5 ways to improve your gut health today!

I must admit, the teacher in me is loving writing these lists posts. Firstly, we had 8 lessons I learnt about food in 2014 and now for my post of 2015, we have 5 ways to improve gut health!

I think working on ways to improve gut health is an excellent place to start for 2015. Firstly, we’ll all feeling the pressure of overindulgence from the last week or two. Even if China, there is quite simply food just everywhere at this time of year (the smallest size turkey we could get was 6kg, which was about 10 times too big for the two of us!). Even if you usually have no problems with digestion usually, it can take a few week to get things back on track if your gut bacteria has taken a bit of a battering from your not so healthy choices. For those of us with digestive problems, such as IBD and IBS it can be super frustrating as it seems our gut is sensitive to the slightest change of food or environment (Lesson learnt after too many NYE Mojitos!)

It’s not just about digestive discomfort though, in fact 80% of the immune system is in your gut. So if one of  your new year’s resolutions is to stay well, then it’s a great thing to start working on.

1. Add some of the white stuff

No, not sugar! Today I want to tell you about something I discovered on a detox seminar recently and I’ve been pretty impressed at  how it seems to settle any digestive discomfort within the hour. It’s Kuzu; a white powder taken from a Japanese root. Known for it’s ability to strengthen the intestine, it’s traditionally used to help those recovering from an upset stomach. . You can use it as a gluten free thickener for sauces or add a tablespoon to water and boil it for a soothing drink. It’s not widely avaliable in the UK, but it’s pretty easy to get from amazon here

2. Consider the acid/alkaline balance. There’s many fad diets out there, but paying attention to how acidic the things you are putting into your body are makes a lot of sense. Some foods like meat are much more acidic and can cause problems when trying to digest  them (especially as they take such a long time to do so- did you know meat takes 12 hours to fully digest?)  If you want to read more I’d recommend Honestly Healthy website, app or cookbooks. They are all great in explaining about how the acid/alkaline balance words.

3. Cabbage is your new best friend

Many people think it’s disgusting when I say I juice cabbage, but it really doesn’t taste bad. Cabbage plays a big part in  healing the gut lining so it’s perfect to give the body a bit of TLC after festive feasting.  If you don’t want to juice it, you can cook and drink the water or ferment it to make sauerkraut which leads on to part 4….

4. Fermenting foods

These are pretty popular lately, but what exactly are they? We’ve all heard of probiotics but we tend to think we can only find them in dairy products like yoghurt (and indeed ‘probiotic drinks’ which in reality are pure sugar!)

However, fermenting foods are way more natural and they’re really important to our diet.  How do we know this? Well interestingly every culture has it’s own form of fermented foods. Romans ate sauerkraut, India enjoys lassi and Bulgrains eat Kefir.

This suggests that we’ve recognised the importance of these foods and the natural probiotics they contain for a long time. An easy fix in kombuca tea which you can buy fermented already. It’s not readily available in the UK yet, but you can find a list of suppliers here. Other fermented foods include homemade sauerkraut and kefir: a sourcream drink. As with all these, you need to make sure you are in control of the fermenting as store brought products can often destroy a lot of the good bacteria. Final tip: Start slow with these foods, as too much of a good thing can overwhelm the gut- it’s all about creating a balance of bacteria, rather than bombarding it!

5. Trade your tea!

Herbal teas are amazingly helpful for gut health. You can try…

• Peppermint leaves and fennel for bloating and stomach ache.
• Powdered turmeric and(freshly grated if possible) ginger for inflammatory conditions like Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
• A tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and lemon for GERD, Heartburn and Acid Reflux, these help balance acid levels..
• Hot water, lemon and ginger for constipation and bloating.

So there’s my guide to gut health! As I study more about nutrition, I am convinced the role of food in gut health is vital so I hope you’ve found these tips useful! If you’ve got any more suggestions for gut health, then let me know below!)