Gut health is important for your overall health. Here are the best tips on how to improve gut health.
Even if you are not a health freak, it is important to have a healthier gut in order to live a clean and healthy life. Clean, because given the lifestyle that we lead, we might not always make the healthiest choices. A clean gut is important for immune function because the gut wall provides a barrier to various viruses, fungi and bad bacteria from entering your bloodstream. It also leads to healthier skin in the long run. There are plenty of benefits to maintaining a healthy gut, which is why we are here to help you with all the tips on how to improve it.
Tips on how to improve gut health
Chewing your food thoroughly
How you eat your food is as important as what you eat. Chewing your food properly until everything breaks down helps and one of the best ways to improve your gut health. The more the the food is broken down, the more easily digestible it is and this makes it easier to better absorb all the nutrients. Chewing your food thoroughly is one of the best ways to avoid feeling bloated.
Limit caffeine intake
Even if you cannot completely eliminate your caffeine intake, cut down on it. Caffeine has a direct effect on the lower oesophageal sphincter (LOS), which is a small band of muscle that sits between the oesophagus and the stomach, causing it to relax. As a result, it can lead to food traveling backwards, thus triggering indigestion and heartburn in some people.
Probiotics and fermented food
The beneficial bacteria in the gut known as probiotics can be boosted with the consumption of probiotics and fermented food. Research shows that taking probiotics leads to a healthy gut microbiome, and that may prevent gut inflammation and other intestinal problems. Foods like fermented vegetables, kefir, kimchi, kombucha, miso, sauerkraut etc are good sources of probiotics and work a great deal if you are looking at how to improve gut health.
Cutting down on sugar and sweeteners
Eating a lot of sugar and sweeteners lead to gut dysbiosis, an imbalance of gut microbes. A study on animals showed that a diet full of sugar affects the gut microbiome, which leads to effects on the brain and behaviour. It has also been proven that the use of artificial sweeteners leads to a negative impact on blood glucose levels due to their effects on gut flora. Thus, artificial sweeteners may increase blood sugar and that is not healthy for your gut.
Reduce your stress
Managing your stress has a whole lot of benefits, including a healthier gut. Stress factors like psychological stress, environmental stress, sleep deprivation etc. can negatively affect gut health. Some great ways to reduce stress to improve gut health are meditation, deep breathing exercises, and progressive muscle relaxation.
Regular physical exercise
We cannot even begin to stress on the importance of physical exercise as one of the ways how to improve gut health. In 2014, a study suggested that athletes had a larger variety of gut flora than regular people. In order to maintain a healthy gut and an overall healthy lifestyle, it is recommended that adults should engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week.
Soaked raisins
Soaked raisins can be very good for your gut health. All you need to do is soak a bunch of raisins overnight, strain it and the next morning, and heat the water. This drink is known to enhance digestion, flush out toxins from your body, and is loaded with a variety of important nutrients and antioxidants. Just what you need if you’re looking at how to improve your gut health.
Get enough sleep
Irregular sleep habits and disturbed sleep can have negative effects on the gut flora. Lack of sleep also leads to increase in stress levels, as mentioned before, thus having an overall negative impact on the gut health.
To sum it up, if health is wealth, a lot of it is credited to gut health. Developing simple, but healthy lifestyle habits can go a long way in improving your gut health and thus, managing your weight, skin issues, digestive issues, and more.
Hero and featured image credit: Brooke Lark/Unsplash
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Written by
Sreetama Basu
Digital Writer - Entertainment, Food & Drinks
A journalism student who studied the subject only to meet SRK in person, she settled for the best way to meet him. Covering Entertainment throughout her career, and now Food, Health and Lifestyle as well, Sreetama is also a self-proclaimed plant mom. In love with all things slow and quiet, she can often be found hunting for quiet corners with a glass of wine in hand. Other loves include little, inconsequential things, like neatly tucked-in bedsheets and big, significant things, like whole cheesecakes. She dreams of being a baker and writing about food someday.
