7 Easy Ways to Improve Your Gut Health

Your gut plays a vital role in your overall health and well-being. It not only controls your weight but also other functions like immunity, moods, brain health, inflammation, etc. More importantly, the happy hormone ‘serotonin’ is secreted by your gut. Thus, it is very important to maintain good gut health. Continue reading to find out how you can do that.

1. Cut down sugar- The bad bacteria in your gut loves sugar and feed off of it. So cutting down sugar, alcohol, low-nutrient carbohydrates and conventional dairy can help improve your gut health.

2. Take more collagens- Collagen helps heal your gut and repair the linings and makes it easier for your body to absorb essential nutrients. When you consume collagen-rich foods like organ meats, bone broth or hydrolyzed collagen protein supplements or collagelatin (which can be used in jellies, puddings, soups, and sauces), it helps improve your gut health. And its elastic properties can help keep your intestines flexible enough to move food around and increase further absorption.

3. Be cautious about antibiotics- Doctors tend to over-prescribe antibiotics for very common conditions like the common cold or ear infections that don’t even respond to them. Since antibiotics sweep through all the bacteria in their path including the useful ones that aid digestion, you can take some measures like cutting sugar, having bone broth, etc to help protect your intestinal membranes.

4. Manage stress effectively- Since stress can affect your gut in all ways, it is important that you manage stress in order to heal your gut microbiome. Allot time every day to meditate and perform other relaxing techniques that can calm your nervous system and also give you a sense of wellbeing.

5. Up your prebiotic intake- Prebiotics are what the good bacteria feed on and you can get them from vegetables rich in soluble fiber such as Brussel sprouts, asparagus, sweet potatoes, coffee, and chocolates. Although not everyone has the ability to tolerate resistant starch like banana flour, plantains, cooked rice, and raw potato starch, you can try consuming them slowly and track how it makes you feel.

6. Watch out your histamine levels- Although taking probiotics supplements can be beneficial for your gut, certain strains of it can induce your histamine secretion (the chemical reaction in your body during an allergy). Too much of histamines can lead to inflammation in your body. Avoid taking probiotics supplements containing Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus casei, and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. These histamine-producing bacteria are also found in healthy foods like conventional yogurt, and fermented foods.

7. Consider activated charcoal- It is a form of carbon which has been used for centuries to detoxify the body and improve gut health. Activated charcoal binds to toxins and chemicals in your gut and prevents them from absorbing them. And be informed that excessively activated charcoal consumption can make you constipated and therefore, take it slowly like a couple of capsules per day.