Nourish Your Gut, Transform Your Health: The Essential Guide to Gut Health
Did you know! “A significant portion of the immune system resides in the gut, where a healthy microbiome helps to regulate immune responses and reduce inflammation.” Yes! Gut Health completely depends on the gut microbiome (microorganism) that are present in the gut. These microorganisms live in the intestines and are beneficial for good health. Let’s Understand in this article.
The primary role of the gut is to digest food and absorb nutrients. A healthy gut ensures that the body efficiently extracts and absorbs essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals from the food we consume. Each person has nearly 200 different species of the microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi in their digestive tract. Some microorganisms are harmful to our body but many are beneficial and necessary for healthy body.
Superfoods for Gut Health
High fiber foods have a positive impact on gut health. These foods includes legumes, like black beans and chickpeas and whole grains, oats and quinoa and vegetables like broccoli, asparagus and nuts such as almonds and pistachios fruits like apples, peaches, garlic and fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir consuming these foods may improve the gut microbiome.
Signs of Unhealthy Gut
- Upset Stomach : Stomach disturbances can all be signs of an unhealthy gut. They include gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, heart burn.
- Unintentional Weight Changes : Gaining or losing weight without changing your diet or exercise habits is a sign of an unhealthy gut. An imbalanced gut can reduce the body’s ability to absorb nutrients in the intestines , regulate blood sugar and store fat. Weight loss is caused by malabsorption because of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). On the other hand, weight gain is caused by insulin resistance or increased inflammation.
- Sleep Disturbances or Constant Fatigue : An imbalance in gut bacteria may be linked to fragmented sleep and short sleep duration, which leads to chronic fatigue.
- Skin Irritation : Skin conditions like psoriasis are related to the types of bacteria present in the gut. Lower concentrations of beneficial bacteria impacts the body’s immune system and your skin health.
- Autoimmune Conditions : There is a connection between the gut and the immune system. An unhealthy gut increases systemic inflammation and alters the proper functioning of the immune system.
- Food Intolerances : Food intolerances are the result of difficulty digesting certain foods. This is different than a food allergy, which is caused by an immune system reaction to certain foods. Food intolerances, like lactose intolerance, is caused by poor quality of bacteria in the gut.
Life style Recommendations to Improve Gut Health You can improve and reset your gut health through lifestyle and diet changes. Consider trying one or more of the following to improve your gut health naturally
- Change Your Diet : Reducing the amount of processed, sugary, and high fat foods that you eat can lead to better gut health. Eating a diet high in fiber likely contributes to a healthy gut microbiome as well. You can increase your beneficial bacteria by eating certain foods with antioxidants and foods high in micronutrients as polyphenols that are present in vegetables, red wine, fruits, coffee, tea.
- Eat slowly : Chewing your food thoroughly and eating your meals more slowly is beneficial in lowering your chances of developing obesity and diabetes while also helping you make better food choices. This also reduces digestive discomfort and maintain a healthy gut.
- Check for Food Intolerances : You may have a food intolerance if you have symptoms such as: bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea, gas, nausea, fatigue, acid reflux. You can try eliminating common trigger foods to see if your symptoms improve. If you’re able to identify and avoid a food or foods that are contributing to your symptoms, you may see a positive change in your digestive health.
- Stay Hydrated : Drinking plenty of water is linked to increased diversity of bacteria in the gut, though the source of the water also matters. people who drank more water had less of a type of bacteria that can cause gastrointestinal infections. Staying hydrated benefits your health overall and can help prevent constipation. It is also a simple way to promote a healthy gut.
- Get Enough Sleep : Not getting enough or sufficient quality of sleep may have serious impacts on your gut health, which can in turn contribute to more sleep issues. Try to prioritize getting at least 7–8 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.
- Take a Prebiotic or Probiotic : Adding a prebiotic or probiotic supplement to your diet may help improve your gut health. Prebiotics provide “food” meant to promote the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut, while probiotics are live good bacteria.
- Lower your Stress Levels : Chronic high levels of stress are hard on your whole body, including your gut. This is because your body releases certain hormones when it experiences stress. High levels of these hormones affect your body and may compromise gut health. A few ways to lower stress includes : meditating, walking, getting a massage, spending time with friends or family, diffusing essential oils, limiting alcohol intake, laughing, practicing yoga, spending time with a pet.
Conclusion
Diet and gut health appears to be very closely linked. Avoiding processed foods, high fat foods, and foods high in refined sugars is likely important for maintaining a healthy microbiome, as these foods promotes the growth of damaging bacteria. You can include certain foods such as oats, broccoli, asparagus, almonds and fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir that actively promote the growth of beneficial bacteria, contributing to your overall health.
References:
https://www.healthline.com/health/gut-health
https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/ss/slideshow-how-gut-health-affects-whole-body
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3983973/
