FOUR WAYS TO IMPROVE GUT HEALTH
“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food” - Hippocrates
‘Let food be thy medicine,” is a concept that has been lost in the healing of the western world. Nowadays, it seems like big pharma has pushed every non sensical drug to the public that probably have more side effects than the disease itself.
Unfortunately, I have witnessed the medical approach today to be managing symptoms rather than fighting disease. Think of it like this, imagine you have a broken spigot for the hose outside and it is flooding the side of your house. 1) Would you put your hand over the valve to keep the water from flowing out the spigot? No, even though that could work for a short term fix, you will have to pull your hand away eventually. 2) Would you use a bucket to stop the water from flooding the side of the house? No, because that bowl has a limit at which it will overflow and then you are back to a flooding problem.
Logic would say to go to the main and shut off the water. That would stop the yard from flooding thus allowing you to get a new spigot and replace it. That is the difference between treating a symptom versus treating the root cause of the problem. So answer me this, why is that people do not use logic when it comes to their own health. People do not look into the root cause of their own health problems.
“Worldwide, there is an estimated 17.9 million deaths per year due to Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs). The most important behavioral risk factors of heart disease and stroke are unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol. All of which you have complete control over.” This is a direct excerpt from the World Health Organization website. That is an astonishing amount of deaths per year for a disease that the best defense against is mainly in your control. We need to start looking first at what we put into our bodies that determine our health outcome.
There are many diseases out there that can be improved and reversed with a focus on the quality of foods we take into our bodies each day but beyond that it is not just the food quality anymore; it is also your ability to digest and assimilate those nutrients. Diving deeper, one of the most important foundations of proper digestion and assimilation is the gut lining.
The gut lining is important for your health because it determines what get’s absorbed into the bloodstream and what stays out. Unfortunately for many, this lining weakens to the point at which ‘holes’ have developed due to a poor lifestyle and nutritional habits. In this article I want to share with you four easy and practical ways to improve your gut lining for optimal digestion, assimilation and overall health.
The 4 Tips for Gut Health
Watch out for typical “food allergies” that can be tripping you up. Food intolerance occurs when eating a certain food causes an increase in the permeability of the single cell layer that protects your body. Great news, when limiting these following foods and create a plan you can rebuild your gut environment to improve inflammation. Watch out for these foods and evaluate how you feel when you remove or moderate them.
Peanuts
Tree Nuts
Lactose
Eggs
Soy
Gluten
Wheat
Citrus
Eat plenty of probiotic foods. Probiotics are a term for the beneficial bacteria that promote a healthy microflora in the gut. Try to eat probiotic foods every day, using them as condiments or snacks. Foods that have been fermented contain probiotics such as:
High Quality Yogurt (Grass Fed or Whole Milk Based or Icelandic)
Sauerkraut
Korean Kim Chi
Kefir
Miso
Kombucha Tea
Fermented Vegetables
Plan Meals around high quality protein, fruits and vegetables. Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables has a number of benefits for the gut:
Provides indigestible fiber that the beneficial bacteria live on
Provides antioxidant compounds that can reduce inflammation caused by a poorly functioning gut.
Provides an abundance of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, all of which can be depleted if you have been suffering from malabsorption
Promotes a diverse and rich gut environment
Try Resistant Starch. Resistant Starch is a form of fiber that we can’t digest so it passes through to the intestine and the microflora feed off it, helping anti-inflammatory flora to proliferate. Supplementing the diet with resistant starch improves gut health by promoting diversity in gut bacteria. Resistant starch is found in:
Raw Unmodified Potato Starch
Green Bananas
Oats
Raw and Cooked Potatoes
Cooked and Cooled White Rice
I hope this has empowered you today to start thinking critically about your health. Apply these four easy and practical tips into your day to begin the process of reversing your health and body from the inside out.
Steven Nickel provides a Tailor-Made Fitness Experience for the individual who wants to acquire high quality results. Providing Exclusive Personal Training, Made to Measure Coaching and Ready to Train Collections. To learn more Inquire Here or write to steven@stevennickel.com
