Feeling a-little off lately? This may be because you are not looking after your digestive system!
Now more than ever it is so important to look after your body! Did you know 80% of your immune system is in your gut? If you are not feeding your body the right nutritious whole foods this can lead to sickness, constipation, illness and the list goes on.
Your gut health/digestive system goes hand in hand with your overall physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Our bodies are made up of 50 trillion cells and everyday hundreds of billions of these cells die to form new cells. These cells can be affected by medications, not eating the right foods, the environment you are in, dehydration and the list can go on.
Over Eating?
We have a digestive hormone that goes by the name Ghrelin. This hormone will communicate hunger to the brain. Then you have Leptin, this will communicate when you are full! Ghrelin will send a message to the brain "I am hungry, feed me!". Once you have eaten enough, leptin will send a message to say "I am full, stop eating!". The message from leptin takes about 20 minutes to reach the brain so eating slow and allowing the body to respond accordingly. When overeating becomes a way of life , the message from leptin to the brain eventually gets unheard and this becomes a new pattern to overeating.
Tips for gut health:
1. Eat more fermented foods such as tempeh, kombucha, and yogurt.
2. Have a teaspoon of diluted apple cider vinegar 20-30 minutes before a meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Or you can add it as a salad dressing.
3. Eat more prebiotic foods high fibre foods such as onions, banana, berries, oatmeal, legumes (if you have IBS you need to be careful as the fermentation process can begin in the small intestine causing bacterial overgrowth and can lead to gas, pain, constipation.This is referred as "SIBO" (small intestine bacterial growth), if this is the case, under the guidance of a professional a low FODMAP diet can be the right way to go for you to see what would be beneficial.
Prebiotic foods are the primary food source for probiotics. Without prebiotic foods, probiotics don't thrive. This is a topic for separate blog for more understanding on how this works!
4. WATER! - It is so simple, drink your recommended daily amount of water to help with gut health!
For any guidance on your daily intake of food please contact us as we are happy to help coach you to live a more healthier, gut friendly life!