Clean Eating

Happy Gut, Healthy You

April 4, 2016 by Erica Giovinazzo Leave a comment

Why is it so important to have a happy gut?

Most people think the gut is just there to digest food, but there’s more to it than that. All of your other systems (aside from the digestive system), are impacted by the health and vitality of your gut, like your nervous system and immune system. If you get sick often, ask yourself, “How healthy is my gut?”

What exactly is a healthy gut? (You can skip this part if you don’t want to hear me get science-y.) In your gut, you have over 400 species of bacteria. They’re all over your gut (stomach, small intestine, large intestine), but they are primarily in your large intestine. This bacteria is important for breaking down your food efficiently, and making sure your nutrients are absorbed well. The good bacteria also helps fight off bad organisms that could make you sick. So when your microflora is out of balance, your chance of getting sick goes up.

Antibiotics are a group of drugs that kill bacteria. So, while antibiotics are great at killing the bad bacteria that make you sick, they also kill the good bacteria that keep your gut balanced and strong.

Your diet, obviously affects your gut, and affects the type of bacteria that thrive. People who have a diet high in processed and fast food have less healthy gut bacteria than someone who eats a “whole foods” based-diet, like plants, vegetables, and freshly cooked meats, poultry, eggs, etc. Plenty of scientific studies have shown this. Follow this plan to make sure you have the diet that is best for your gut, and you will likely find yourself not getting sick as often:

  • Eat real food. Fruits & veggies, meat, poultry, eggs. The more natural it is, the better.
  • Limit processed food and fast food.
  • Try a probiotic, like Bio-K, Dr. Mercola, Probiotic 50B, or if you know a practitioner who sells Metagenics, that’s a great product too. You especially need a probiotic during and after you take antibiotics.
  • Drink plenty of water.
  • Make sure you have enough fiber (eat fruits, vegetables, and maybe some healthier grains like oats or quinoa).