There are many things that can influence the overall health of our gut. Now our bodies are like a “hub”. It could be dependent on a person's diet, foods they could be intolerant of, an imbalance of hormones, restlessness, and even the level of stress they may be under. All these factors can have the ability to affect the way your body processes, breakdown, and digests the food you eat.
You can read almost anywhere that medications help with digestion and other chronic diseases like IBS or constipation, but there are actually ways to heal your gut health in a natural way. We will be discussing tips and ways to repair your gut and restore it so you can digest food properly and maintain good health getting to the root cause.
What makes functional medicine nutrition different from other therapies or medicines?
Well, it's simple. Functional Nutrition Medicine, also known as integrative, puts the emphasis on the person rather than just a person's symptoms. They approach health as helping rather than treating. It examines the different systems of a body and how they correlate with overall diet, lifestyle and external environments.
Functional medicine nutrition can include many ways to assess a person's health such as stool testing, blood tests, checking medical history, current symptoms, and dietary habits.
Although the process may take some time to get results, the good news is there is treatment! Try a good probiotic, changing your diet, and supplementing it with vitamins and minerals to help with hormone balance and overall health.
Types of foods to improve your gut health:
Foods high in fiber: avocado, apples, ground flaxseed
Foods high in probiotics: sauerkraut, fermented foods
Foods high in antioxidants and omega 3-fatty acids, berries, carrots, sweet potato, salmon, pistachios
Foods that are rich in fiber are essential because they help in promoting regular bowel movements so as to prevent constipation. The reason why probiotics are important is that they aid the good bacteria that is in a person's gut making it necessary for gut health. Lastly, foods that are high in antioxidants help with inflammation in the gut. All of these foods serve as different properties throughout the body to connect everything to and from the gut.
Now that you have a better understanding of what to consume to help your gut, there are a few things that can disrupt the balance of your gut and cause inflammation. Although it is important to know what you should eat, it's also important to know what you should not eat and/ or limit throughout the week. This would be your highly processed foods and sugar should definitely be limited throughout the week.
Ways to improve your gut physically:
Lowering stress levels
Let go of dead packed processed foods
Getting at least 7-8 hours so you don’t get sleep deprived
Exercising for 30-60 minutes a day is a great reboot to get your system moving.
Knowing that you have some information and resources on how to better improve your gut, make small changes and remember how we feel on the outside is a direct reflection of what is happening on the inside (your gut).
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