In recent years, gut health has exploded into the nation’s consciousness, with more people than ever realising the importance of keeping your gut happy.
Your gut aids in the digestion of what you eat and absorbs nutrients, which it uses to fuel and look after your body. Having an unhealthy gut can negatively impact your immune system and throw your hormones out of balance, making it harder to stay healthy.
Within your gut is your microbiome, a collection of microbes such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and genes that live inside our bodies. Microbes may be microscopic in size, but they contribute significantly to overall health and wellbeing.
Luckily, there are simple ways to keep your gut and all the microbes within it healthy without breaking the bank. Here are a few of the best ways to make sure your gut (and therefore your overall health) is in tip-top condition.
1. Eat Fermented Foods
Fermented foods not only taste amazing, but they’re also full of probiotics, which are live organisms that support your body’s digestion. Examples of fermented foods are kimchi, sauerkraut, miso, and certain yoghurts.
Aim to have at least one serving of fermented foods per week. You can further supplement gut health by introducing fermented drinks such as kimchi and kombucha, which have also been shown to support a healthy gut.
2. Eat More Whole Foods
On the whole, unprocessed foods are much better for gut health than processed foods such as fast food and sugary snacks. The more vibrant and colourful your diet, the better your microbiome will be fed.
Examples of healthy whole foods include wholegrain pasta, quinoa, oats, fruits, legumes, vegetables, and nuts. These foods also tend to be full of fibre, which helps food move through your digestive tract and improves conditions like constipation.
Eating whole foods and avoiding processed food is a great way to improve general health, so you may experience other benefits such as clearer skin and more energy on top of your improved good health.
3. Keep Teeth Healthy
At first, it can seem unlikely to imagine that there’s a connection between the health of our teeth and our gut, but bacteria in the mouth can make their way into our gut and cause problems.
Keep on top of your dental hygiene by brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing regularly, and heading to the dentist at least once every six months for a check-up and any necessary dental work.
One of the best ways to care for your teeth is to limit the amount of added sugar in your diet, which tends to come from snacks such as sweets and chocolate or processed meals with lots of added sugar.
As well as being inflammatory to the system and damaging teeth, sugar can cause yeast to grow, which throws off the delicate balance of the gut.
4. Make the Most of Herbs and Spices
You might think that adding herbs and spices to your dishes is only good for one thing - flavour. In fact, many herbs and spices are shown to have positive effects on the body, including getting rid of harmful gut bacteria.
Some of the best additions to use in your cooking include turmeric, ginger, and garlic.
5. Eat a Diverse Range of Foods
There are hundreds of species of bacteria in your intestines, and each species provides its own unique role and needs a unique set of nutrients to thrive. With that in mind, it’s incredibly important to have a diversity of different foods, especially different fruits and vegetables.
6. Eat More Probiotics
Probiotics are live organisms like bacteria that provide specific health benefits when you eat them. Probiotics can be found in many foods, including fermented foods such as sauerkraut and yoghurt.
If you struggle to get natural sources of probiotics into your diet, you can take probiotic supplements instead.
7. Eat Foods Rich in Polyphenols
Polyphenols are plant compounds that boast a variety of health benefits, including reduced inflammation and lower blood pressure. Because human cells can’t always digest polyphenols sufficiently, many polyphenols end up being digested by bacteria in the colon.
Examples of polyphenol-rich foods are dark chocolate, red wine, grape skins, blueberries, almonds, green tea, and broccoli.
The Bottom Line
Researchers have established that the gut is more crucial than we once believed to overall human health. You can support your gut health by eating a diversity of foods (especially plants) and including probiotics and fermented foods in your diet.
The steps you take to improve gut health also improve general health and, when paired with regular exercise, can be the building blocks for a balanced and healthy lifestyle. The more we look after our bodies, the better our mental wellbeing often feels, too.
