Gut Health
Our gut is like a garden, and it requires care just like a garden would. Some Scientists have nicknamed our gut our “second brain.”
Poor gut health is one of the biggest causes of disease that can create illness in our bodies. Symptoms such as headaches, migraines, allergies, autoimmunity, weight gain, anxiety, depression, acne, skin rashes, yeast infections, hormonal imbalances, fatigue, and immune challenges are all indications of your gut health.
Your gut has 5 key roles:
- Digestion of food
- Absorption of nutrients
- Maintenance of an immune barrier to the outside world
- A symbiotic relationship with favourable bacteria/li>
- Detoxification, which includes the elimination of waste and toxins from the body
What you put on the end of your fork determines what is going on inside your gut. For example, if you eat processed foods such as fried foods, hamburgers, etc, you will turn on genes that promote inflammation. If you were to eat broccoli, spinach, etc., you would turn on anticancer and anti-inflammatory genes.
It is not only food that determines our gut’s health. Stress can also shift our microbiome, as well as antibiotics. Antibiotics are simply overprescribed by our medical system. Our gut flora is altered each time we take antibiotics, and this can lead to Candida, yeast overgrowth. Therefore, it is so important to eat the right foods everyday and include cultured or fermented foods to help balance the gut flora. If you are feeling exhausted, bloated, with cramps, gassy, in pain, etc, repairing your gut will make you feel so much better.
We can repair the gut by:
- Removing gut irritants, such as things you may have a food sensitivity too, processed foods, gluten and dairy etc.
- Replacing with healthy digesting foods and essential nutrients such as healing foods. i.e. fruits, herbs and spices.
- Taking healing supplements such as l’glutamine, aloe vera, turmeric, zinc etc.
- Rebalancing the gut with a good probiotic.
Some foods and drinks that promote good gut health are:
- Beans
- Apples
- Asparagus
- Broccoli
- Bananas
- Leafy Greens
- Sweet Potatoes
- Wholegrains
- Garlic
- Seaweed
Along with cultured foods such as tofu, tempeh, certain yogurts and cheeses and fermented foods and drinks such as kim chi, our apple cider vinegar based Heal thy Soda beverages are the perfect additions to include into your diet to promote a beneficial gut flora.
And remember, “All dis-ease begins in the gut” – Hippocrates
