Establishing a healthy gut microbiome is a challenge that few people can tackle successfully, even at home.
Add in constantly having to eat away from home and frequent travel, and many people tend to just let their gut health take care of itself and hope for the best.
Taking probiotic supplements can help, but when your digestive tract is stressed by fast food, sleep disturbances, and infrequent exercise, those supplements may not be able to overcome the development of an unhealthy gut.
Years of being too busy for gut health can lead to inflammatory bowel disease, as beneficial gut bacteria are replaced by harmful bacteria that cause inflammation and poor digestion.
But how can you build better gut health into your already too-busy schedule? How can you encourage beneficial bacteria?
Rather than looking at this as a monumental task that feels impossible, it’s easier to have success if you start looking for little wins that will slowly add up to a better gut microbiome. Just a few small changes, done consistently, can change poor gut health into a healthy gut full of beneficial bacteria.
Start taking your gut health seriously, and you will be rewarded with better digestion, a clearer mind, and increased vitality.
Fermented Foods: A Little Goes a Long Way
The first thing most people think of when it comes to better gut health is fermented foods.
The difficulty is ensuring you can get a little bit of fermented foods each day, when they tend to be highly perishable and also a bit scary to many people who are not familiar with their tangy flavors.
But your gut microbiota will thank you if you can get even a little bit of fermented food into your diet each day.
Yogurt: A Common and Palatable Source of Healthy Gut Microbiota
Yogurt is a go-to for many when it comes to replenishing their healthy gut microbiome.
While it can be a good starting point, yogurt has some weaknesses. Many yogurt brands are loaded with sugars, which can encourage unhealthy gut bacteria and yeasts.
In addition, yogurt by itself often doesn’t have any insoluble fiber, meaning that the bacteria in the yogurt may never even survive the journey through your stomach to your gut.
To solve this, you may choose to add fiber-rich foods directly into your yogurt and let them soak for a while, so that the fiber can be populated with beneficial bacteria.
Kombucha: More Beneficial Gut Bacteria
Kombucha and other fermented beverages contain good bacteria, but bear in mind that, as in yogurt, bacteria in a liquid with no fiber are very vulnerable and may not be able to impact your gut microbiome.
Foods Rich in Dietary Fibre: Vital For Your Digestive Health
Your gut microbes crave fiber.
It can be challenging to get enough fiber even at the best of times, but when you are traveling, you may find this next to impossible.
There are a few ways to add more fiber to your diet, encouraging a healthy gut microbiome.
Better Choices At Restaurants
Sometimes you won’t have many options, but even a small change can make a big difference to your gut.
Instead of a deep-fried appetizer, select a salad.
See if the menu includes sweet potato fries instead of French fries.
Seek out beans, chick peas, and sweet corn–all good sources of fiber, that will feed your gut microbiome and help overcome an unhealthy gut.
Choosing the Right Restaurants
Some restaurants have a better selection of vegetables than others, so choose where you will eat carefully. Ethnic restaurants often have bean, lentil, or chickpea-based offerings, which are rich in fiber and protein, and some may even have mildly fermented condiments like kimchi or escabeche.
Bring Your Fiber: Easy Wins For Your Gut Microbiome
It can be difficult to ensure that your fiber needs will be met on busy days or the road.
But if you bring a little bit of your fiber sources from home, you can multiply their impact by combining them with fermented foods.
If you will be having yogurt for breakfast, open the container the night before and add a couple of tablespoons of instant oatmeal or chia seeds. Either will provide an excellent prebiotic, giving the probiotics in your food a safe passage to join your gut microbiota.
Chia seeds are also an easy addition to your favorite flavor of kombucha. Adding them to your drink even a few minutes before consumption will allow these magical seeds to expand, absorbing kombucha into their protective gel–and helping the beneficial bacteria to survive your digestive tract.
Rest: The Hidden Source of Better Gut Health
Getting good sleep can be a challenge, but new research is proving that a strong circadian rhythm and plenty of rest will go a long way to improving gut health.
Your gut flora can be negatively impacted by blue light from screens late at night, and the entirety of your gut microbiome is impacted by inadequate or irregular sleep. So if you want good gut health, start by pursuing a healthy diet and a healthy sleep schedule.
Setting your phone screen to reduce blue light as bedtime approaches can help to encourage a healthy gut microbiome, as can going to bed at regular hours–even on the road.
Little Choices For Big Changes: Solve Your Health Conditions With a Happy Digestive System
When your gut health is poor, your whole body suffers. An unhealthy gut microbiome doesn’t absorb nutrients properly, meaning that your efforts to eat foods rich in vitamins and minerals may be for nothing.
Inflammation caused by poor gut health can cause a wide variety of symptoms in your overall health, from your central nervous system to autoimmune diseases. The bacteria in your gut are incredibly important to your body’s state of chronic inflammation.
Reversing poor gut health can reduce insulin resistance, leading to improved blood sugar; it can positively affect your body’s availability of short-chain fatty acids, reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, and improve stress levels.
Improve your gut health, and you will find many benefits to having a healthy body, from improved focus and performance to boosted mood. Making a few small changes to your diet and habits can have an outsized impact on your quality of life.
