First, an apology for the delay in posting; my computer died on me and was in the shop for one week.
We’ve written about our microbiomein previous posts. As you will remember, our microbiome is a colony of 100-300 trillion microorganisms that form our immune system. And 70 % is located in our gut.
As spring-cleaning time is upon us, I thought it would be a good idea to do this for our gut health as well. After a winter of being cooped up indoors, fighting off colds, and reaching for more comfort foods, your microbiome can get thrown out of whack. So, it’s a good time for getting back to max gut health.
Eating a well-balanced diet, rich in prebiotics as well as probiotics will help to reset, build and support your microbiome.
Your microbiome affects bodily functions from health, weight, digestion, disease prevention, and more, and the research is really only just beginning.
So, what should you eat?
- Probiotics
These contain the healthy bacteria in your gut and should be consumed daily.
- Home-made yogurt
- Kombucha
- Kefir
- Fermented vegetables
- Prebiotics
These are the foods that probiotics feed on. So, keep your probiotics well fed, to have a healthy gut.
- Jerusalem artichokes (pictured above)
- Greens
- Artichokes
- Garlic
- Onions
- Leeks
- Berries
- Apples
It’s a good idea to consume your prebiotics and probiotics together; then we call them symbiotic.
What foods should be avoided?
Start by limiting foods that don’t have functional health benefits like:
- Alcohol
- Caffeine
- Sugar
- Foods that may inflame you like grains, dairy, legumes
Our spring-cleaning is this simple, and definitely worth doing.
Remember to stay hydrated.
That’s it for now; see you all next time.