How does your gut health affect your overall well-being and how can you improve it? Before we get to that, you need to first understand what we mean when we say ‘gut health’.
Your gut health refers to your gastrointestinal system, which includes your stomach, intestines and colon. Your gut helps your body digest and absorb the nutrients that foods provide and gets rid of waste. While there is no exact definition as to what gut health means, it typically focuses on having healthy gut microbiomes essential for staying healthy.
So, if you’re wondering how to improve gut health, this is for you.
Why Is Gut Health Important?
The body is full of microbiome - bacteria, viruses and fungi - and some of these bacteria are important for your overall health like your mood, weight, heart, immunity system, etc.
Since the gut helps to break down the foods you consume for your body to absorb the nutrients, it in turn helps to support your body’s functions. Hence, the gut microbiome can affect every organ because other organs in your body depend on it. This is why your gut health is very important.
Your eating habits can affect your gut. Therefore, it is essential that you develop healthy eating habits.
Wondering how to improve gut health naturally? We’ve mentioned some ways that will help.
Natural Tips to Improve Gut Health Naturally
Here are some natural tips on how to keep your gut healthy.
What To Eat
There is a wide variety of food you can include in your diet to help improve your gut health. Foods rich in fibre are good sources of probiotics and they help with digestion and even feed the bacteria beneficial for your health. Fibre-rich foods have other health benefits like reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Some foods rich in fibre that you can add to your diet include vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, beans, etc.
Eating other foods rich in vitamins, minerals and polyphenols is also how to keep the stomach healthy.
What To Avoid
Rid your pantry of ultra-processed foods because it can compromise your gut health. While certain types of processed foods are alright to eat, others contain added sugars that are not particularly good for your health. Avoiding these ultra-processed foods like deli meats such as salami and ham, cereals, packaged snacks, etc. is how to improve your gut.
Drink Enough Water
Water is highly beneficial for health, skin, hair, etc. It is the best fluid you can consume which is good for your gut health because it helps to break food down and prevents constipation. Drinking enough water may also increase gut bacteria diversity.
Hence, you must drink plenty of water to support your gut and keep your organs and tissues healthy. Therefore, aim to drink enough water for your body weight.
Exercise
Incorporating exercise into your daily activities can benefit you in the long run, whether that is walking, jogging, cycling or extreme cardio. Regular exercise can stimulate the gut muscles and positively affect the gut microbiome. Exercising and eating vitamin C rich foods can do wonders for your gut health.
Be Aware of Your Mental Health
The food you eat, your gut and your mental health are linked. Stress causes the brain to send signals to the body which in turn causes nervousness in the stomach. Hence, it is important to be aware of your mental health and take care to avoid stress. You can manage your levels of stress by getting enough sleep, exercising regularly, meditation, eating nutritious food, socialising, etc. This will maintain your gut health and overall health.
Take Supplements
You can improve your gut health by taking gut health supplements that are made purposefully to replace the good bacteria when your body loses them. They promote a healthy gut by fighting against the harmful gut bacteria. These supplements should be taken as recommended by professionals.
Probiotics can be found in fermented drinks and foods which is beneficial for your gut health. Food processing can sometimes destroy your body’s natural probiotics, and fermented foods are great for reducing the harmful gut microbiome. Some of these fermented foods are yoghurt, cottage cheese, sauerkraut and kefir, kombucha, etc are the best to include in your diet.
Symptoms of Poor Gut Health
While the food you eat can affect your gut health and in turn, your overall health, other things can cause you to have poor gut health which includes things you can control sleep, physical activity, etc. and things you have no control over such as your age, environment, etc.
If you have a poor gut health, here are some of the symptoms you may experience:
- Abdominal pain or discomfort
- Bloating
- Constipation
- Diarrhoea
- Fatigue
- Heartburn
- Cold
- Emotional strain like anxiety, stress or dampened mood.
Now that you have an idea of how to improve gut health naturally, you can go ahead and follow them through. Don’t wait! Start incorporating these things into your lifestyle because health is wealth.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065426/
- https://www.livescience.com/what-is-gut-health-and-why-is-it-important
- https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/gut-health
- https://osfhealthcare.org/blog/why-is-gut-health-important/
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gut-microbiome-and-health
- https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/ss/slideshow-how-gut-health-affects-whole-body
- https://www.henryford.com/blog/2023/09/7-ways-to-improve-your-gut-health-naturally
- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/14598-probiotics
- https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/what-are-probiotics