You know I often wondered how fabulous it would be if we were to have detachable body parts. Imagine in a headache, you could take it off, keep it aside, apply the balm, give some medicine and attach it back when it’s over. Similarly with other parts. Even if I had a choice of detaching just one, I would go with the stomach. And I guess I would have detached it for a long time, you know you got to deal with cramps, bad bouts of diarrhea that could make your toes curl and not in a romantic way. Even when I have diagnosed it with a real bad infection it was the enlarged lymph nodes in my stomach that put me on long-term medical care, and not to mention the fact that some days when I want to wear a figure-fitting dress, it gives me the heebie-jeebies to see it poking out. So yeah stomach detached, however, as that is not a possibility, my gut feeling says to improve my gut health to avoid most of these issues. Figure not included.
So first let’s get the basics right, when we say gut, we are referring to the gastrointestinal tract, which starts at the mouth, ending at rectum. The abdomen, intestines colon all make a part of the gut. Besides these, we also have something called microbiome/microbiota in our guts. The microbiome is the scientific name given to the wide range of microorganisms (bacteria to be precise) living in our stomach. Thanks to the uproar about probiotics most people are aware that we have good bacteria and bad bacteria expanding within the walls of our stomach, that aids in all sorts of functions like digestion, metabolism, protecting against harmful pathogens, regulates immune system too.
Phewwww a lot of work, but then you have a very large variety cohabiting you as well, some say about a trillion. And the larger the variety flourishing the better gut health you have. It doesn’t sound right, but what can you do, the human body is a conundrum. So here are a few steps to improve the microbiota, promoting the healthy bacteria and limiting the bad bacteria:
- Probiotics & Prebiotics: indulge in some good and natural probiotics and prebiotics instead of opting for the formulated capsules. Probiotics like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut come highly recommended. As for prebiotics leeks, asparagus, bananas, garlic, chicory root make for interesting options. They will become food for the microorganisms in your gut and promote their expansion in your gut, also reducing the number of bad ones.
- Eat Healthy: by this we mean to diversify your food choices and yes healthier options, more fruits, and vegetables, more nuts, more whole grains, less saturated fats, fewer meat options, less sugar, less processed items, as they all promote better gut health and overall health too.
- Interestingly too clean isn’t gut healthy. Researches show that exposure to some dust or not so neat surroundings are healthy. So let the children play in the dirt sometimes.
- Exercising regularly and sleeping properly not just works wonders for your body, but guts bacteria culture too. Lesser stress the happier the microbiome too.
So if you see maintaining a healthy gut isn’t all that difficult, it’s the standard subscription of healthy lifestyle choices. We any which ways have too many complications in life, let’s try the easy things when we can.