5 Ways To Support Your Gut Health This Summer

It's summertime; it is important to take care of our bodies, especially gut health. Gut health is linked with different medical conditions. When your gut is not healthy, it may affect your mental health, weight and may give rise to other digestive disorders; which is why it is important to keep your gut healthy and happy.

Remember to keep in mind, good gut health is wealth. When your digestive system functions well, that will ensure the rest of your body is healthy. Here at Wholistically Healthy, we provide a variety of gut friendly meals for you to choose from.

What role does gut play in your body? 

Our gut is responsible for putting our body into working order. As it breaks down the foods we eat, our gut absorbs nutrients that support our body’s functions — from energy production to hormone balance, skin health to mental health, and even toxin and waste elimination.

What Is the Gut Microbiome?

Bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microscopic living things are referred to as microorganisms, or microbes, for short. Trillions of these microbes exist mainly inside your intestines and on your skin.

Most of the microbes in your intestines are found in a “pocket” of your large intestine called the cecum, and they are referred to as the gut microbiome. Although many different types of microbes live inside you, bacteria are the most studied.

In fact, there are more bacterial cells in your body than human cells. There are roughly 40 trillion bacterial cells in your body and only 30 trillion human cells. That means you are more bacteria than human.

What are the symptoms of an unhealthy gut?

Many factors affect your gut health, like your family and genetic history and how your body is built. There are also factors you can control, like stress and diet. When your gut functions properly, there’s a good balance of bacteria helping your body process and get energy from the foods you eat, clear toxins, fight against disease, and boost your mood. 

There are a number of ways an unhealthy gut might manifest itself. Here are some common signs:

•     Upset stomach
•     Unintentional weight loss
•     Sleep disturbances or constant fatigue
•     Skin irritation
•     Food intolerances

If you experience any of these various symptoms, it’s best to get checked out by a doctor to determine if your symptoms are due to an unhealthy gut or other factors. From there, you may also want to visit a naturopathic doctor who specialises in gut health.

How to keep your gut healthy this summer?

As we’re all experiencing the onset of summer and our diet slowly begins to adapt to the season, the threat of gastrointestinal problems looms. While the relaxed cooling diet is a pleasant change, we must take care of our gut health.

Keep yourself hydrated

It becomes significant to keep our hydration levels high. Dehydration slowly leads to the threat of a weakened immune system.

So it’s time to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day, including homemade lemonade and buttermilk. Although you must avoid caffeinated drinks like coffee and aerated drinks since your body can become dependent on these in the longer run.

The perfect structure of hydration is not only found in mineral water, but also in consuming fruits and veggies

Eat more vegetables and fruits.

Vegetables provide essential nutrients to our body and help to maintain general health. They also provide fibre to keep the gut healthy and help our body's systems run more effectively.

Bananas help stabilise gut bacteria and fight inflammation. Plus, they’re portable, delicious, and cheap. When your gut is out of balance, send bananas to the rescue: They’re great at combating diarrhea and settling upset tummies.

Hydrating Fruits:

•     Watermelon
•     Grapefruit
•     Strawberries

Hydrating Veggies:

•     Cucumber
•     Celery
•     Leafy greens

Soak up the sun

Did you know just ten minutes in the sun can provide you with plenty of vitamin D? Plan to spend a lot of time outside to increase your vitamin D levels for cellular growth and repair. Vitamin D plays a huge role in the communication between your body and your microbiome, which is crucial to your overall health and wellbeing.

Strengthen your immune system

You can start boosting your immunity by preparing magic decoctions like herbal tea or a kadha made from tulsi, cinnamon, black pepper, dry ginger and raisin – once or twice a day.

Try the good old delicious turmeric latte. Curcumin is the compound that turmeric has; it helps stimulate bladder to produce bile and facilitate the breakdown of large fat globules, thus improving digestion.

Exercise During the Cooler Parts of the Day

Exercise is an important part of keeping your gut healthy. Studies show that when you consistently do moderate workouts, your microbial diversity increases. This is important because that means you have more healthy strains of bacteria to keep your body working optimally.

Heat exhaustion can happen quickly so exercising when the sun isn’t at its peak is important to keep your body from overheating. Exercise in the morning or evening when the sun isn’t quite so potent.

Get Serious about Probiotics

Natural probiotics like yogurt, kefir or any fermented dish like idli can be friends for your gut. A probiotic supplement may help bring back your gut into balance. They help keep the gut friendly bacteria alive and healthy

Include pre-biotic products in your diet.

You may have heard of probiotics, but how familiar are you with prebiotics? Most cultures naturally include prebiotic foods in their diets, but Americans have managed to eliminate most healthy foods from our plates and that includes vegetables like asparagus, artichokes, and leeks.

Prebiotics are the only foods that feed good bacteria in our guts, and that good bacteria plays a role in improved digestion, lowered stress response, and lower risk for weight gain.

Let Us Support Your Healthy Gut This Summer

The summer is so full of fun and memory-making times. Don’t let an unhealthy gut slow you down! Wholistically Healthy is dedicated to helping the people of Perth support their gut through healthy meals and foods.

Overall, the human gut is a pretty complex place that can impact whole-body health. An unbalanced gut can lead to various health problems, while a healthy gut can benefit your heart, immune system, mood, brain, skin, and more. While the lifestyle changes above can be difficult to address on your own, they are certainly worth the effort.