Did you know that most of your immunity comes from your gut? So a healthy gut is important to your well being as well as comfort.
I’m sure we have all heard of PRObiotics (gut friendly bacteria) but what about PREbiotics? It’s all very well adding good bacteria to your gut but they need something to feed on.
HOW TO KEEP A HEALTHY GUT
The best way of keeping a good healthy gut is to regularly give it good bacteria from yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut and other fermented foods, (every few days). BUT then you need to feed it. These are the PREbiotics. The way we can do this is to get your 5 a day, in fact ideally 9 a day. This is fruit and veg in its most natural state. So eat an orange rather than drink orange juice because it’s the fibre that the bacteria need to feed on. Also legumes, beans, lentils etc which are very high in fibre.
AVOID HIGHLY PROCESSED FOODS
Conversely, highly processed foods like ready meals, fast food etc have very little fibre and are generally very high in salt, sugar and fat which will pile on the pounds, make you feel sluggish and crave them all the more! They also tend to kill off the good bacteria so if you eat processed food regularly, you will undo any good work with fermented foods.
Of course the odd pizza, ice cream etc every now and then will do you no harm at all as long as most of the time you are eating whole foods in the required amounts regularly.
If you need to increase your fruit and veg intake, start slowly by adding in one extra portion a day and then increase that over time as it becomes more of a habit. Don’t worry for the moment about taking fast food out because that feels like you are depriving yourself and that’s hard. The more fruit and veg you add over time, the less fast food you will have room for and it should naturally switch over. Whole foods will also keep you feeling more satisfied and improve energy levels too. You are less likely to become unwell and if you do fall ill, your recovery will be quicker. WIN WIN!!