How to improve gut health: 10 Simple Habits
Introduction
The gut is the hub of most physiological and psychological functions and influences everything from how you digest to how you think and the way you connect with the world around you.
The gut microbiome refers to all the different types of bacteria and microbes living in your gut. So, it's one balance that has been maintained so as to facilitate the body to power most of its key functions.
Poor guts result in a wide range of issues, from bloating and constipation up to even IBS. Healthy guts boost energy levels, mental clarity, and immunity.
In this article, we will be discussing ten easy habits that can help improve gut health and maintain the balance of beneficial bacteria in the digestive system.
1. Eat More Fiber-Rich Foods
Good gut health is ensured from diet rich with fibers. These fibers are fed by the good bacteria in the gut to reproduce and produce compounds to the human system's benefit, such as short-chain fatty acids, which help the preservation of the gut lining and improvement in digestion, preventing an inflammatory response.
Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and others introduce a steady supply of nutrients to the bacteria in your gut.
They ensure that you have regular bowel movement without constipation. So, they minimize the probability of having an unhealthy gut system.
How to enrich gut health through fiber:
• Include colorful fruits and vegetables as part of your diet regularly.
• Include whole grains, such as oats, brown rice, and quinoa, in your diet.
• Eat high fibre nuts, seeds, legumes.
• Include Fermented Foods in Your Diet
2. Incorporate Fermented Foods into Your Diet
Fermented foods contain high amounts of probiotics, which are, basically, live bacteria, which may help in recolonizing friendly bacteria within the digestive tract. Those friendly microbes may be involved in digestion and other functions that would keep the gut microbiome balanced.
The development to be given through eating fermented food throughout your life is to increase diversity among gut flora while reducing a person's tendency to develop problems related to their gut.
Examples of some good fermented foods to introduce into your diet are:
• Unsweetened yogurt with live cultures, if possible
• Sauerkraut
• Kimchi
• Kefir
• Miso
• Tempeh
All of these foods are naturally fermented. They contain beneficial bacteria that help to create a healthy gut microbiome.
3. Hydrate Yourself
Drinking enough water is essential for a healthy digestive system. Even one can keep bacteria in their gut in check while keeping the mucosal lining in the intestines as it should be for digestion to take place.
Even one can help keep the gut infection under control and maintain the mucosal lining in the intestines as it should be for efficient absorption of nutrients to work for the body.
Water also ensures that the gut is well kept with bowel movements so that constipation and other negative gut problems cannot come about.
To bring about a healthy gut, consume as much water as you can during the day if you are on a diet high in fibre as all those require more water to pass through the gut.
4. Reduce Your Consumption of Processed Foods
Processed and high sugar foods destroy your gut microbiome. It feeds the bad bacteria in the gut while depleting beneficial bacteria. This leads to problems like bad digestion, inflammation, and a higher risk for chronic diseases.
To have a healthy gut, keep away from processed food, sugary treats, and artificial sweeteners. You should focus on whole nutrient-rich foods that feed your gut bacteria and keep you generally healthy.
5. Diversify Your Food
A healthy gut microbiome requires a diverse diet, thus keeping good bacteria in the gut. Various foods contain different nutrients that feed various bacteria types in the gut thus promoting diversity in your gut flora.
Diversity in the microbiome has been associated with improved function in digestive systems, greater immunity, and generally lower risks of chronic diseases.
It feeds the good guys in your gut-eat so many different foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins-so that you literally cannot help but feed the hundreds of different varieties of good bacteria that thrive in your gut.
6. Manage stress
Stress can very simply be said to affect your gut health and balance of bacteria living inside the gut. So, chronic stress may increase the number of bad bacteria that live in your gut which might cause problems such as bloating, diarrhea, and constipation and might also exacerbate some more serious disorders of the gut.
Good gut health management can be achieved by proper stress management. That can be done with meditation, yoga, deep breathing exercises, or regular physical activity to help bust a good dent in your stress levels and healthy balance of gut bacteria.
7. Get Enough Sleep
It upsets the gut microbiota and hence can lead to poor gut health. For instance, it helps in the self-healing of the body, its organs, and thus its digestive system.
Higher and lesser amounts of sleep have been known to degrade the diversity of the gut microbiome, leading to digestive disorders and a weak immune system.
Sleep for 7 to 9 hours at night to have a healthy gut.
Developing a bed time routine and an excellent sleeping environment enhances the quality of sleeping and impacts the gut in a positive manner.
8. Exercise Regularly
Regular exercises have a positive impact on the gut microbiome and digestion in general. So, we can very well deduce that through regular physical activities, there is an increase in the diversity of beneficial bacteria present in the gut.
It prevents any kind of inflammation and provides for a healthy immunity system. Other than making digestion regular, it helps in making bowel movements regular as well.
Encourage gut health by exercising at least 30 minutes most days of the week for overall gut health and well-being.
This includes such activities as walking, swimming, cycling, and any strength exercise activity.
9. Limit the Use of Antibiotics
It often happens that the drugs used to fight infections by bacteria kill the bad and good bacteria within the gut microbiome, thus leading to long-term imbalances in the gut that would prevent your digestive system from working smoothly.
Though at some point, the antibiotics may be unavoidable, they should only be taken when absolutely necessary, and strictly under a healthcare provider's guideline.
To get your gut health back to normal after taking antibiotics, you will have to take probiotic-enriched foods and supplements to balance the good bacteria that your gut has.
10. Take Prebiotic Foods
Prebiotics take the form of fiber, feeding the good bacteria in the gut by multiplying and increasing its activity.
These non digestible fibers transit through the digestive tract and it turns out to be useful by promoting the growth of good bacteria in the gut, hence towards a better and healthier gut microbiome.
Among some of the rich in prebiotics are the following:
• Garlic
• Onions
• Bananas
• Asparagus
• Chicory root
• Leeks
• Whole grains
Inclusion of diets high in prebiotics in the diet enhances the intestinal health, and overall, the healthy gut microbiota.
The Gut Microbiota and General Health
Your gut microbiota is the trillions of microorganisms living in your gut. They are very important to digest foods and for immunity and even mental health.
The scientific research studies proved that gut microbiota imbalance causes plenty of disorders such as obesity, diabetes, and other problems even mental disorder. Poor gut health further causes the weakening of the immune system and increases the risk of infections and inflammatory diseases.
Among the things that healthy diversity of the gut microbiota prevents are linked to health at large.
Good gut health promotes proper digestion and better absorption of nutrients aside from boosting immunity.
Gut Health and Mental Health
New Science says that the latest research made known this link between gut health and mental health, a kind of term of phrase for what scientists refer to as the "gut-brain axis."
These germs in your stomach are actually creating neurotransmitters that affect your mood, including serotonin. According to New Science, an unhealthy stomach microbiome may have something to do with anxiety, depression, and stress.
In addition, with any sort of upgrade you may be able to affect your gut health, you're doing something that may lead to a betterment in your mental health.
Dietary changes and high fiber and fermented foods content, for instance, serve to establish a healthy environment inside the gut and mood and cognitive function tied with it.
Conclusion
It is not really a complex task to improve gut health.
It can be achieved with minimal, consistent changes in diet and lifestyle for an environment that enables the proliferation of good bacteria in the gut. You gain better digestive health, stronger immunity, and indeed, mental health.
With diet, stress management, exercise, and sleeping right, all these can contribute to the formation of a healthy gut microbiome.
Of course, keeping away from processed foods and unnecessary antibiotics is also one way of ensuring that one maintains some delicate balance of sensitive bacteria within their gastrointestinal system.
With these ten simple habits, practicing these little things will improve the health of your gut and everything it brings with it about a healthy gut microbiome contributing to all-around health and well-being.
* Medical Disclaimer - The following information is for educational purposes only. No information provided on this website, including text, graphic, and images, are intended as substitutes for professional medical advice. Please consult with your doctor about specific medical advice pertaining to your condition(s).
