Spring cleaning isn’t just for the home. It can also be for the mind and body. Medical professionals are finding out that a healthy gut is a key component of a healthy body.
If you’ve been feeling lackluster and like your energy is low despite all your efforts, it might be a good idea to take steps towards improving your gut health this spring.
Start with Probiotics
Your gut is full of good bacteria, but it also has bad bacteria. When the bad begins to outnumber the good, that is when you start to have problems. The good bacteria are known as probiotics and they break down food to extract the nutrients.
They also generate enzymes that aid digestion and maximize absorption. Without probiotics, your body is unlikely to absorb what it needs to stay healthy. To fix this, you can take a quality time-release probiotic supplement, and you can also add various fermented foods to your diet, such as sauerkraut and kombucha.
Boost Your Gut Barrier
The gut barrier is the intestinal wall and gut microbes, which function as a barrier between the bloodstream and the rest of the body. The gut barrier actually has an intelligent permeable design, which means that it allows nutrients to penetrate it while blocking toxins and bad bacteria.
However, if your gut is low on good bacteria, the gut wall also begins to fail and cause reactions like allergies and other immune problems. Support your gut barrier by consuming more indigestible fibers, also known as prebiotics.
You can consume prebiotics in supplement form or by eating foods like jicama, avocado, soybeans, potato
skins and organic apple cider vinegar.
Scrutinize Your Food Choices
The modern diet tends to be full of processed food, chemicals and sugar, which all cause chaos in the gut. Not only that but the food you eat, whether good or bad, can change your gut for better or for worse within only a few hours.
Take time to pick your food carefully, and focus on whole foods, plant-based food and fermented food while shying away from sugar and chemicals.
Try Fasting
Fasting doesn’t have to mean 24 hours drinking only water. In fact, intermittent fasting can be as simple as not eating after 8 PM at night and then not eating again until 8 AM the next morning. That’s 12 hours of not eating.
This allows your gut to get back on track as the probiotics can rest and repopulate. Once you’ve mastered 12 hours, try increasing it to 14 by eating dinner early and not eating past 6 PM.
Taking these simple steps will help strengthen your gut and reduce inflammatory responses throughout your body.
