How Can You Improve Your Gut Health?

Gut health with every bite of food you take, you can change your gut flora. But in the modern diet we tend to overfeed the bad guys. To put it simply, ‘bad’ bacteria tend to feed on sugar and unhealthy fats (yes, I’m talking about junk food!). The single most important nutrient that good bacteria need to thrive inside your Gut is fibre.

There are still steps you can take to restore your gut health flora:

• Whole plant foods are your bodies main source of fibre
• Vegetables
• Fruit
• Wholegrains
• Beans and legumes
• Nuts and seeds

Consider taking a probiotic supplement.
Colostrum6. This delicious superfood is designed to support complete upper and lower digestive health.

When you have plenty of fibre your gut can do its job – your digestion, mental function, even your mood will reap the benefits. We’ve talked about increasing the GOOD, but now we also need to eliminate foods that cause inflammation.

• Sugar Excess
• Caffeine
• Processed foods

Today’s ‘modern diet’ tends to be made up of highly processed, high-sugar, high-fat, low-fibre foods. The bad bacteria thrive on these types of foods. Unfortunately, you might be feeding the bad guys (and your taste buds), but you also starve the good, beneficial bacteria too.

There are three different types of fibre:

• Soluble fibre
  Soluble fibre is as the name suggests ‘soluble’ in water.  When mixed with water, it forms a gel-
  like substance and swells. Soluble fibre has many benefits, including balancing blood glucose levels and lowering cholesterol.
  What are good sources of soluble fibre? Oats and, legumes (peas, beans, lentils), barley, fruits and vegetables (especially oranges, apples and carrots). Soluble fibre – is soluble in water, eg oats, legumes, fruit and vegetables.

2. Insoluble fibre
   Insoluble fibre offers many benefits to intestinal health, including constipation. Most of the insoluble fibres come from the bran layers of cereal grains. Insoluble fibre – doesn’t absorb or dissolve in water. It passes through our digestive system close to its original form

Resistant starch
This fibre is not digested in the small intestine,
but the large intestine where it can assist in the production of good bacteria and improve bowel health. Resistant starch is found in undercooked pasta, under-ripe bananas and cooked, cooled potato and rice.