Diet Tips to Boost your Gut Health

The gut is responsible for your immune system, digestive system, nervous system, and heart. A healthy gut reduces your chance of developing different cancers, cardiovascular disorders, and autoimmune diseases. Also, the gut makes 70% of your serotonin(a happy neurotransmitter). So, if your gut is unhealthy, it can affect your mood, anxiety levels, behaviour, and can also make you depressed. 

The gut has trillions of microbes including bacteria, archaea and fungi, which help in digestion, weight management, and immunity. They can also lower your chances of having respiratory disorders, IBS(Irritable Bowel Syndrome), liver disorders, diabetes, Parkinson’s, colic, and other allergies. So, what you eat is not just for the well-being of your body, but also for the gut microbiota. 

Diet tips that can help you improve your gut flora and overall health are: 

Add more fermented foods. 

Fermented foods are rich in probiotics, that are live bacteria and yeast. You can include- fermented curd rice, idli, dosa, dhokla, kimchi, pickles, miso, or kefir in your diet. It can help in detoxification, digestion, and better immune responses. 

Avoid processed foods. 

Eating a diet high in processed and refined foods like- flour, sugar, salt, oils, and packaged items can affect your blood sugar levels because of their effect on the gut flora. Moreover, such a diet can decrease the number of gut bacteria present. This imbalance will lead to a further craving of having sugar, and hence further damage. 

Have more fibre. 

Fibre is naturally found in abundance in foods and vegetables. If you have foods that provide you with different types of dietary fibre- you encourage diversity and growth of probiotic bacteria, which feeds on non-digestible carbohydrates called prebiotics. Include foods like asparagus, banana, chicory, garlic, onions, whole grains like oats, quinoa, or millets, legumes, and beans. 

Eat foods rich in polyphenols. 

Polyphenols are plant compounds that have advantages like reducing the blood pressure, inflammation, oxidative stress, and cholesterol levels in the body. Few good sources of polyphenols to include in your diet are- green tea, almonds, broccoli, blueberries, dark chocolate, and grapes.

Eat plant-based. 

A vegetarian diet can reduce inflammation, weight, and cholesterol levels in the body. Whole grains have non-digestible carbohydrates, such as beta-glucan, which are not absorbed by the small intestine and make their way to the large intestine, where they are broken by the microbes. This promotes their growth. Having a balanced diet of- good fats from nuts and seeds, olive oil, and coconut oil, clean sources of protein like soy, or tofu, carbohydrates, and fibre can not only improve your gut health but also is easy to digest and assimilate. 

Over to you.

Apart from the above-mentioned tips, you should also be mindful of reading the labels. What is going inside your gut, should be well-informed action. Instead of buying packaged items like flavoured yoghurt, try setting curd at home. You can also make vegetable raita out of it, which is a great combination of pre- and probiotic food. It is the little changes that go a long way. Try incorporating these basic things and habits for a better tomorrow.