Keeping your gut happy and healthy is key to leading a happy and healthy life. When your gut health begins to slip, your body can start to see some significant consequences, as gut health, or rather and an unhealthy gut, is connected to so many different illnesses such as metabolic diseases.
In this post, you’ll learn…
- Foods you should eat to help support your gut health
- Tips you should use to maintain the health of your gut
When your gut is not healthy, it can affect the integrity of the gut lining, allowing bacteria containing endotoxins to leak through the gut lining and into the bloodstream. Here, the immune system attacks it and causes an inflammatory response.
And unhealthy gut can also lead to diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity, liver disease, and heart disease, to name a few.
One way to keep your gut healthy is to eat a variety of foods, and some foods can be more beneficial to your gut than others.
TOP 10 FOODS TO SUPPORT GUT HEALTH!
- Oranges– This citrus fruit can be extremely beneficial for your digestive tract when included in your diet. While this fruit is very healthy for you, keep in mind not to overeat it as it can cause you to have an upset stomach. Try having ½ and orange to 1 orange at a time and be sure to eat the whole orange once peeled. When you consume oranges, they support the health of your gut during digestion, as the body puts the orange through a natural fermentation, creating butyrate, which supports the lining of your gut.
- Butter– Just like oranges, butter is another great source of butyrate and can help prevent leaky gut syndrome by improving the lining of your gut.
- Garlic– Garlic is a natural prebiotic and is best when consumed raw, supporting the good bacteria that is already present in your gut. It also acts as a natural anti-biotic, but unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics that you may be prescribed by your doctor, garlic leaves the good bacteria in your gut intact, while destroying harmful bacteria.
- Lentils– This legume and other plant-based fibre can act as a prebiotic and feeds the good bacteria in your body, while also preventing the growth of disease-causing bacteria.
- Bananas– Bananas are rich in fibre and help to support the healthy bacteria that is present in the gut. They can also act to reduce bloating.
- Cruciferous Vegetables– Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cabbage, collard greens, and Brussels sprouts, to name a few, help to alter the colony of bacteria contained in our gut. These veggies contain fibre that is fermented in the gut and used to feed the good bacteria.
- Blueberries– The consumption on of blueberries has been shown to increase the number of bacteria that is beneficial to our overall health, as they act as a prebiotic once consumed.
- Dark Chocolate– Great news! Here is another reason to eat dark chocolate! Who doesn’t love chocolate? Dark chocolate contains antioxidants called polyphenols, which were once thought to be poorly digested once consumed due to their size. However, research has shown that the good bacteria in our gut called Bifidobacterium that like to feed on these antioxidants. The results in the antioxidants into smaller compounds that are more absorbable and are anti-inflammatory. Remember, the chocolate we are talking about here is 80% cocoa dark chocolate and not your regular nestle or Bournville dark chocolate.
- Salmon– When consuming salmon for gut health benefits make sure the fish you are eating is wild caught, rather than farm raised. When you go with wild caught salmon, you are getting more omega-3 fatty acids than you would be with farm raised fish. Omega-3 is great for your gut health because it is an anti-inflammatory. This is great if you are having issues with inflammation and autoimmune disorders.
- Onions– Like garlic, onions work to reduce the amount of the harmful bacteria in our gut while supporting the good bacteria, acting as a prebiotic.
HOW TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY GUT
There are several ways to maintain a healthy gut, and the first step is to be sure you are eating the right foods and taking the right supplements.
As always, health begins with nutrition, so the foods above are a great place to start to support the health and integrity of your gut, and most can easily be added into your diet, especially if you do not like the typical fermented foods that are associated with gut health.
When you are on a Custom Meal Plan, you don’t have to worry about getting the right foods into your diet because an expert nutritionist will do it for you. If you want to ensure you are getting the most from these foods, you can specifically ask for them to appear on your meal plan so you can be sure you are only getting the foods you enjoy eating.
