Simple Tips & Tricks for Better Gut Health
Food & Lifestyle Changes to Help Boost Gut Health
No matter what kinds of foods you eat, if you don’t have good gut health, you’ll never truly feel your best. There are many things that can affect the health of your gut, so it’s important to learn what foods and lifestyle aspects are beneficial, and which are detrimental. Let’s explore simple & effective ways to improve the health of your gut.
Everything you eat and drink takes the same journey through your body, so if your digestive system isn’t operating properly, it can result in a variety of symptoms from minor bloating to severe discomfort. Even when you are taking very good care of your body with regular exercise and attention to nutrition, there are some days where your gut just doesn’t feel right.
In some cases, it might be simply due to an unusual food choice that didn’t agree with you. However, there are occasions where a healthy gut falls out of balance and needs to be re-adjusted. Fortunately, there are simple things you can do to get your gut back in shape, but to make the right changes you need to understand what might have made things shift out of balance to begin with.
What Factors Influence Gut Health & Digestion?
Lack of Diversity in Foods – If you find yourself experiencing digestive issues or gut problems, it may be because you’ve been eating too much of the same thing, over and over again. The bacteria in our gut that help digestion tend to work best when they are exposed to a wide range of foods. Fortunately, the low carb lifestyle focuses on nourishing the body with plenty of meat protein, high-fiber vegetables, and a range of other whole foods, and tends to minimize the number of processed products we eat.
Tobacco Use & Alcohol Consumption – In addition to all the other harmful effects that tobacco and alcohol lead to, they are also major contributors to poor gut heath, too. Binge drinking and smoking have a negative effect on the healthy bacteria in our guts that aid in digestion, and encourage harmful bacteria to flourish. Studies have shown that when tobacco use and alcohol consumption are stopped, the balance of bacteria in the gut begins to return to a healthier state.
Exercise & Fitness Level – It should come as no surprise that regular exercise provides many health benefits, including better gut health and improved digestion. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hit the gym for hours every day, but an increase in regular physical activities such as walking, cycling, aerobics, yoga, and other exercises can have a dramatic impact on our overall well-being. This includes reduced bloating, more efficient digestion, and increased resistance to the wide range of factors that can set the gut off-balance.
Recent Illnesses & Infections – People who have recently experienced an illness that required the use of anti-biotics, they may notice a period of increased gut sensitivity and upset stomach. This is the result of the anti-biotic medication killing off the beneficial bacteria in the gut that is necessary for proper digestion. While this is usually a temporary condition that goes away after a short while, it’s still something to be aware of as you work to get your gut back into a healthy balance.
With these factors in mind, what can you do to accelerate the process of getting your gut into a healthier state of equilibrium? The answer is simple! Make some positive changes in your diet to improve your nutrition and encourage diversity of healthy bacteria in your gut, and take steps to alter your lifestyle to promote better overall well-being. Let’s talk more about what these kinds of changes might look like.
Low Carb Foods That Boost Gut Health & Digestion
Improving your gut health doesn’t mean blowing up your entire meal plan. In most cases, a few easy substitutions and replacements can make a big difference in digestion and how you feel each day. Here are some of the best types of foods to eat that promote better gut health, and fit perfectly with the low carb lifestyle.
Prebiotic Foods – In order to improve the health of your gut, you need to create an environment in your digestive system were the beneficial bacteria can thrive. This is done by incorporating a wide range of prebiotic foods into your diet. Prebiotics are foods that are high in dietary fiber which is needed to encourage healthy bacterial growth.
Some examples of healthy prebiotic foods include:
- Garlic
- Onions
- Leeks
- Asparagus
- Konjac root
- Flaxseeds
All of these prebiotic foods fit well with the low carb diet, and can be incorporated easily into a wide range of healthy meals and recipes.
Probiotic Foods – While prebiotic foods contain the fiber needed to create an environment in which friendly gut bacteria can grow, probiotic foods actually contain active healthy bacteria that can accelerate the re-balancing of your gut health. Probiotics have been getting quite a lot of attention lately, and brands of healthy probiotic yogurt and other dairy products are advertising aggressively. However, there are many other probiotic foods in addition to these that can easily be added to the low carb lifestyle.
Here are a few common probiotic foods to consider:
- Probiotic yogurt
- Kombucha
- Probiotic cheeses
- Pickles
- Kimchi
- Sauerkraut
- Miso soup
By replenishing the friendly bacteria in your digestive system with foods like these, you’ll be helping your gut get balanced, and stay balanced.
In addition to making positive changes to your diet by adding more prebiotic and probiotic foods into the mix, it also helps to work in some beneficial lifestyle changes as well. Your gut will thank you!
Improve Gut Health with Simple Lifestyle Changes
Increasing the amount of daily physical activity you get will not just help your digestive system, but also boost your energy levels, relieve stress, and improve your quality of sleep. The positive impact that increased fitness has on almost every aspect of our lives cannot be overstated. If you have the opportunity to get more active, you’ll never regret taking advantage of it. This could be something as simple as getting our for walks more regularly, or joining a local fitness club for some group classes. Yoga is a very popular way to increase mobility, gain strength, and reduce stress. Cycling, swimming, and hiking are all great ways to improve fitness, and they don’t require much in terms of gear, so it’s easy to get started.
Another way to help improve the health of your gut and boost digestion efficiency is to cut back on alcohol, and stop all use of tobacco products. Cutting these harmful habits out of your life will have many positive effects, including saving money, elevated mood, and better sleep, to name a few. It can be difficult to quit these habits, but your health and quality of life are worth the effort. Seek out the support systems you need to help you on your path toward a healthier life.
Staying hydrated is another positive habit that can bring big benefits to your body, and it’s easy to do. While we all know we should be drinking more water, it’s easy to let this slide as we go about our busy lives. Making more of an effort to take water with you wherever you go will make it easier to get the recommended daily intake, and help to ensure your body has the necessary hydration it needs to function efficiently.
Take Steps to Take Care of Your Gut
Let’s be honest. Nobody likes to feel bloated. Nobody likes to have an upset stomach. Nobody likes diarrhea. Nobody likes heartburn or indigestion. One of the best ways you can reduce the likelihood that you experience any of these unpleasant symptoms is to make sure your gut is happy, healthy, and balanced. As you can see, it’s not exactly difficult or complicated to improve the health of your gut. In fact, we’d be willing to bet that you could start implementing most of these simple changes today, no matter how busy your schedule might be. There’s no reason to wait when it comes to taking care of your body, and that includes looking after the health of your gut.
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