Improve Your Gut Health

Tips for keeping your digestive tract happy.

“You are what you eat and what you digest.”

So much of gut health has to do with what you put inside your body. Safe to say how you digest the food you eat ultimately get absorbed at the gut level.

It’s important to take care of your gut by providing it with nourishing and healing foods and supplements.

We asked our Registered Holistic Nutritionists to weigh in on how to improve gut health and keep it healthy.

Eat a diet full of fibre and probiotics

Fibre is a plant-based carbohydrate (do not panic at that word) that helps to reduce the risk of many diseases of the heart, digestive system, and more. The two types (soluble and insoluble) are beneficial. It works to stimulate the growth of healthy gut bacteria, it helps to slow down the absorption of glucose, and helps to carry out wastes from the body.

Probiotics are healthy gut bacteria that can be found in fermented foods such as yogurt, kimchi and kombucha. Probiotics help keep the gut happy by supplying the beneficial bacteria that helps keep everything calm and balanced. Healthy gut bacteria is linked with less inflammation, irritability, and digestive issues. Learn more about protecting your microbiome here.

Safe to say ensuring you are eating a diet with root vegetables, fruits, green leafy vegetables, as well as whole grains (if you do consume grains), along with fermented foods will help improve your gut.

Take gut health support supplements

Collagen and or Bone Broth

Collagen has amino acids that support gut health by reducing inflammation and healing the actual gut. Particularly bovine collagen has been shown to be specifically helpful for gut health.

You can also go beyond collagen and take bone broth.

Bone broth includes collagen, gelatin as well as other ingredients that may help with tissue healing and calm the inflammation of the gut’s lining. Gelatin is essentially the cooked version of collagen. They both provide the same amino acids and provide the same benefits.

Want to have both? Full Spectrum Collagen 1,2,3 combines both collagen and bone broth!

Probiotics

We talked about the essential role probiotics play in gut health. To be sure you are getting the gut bacteria your body needs, it’s often suggested to take probiotics supplements daily. Providing your gut with these daily will allow the digestive system to be prepared. Probiotics + Prebiotics is a winning combination because it not only provides the beneficial gut flora, but also offers food for the beneficial bacteria (prebiotics) to thrive.

Enzymes

Part of gut health is the ability to digest the foods you eat. If you feel sluggish or bloated, you can take digestive enzymes that speed up the breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Full Spectrum Plant Enzymes are good for digestion which in turn will help with gut health. 

Move your body

Getting exercise daily will help to build your gut health. How? Essentially the muscles involved in digestion strengthen with exercise, this in turn helps with peristalsis (moving digested food throughout the gut).

Exercise also plays a role in promoting healthy bacteria in the gut (which we always need a good balance of). In fact, studies have suggested that exercise has the potential of altering the gut flora and promoting wellness.

It literally feels good to move!

Limit Your Alcohol and Coffee Intake

The gut’s bacteria don’t particularly like heavy alcohol consumption. Excessive drinking can lead to digestive upset, but also inflammation of the gut’s lining. When this happens, the gut becomes susceptible to discomfort, ulcers and even infections.

For the same reason, if you feel you are getting an upset stomach after consuming caffeine, consider cutting down the amount to 1-2 cups a day.

Decrease the stress

A common piece of advice for health in general, but most definitely stress has a negative effect on gut health. Studies have shown that there are associations between anxiety and depression and matters of the gut, and vice versa. Therefore you may notice stomach pain following a stressful set of events; the mind and gut connection are very much in sync.

Work on calming the mind and body, or consider stress support, such as Enhanced Collagen Relax. This is a great supplement to add into a beverage or water after a stressful day. Enhanced Collagen Relax gently takes the “edge off” without any drowsiness as it has collagen + Magnesium Bisglycinate And L-Theanine (stress and relaxation supportive supplements).

Improving your gut health doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Take it one good habit at a time and remember that your whole-body health starts with your gut.