long run. So lets see some ways to ramp up our gut for improved elimination and digestion.

Take Probiotics

Take a good high quality probiotic. We have over a trillion tiny organisms that live within our gut. They constitute about 3 pounds in weight and their DNA drastically out numbers our own. Our friends here are apart of the micorbiome of our intestines, and are a community of bacteria that we coexist with everyday. They include an array of good and bad bacteria that serve to break down the particles of food that we then absorb in to our bodies. Many times our population can have a not so healthy ratio of good to bad bacteria; this is why it’s oh so important to give our friends a little boost with adding some of the good bacteria to our system.

Up Fiber Intake

Eat more high fiber foods, such as leafy greens, broccoli, opinions, peas, and sweet peppers. Really just eat more fruits and vegetables. The way to keep our gut the healthiest is to feed the bacteria living within it food they love. The good bacteria in our gut thrive off of high fiber quality foods. Eating these types of things will cultivate a good ratio of good to bad bacteria. When our diet primarily consist of sugars, processed foods, white flours, and trans fats the micorbiome of our gut start to change. Your gut becomes full of bacteria that love to eat sugars, white flours and the other types of things as mentioned above, one of these bacteria being yeast. When this shift happens, your gut is unable to digest, absorb, and assimilate food properly; even when you consume healthy foods. This happens because the majority of bacteria in you gut, with eating an unhealthy diet, have no clue how to breakdown fiber. Good thing is, you can change this by just increasing your fiber intake and staying consistent.

Stray Away Form Long-term Antibiotic Use

I think by now we all know the dangers of wide spread antibiotic use. Many bacteria have become resistant due to our over use of antibiotics across this nation. Whether it’s for treating childhood ear infections, treating a bad case of acne, or consuming them through our meat supply. There’s no doubt we are overdosing on medications that are essentially made for good. Over use of antibiotics destroys the bacteria within your gut, both good and bad. It you are a person who has been effected by over use of antibiotics its important to reintroduce healthy bacteria into your gut through taking probiotics and adding in fermented foods.

Add in Fermented Foods

Fermented foods can be great for a healthy gut. These foods have been exposed to bacteria, which then cultivate by eating up the carbohydrates within the food. I know what you may be thinking… why the heck would I want to eat what sounds like spoiled food?! But actually its great for digestion. Foods such as yogurt, pickles, sauerkraut, and kimchee are all among the list. Adding in fermented foods to your diet here and there can be a great way to get some more of our healthy bacteria friends into our gut.

Drink Plenty of Water

The average adult is made up of 50%-60% water. That’s a huge percentage. Water plays a huge role when it comes to digestion. Water helps to move food particles and the waste easily through the system for absorption and elimination. A lack of water can lead to constipation and bloating.

Chew Your Food

Of course we all chew our food, a least I hope! But a lot of times we aren’t chewing enough. Everything is so fast paced in today's society that we barely have time to sit down and really enjoy a meal. Whether its eating in the car on the way to work, barely getting a lunch break and having to scarf down your food, or you are running late and grab something on the go. By the time you consume your food and it’s resting in your stomach you haven’t even had time to process what just happened. It is important to make eating a priority and to give yourself enough time to thoroughly eat and chew your food. If you can still feel parts of the food in your mouth you haven’t chewed enough. Chewing jump starts the digestive process and prepares your body for absorption of al those nutritious foods. When larger food particles come into contact with the bacteria in your gut they are unable to be assimilated properly and cause digestive issues.

These 6 Tips should be a good beginning to give your gut the jump-start it needs. Now go off and start incorporating this activities into your life and see how they work for you!