Hi all, hope you are all enjoying a productive week thus far.
Today I want to explore a topic that many people tend to overlook when changing up their health routines – gut health. We tend to focus on other popular health trends such as losing weight, specially tailored diets, and specific workout routines. But your gut health (i.e. digestive system) is equally as important as it is linked to so many body processes and functions. If your gut is in good health, you can be sure that you will perform at a higher level as well as feeling great in general.
Why Should I Do It?
The health of your digestive system is closely linked to your immune and nervous systems; if the health deteriorates, so does the other systems. This can have severe impacts on the hormonal functions in your body. The cause of this is the neurons that are present in your gastrointestinal tract; these release neurotransmitters which are exactly the same as the ones in your brain. This is the reason for any “gut feeling” you may have experienced; upsetting this balance can result in your body being thrown into chaos.
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| Gut feelings are simply a result of your body being thrown off balance (pic from bbc.com) |
In addition, since your digestive system is responsible for breaking down foods to extract nutrients for the rest of your body, I would suggest that its healthiness should be one of your main priorities! Poor choices of food and the harmful substances we consume such as alcohol, caffeine, viruses, bacteria and more can lead to a damaged gastrointestinal tract, leading to a leaking gut.
As a result of this, food no longer gets broken down completely and eliminated. Your food will now be partially digested, and even worse, it may pass through your leaking gut and directly enter your blood stream! This may lead to a whole host of problems, such as stress hormones being released, throwing the balance of your immune system into disarray. You may even develop problems or conditions that do not even seem related to the digestive system such as weight gain, allergies, skin conditions and more.
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| An unhealthy digestive system may lead to a whole host of unrelated health conditions (pic from websiteini.com) |
What Can I Do?
The key thing here is to ensure that foods that enter your body should be healthy. If you were to go on a strict diet, you may have to remove the likes of processed and fatty foods, alcohol and others. These all stress out your gut in one way or another.
Allowing your gut to heal properly is also important, and this can be done by consuming a diet of fresh, unprocessed foods that are high in antioxidants (vitamin A, C, E), omega 3 fatty acids, L-glutamine and more. You should also seek out the advice or opinion of a nutritionist or medical professional to ensure that you are fully aware of the foods you need to consume to let your gut heal properly.
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| Fish and other foods high in omega 3 fatty acids can help your gut health (pic from telegraph.co.uk) |
Probiotics an also help restore the health of your digestive system. You can read all about its functions and health benefits in my previous post by clicking here.
In my next post, I will highlight several ways you can improve and build on your digestive health in more detail.
Till next time!
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