Improving your gut health may offer huge health advantages, including weight reduction, good skin, and a happy brain.
This essay discusses several frequently overlooked behaviors that we must focus on and acquire in order to have good digestion. These are the seven practices that may help you reclaim your gut health and rebuild your microbiota. This page isn’t about a healthy gut diet in particular since it’s quite personalized, as various foods work for different individuals.
A healthy gut may aid in weight loss, skin improvement, and mental wellness. These are 7 practices that may heal your gut; a healthy gut diet is highly unique and does not cover all bases when it comes to digestive health. However, these are easy things you can do on a daily basis to restore your health and rebuild your microbiome. #guthealth
So, let’s start with the fundamentals. Let’s start with the most important reason we need a healthy stomach. Food digestion
But first, let’s go deeper: what really is food? So, according to my incredibly accurate Google search, this is what it is.
food definition on a screenshot
You know food is essentially fuel. We need food to survive.
BUT FOOD IS UNUSEFUL UNLESS…
We can simplify it. It would be pointless if we couldn’t break down the food we consume into its teeny-tiny components known as nutrients.
The body, our cells, need nutrition to operate properly. They are required for energy, continual bodily upkeep, and our ability to move, speak, think, and do everything.
Now, if you merely threw a piece of broccoli at a cell without breaking it down to its nutrients, the cell would have no idea what to do with it.
And now we’re here. Evolution devised a solution (omg, that rhymes) much superior to anything a dietitian or pharmaceutical corporation could devise. Your GI tract is an abbreviation for your gastrointestinal tract. That system within your body is in charge of a lot of things we don’t think about while we’re eating at McDonald’s burgers.
The primary function of the GI tract is to extract nutrients from the food that we purchase, prepare, or grow and make those nutrients accessible to the body, along with water and electrolytes, so that your body may survive.
If that doesn’t happen, if we don’t obtain those nutrients, the body won’t have anything to function with, and we’ll actually break apart.
As a result, people aren’t as extreme in their statements that most illnesses are caused by an unhealthy gut (but it’s still a touch exaggerated). If your stomach isn’t operating properly, your body won’t obtain the nutrition it needs to function on a daily basis.
An unhealthy stomach may cause a variety of health problems, including:
obesity
anxiety
depression
acne
persistent inflammatory response
insufficient immunological function
coronary heart disease
HEALING YOUR GUT FOR WEIGHT LOSS, BETTER SKIN, AND A HEALTHIER BRAIN
Now, let’s look at some simple and inexpensive things you may do to boost your gut health.
SNACK
Somewhere along the road, we forget that our lips serve a purpose other than talking and tasting food. The mouth cavity is the first stage of digestion. It’s where we use our teeth, tongue, and a lot of saliva to break down the meal. To be precise, about 0.75–1l of saliva every day. Saliva is an essential element of the digestive process because it includes natural disinfectants (such as IgA and lysozyme) and enzymes that help break down food so that it may be digested further in the stomach.
If you don’t chew your food and break it down to a very smooth consistency, the following segments of the gastrointestinal system — your stomach, small intestine, and large intestine — will have to work more to digest and absorb anything from that carrot you didn’t chew.
Now, I’m not perfect, and I don’t chew nearly enough. But when I learned more about the subject, I began to do it. I said that I would chew each mouthful at least 15 times (I discovered that I only chew 4–5 times on average, so this is a significant stride for me).
Do you remember what happened?
I don’t want to eat too much since it becomes monotonous. Fruit and vegetables are the only foods that taste excellent after you chew them more than twice. Try chewing a cupcake 15 times fast. It’s revolting. I can’t cram that much food into my mouth. To be able to swallow and not choke, I need to take smaller chunks — which helps me eat less.
So, if you want to enhance your gut health for weight reduction, better skin, and a healthier brain, I strongly advise you to start chewing more. Begin with 10 repetitions and work your way up. My objective is to reach 30.
ATTEMPT TO RELAX
You’ve undoubtedly heard of the gut-brain axis and how gut health influences brain health.
While there is undoubtedly a link between gut and brain health, we don’t know much about it at the moment. No, there isn’t an evil genius bacterium in your stomach commanding your brain what to do or what not to do.
It’s a lot more complex than that. This isn’t a one-way street. It’s not like you eat something nasty, your gut flora changes, and you suddenly become unhappy. After all, there are other things in life than eating.
That is, stress may influence your gut flora and its variety (the bacteria within your stomach), which in turn can impair your mental health. It’s pretty similar to a cycle.
So, do your hardest to eat healthy while simultaneously reducing stress. Walk every day, spend time with people who make you happy, don’t sweat the minor things, and remember that everything will pass.
BEGIN MOVING
Exercise may also have an impact on your gut health and microbiota. Exercise has been demonstrated in mice to affect their gut flora — and these changes vary from what you’d get from just changing your diet.
Physical exercise on a regular basis has also been demonstrated to lower the risk of colon cancer.
So, be active during the day, avoid sitting for long periods of time, and walk more.
USE INTERMITTENT FASTING
I already discussed calorie restriction and how it may help you live longer, but it turns out that eating less and spreading out your meals can help your gut mend and recover.
Indeed, intermittent fasting alters the variety of bacteria in your gut, which may have an impact on your brain health, weight, and skin. I find that the basic 16:8-hour split works best for me when it comes to intermittent fasting (16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating).
SLEEPING
Don’t spend a week sleeping 6 hours a day — that’s bad. Sleep is most likely the most crucial thing you can do to help your body repair. It’s a healing process. It is necessary for your immune system (which is also linked to lifespan) to repair the harm done to your body during the day. And the microbiota and your gut are no exception.
STAY HYDRATED
And by that, I don’t only mean drinking more water but also eating more water-containing meals, such as fruits and vegetables. You may be drinking water, but if you’re also eating dehydrating items like coffee, chocolate, soy sauce, and fried food, you’re not doing yourself, your stomach, or your skin any favors.
So, make it a point to consume more hydrating foods like cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, and pretty much any vegetable you can think of.
SELECT THE BEST DIET FOR YOU
When it comes to digestion, you are the only one who can choose which diet is best for you. Some individuals need more fiber, while others may not perform well on a high-fiber diet. Some individuals feel fine on a vegan diet, while others like the paleo diet. Both are known to have a favorable effect on the microorganisms in your stomach. However, this does not imply that you must follow one of these diets in order to be healthy.
In general, animal products have a detrimental impact on the gut microbiota, while vegetables have a favorable impact.
Consuming fermented foods rich in prebiotics and probiotics, such as sauerkraut, yogurt, and kimchi is another option worth considering.