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Put down the bag of chips, cup of fries, cupcake or whatever other types of junk food you love oh so much. While your taste buds may be saying “yes, yes, yes” to processed foods filled with sugar, bad fats, preservatives and other additives, your gut is screaming “NOOOOO!”
Your gut’s microflora is made up of bacteria and other microorganisms (but don’t worry, it’s not all bad). When the gut is balanced with approximately 80% good bacteria and 20% bad bacteria, your gut can function properly. When you invite processed foods into your body, though, your gut flora risks becoming imbalanced with too many bad guys. This can lead to serious health issues, such as: inflammation, IBS, colitis, food intolerance, aches and pains, allergies, acne, depression and more.
Since about 80% of your immune system located in your gut, it’s no wonder processed foods can take a huge toll on overall health. Check out the infographic below to see how and why processed foods negatively impact your gut and overall health (article continues below):
Diet is very important. The ultimate goal is to eliminate processed foods altogether. While it’s unrealistic to quit processed foods cold turkey, try swapping out some processed foods with organic fruits, vegetables and nuts. If you eat meat, make sure to buy hormone and antibiotic-free meat.
Along with real foods, eat probiotic-rich foods.
The only way to rebuild your gut flora is to ingest probiotics. The Gut Health Project recommends adding probiotic-rich foods to your diet and taking a daily high-quality probiotic supplement.
There are a number of probiotic-rich foods that you can add to your diet, including:
Don’t rely solely on probiotic-rich food to improve your gut health, though. In reality, the amount of probiotic-rich foods you would need to eat in order to get sustainably great results is daunting. These foods tend to be expensive, hard to find, and not to everyone’s taste preference
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