We’re Well Wednesday – Six Super Suggestions for Great Gut Health
1. Take your time with food – Eating slowly and chewing food properly gives our digestive system time to really get into gear and also allows our body to get the maximum goodness from what we eat.
2. Grow your (gut) community – There are many different kinds of ‘good’ bacteria in gut. They each do different, but equally important, jobs to keep our digestive system working well. These good bacteria are also known as probiotics. The healthiest guts have a wide variety of different kinds of ‘good’ bacteria, and the more of these good guys we have the better. We can increase both the variety and number of good bacteria in our gut by including more probiotic foods in your diet. Probiotic foods are foods which actually contain ‘good’ bacteria. Probiotic foods include: yoghurt and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, kefir and kombucha.
Making your own fermented foods at home is quite simple and can be fun too. It’s possible to ferment a wide range of vegetables and this short video shows you how:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPG4n98q1Ow
If you who prefer foods on the slightly sweeter side, you could try this tasty recipe for fermented ginger and carrot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZJa4HdtqZk&t=299s
3. Feed your good bacteria with prebiotics – Prebiotics are a type of fibre found in some foods, which the good bacteria in our gut absolutely love! Prebiotics are like help the good bacteria grow strong and allow them to do all the great things they do to keep us healthy even better. Some great prebiotic foods include: oats, tomatoes, onions, garlic, asparagus, artichokes, bananas, apples and berries.
4. Fill up with fibre – Including lots of fibre in our diet helps us to have regular bowel movements and also increases the number of good bacteria in our gut. A great way to increase the fibre in our diet is to fill up on veggies and fruit – the frozen.