Good To Your Gut: 5 Steps To Improving Your Gut Health
Chances are if you’re reading this, you’re ready to make a change. A change that will – and now we’re not being dramatic – completely impact your life for the better. Ooof, a big statement we know… but trust us, the importance of gut health is not to be underestimated. So before we dive into the juicy part, let’s have a quick catch up on why we should be looking after our gut.
An unhappy gut can have a huge effect on your overall health and wellbeing. It can cause bloating, acid reflux, constipation, as well as countless other side effects that stop us feeling like ourselves. It’s also estimated that around 80% of our immune system and 90% of our body’s serotonin (the happy hormone) is produced in our digestive tract. So when our gut thrives so does our mind and body.
We’ve put together 5 key steps that have helped us achieve a more balanced, healthy gut – and it’s high time we shared them!
Food For Thought
First things first, food. Now before we get into it, don’t worry, we’re not going to preach about staying away from cake or cheese or whatever else floats your foodie boat. In our opinion, if you want the cake, eat the cake. But what we will say, is keep things balanced. Don’t deprive yourself of the foods you love, but equally make sure you’re fuelling your body and the bacteria inside, with the nutrients it needs.
Your gut is home to trillions (yes trillions!) of bacteria. A healthy gut has a really diverse community of microbes and they each prefer different foods – fussy we know. The best way to fuel your gut’s bacteria is to eat a wide range of plant-based foods, so don’t just stop at fruits and veggies. Legumes, nuts, pulses, whole grains, even herbs and spices all count. So get creative with your cooking.
Although we’ve established that variety is key, there is one thing in particular that you should be making sure you get plenty of. Guessed it? Drum roll please… it’s fibre – glorious, glorious fibre. A diet rich in fibre literally feeds and makes the bacteria in our gut thrive. While 30g of fibre per day is recommended, most of us tend to only get around 19g. So it’s well worth upping your intake. We recently partnered with Cru8 – an organic Keto food brand who are just as fanatic about fibre as we are. They’ve crafted a tasty range of breads, crackers and sweet treats designed to fuel the body with quality ingredients and, of course, fibre. To look (and drool) over their products, click here.
Get Up & Go
Now we’re all well aware of the positive benefits of regular exercise. Of course, it’s great for strengthening our bodies and calming the mind, but it’s also a fantastic way to keep your gut happy and healthy too. Those bacteria love it when we get moving, and in general, it’s proven that exercise increases your microbial diversity.
Exercise can take many shapes and forms, but at Naked Biotics HQ we’re pretty partial to a spot of yoga. So partial in fact, that we have our very own yoga studio – Hot Yoga House! Yoga is an excellent way to build all-round fitness and flexibility whilst keeping our gut happy at the same time. To learn more about Hot Yoga House, click here.
Make Time For Your Mind
Did you know that your gut and your brain are in constant communication with one another? It’s actually pretty darn difficult to get those two chatterboxes to shut up! What goes on in the gut will likely affect the brain, and what goes on in the brain will likely affect the gut. So it’s high time we started taking this relationship seriously.
Stress can have a huge impact on the gut. For some of us, stress can slow down digestion, causing bloating, pain and constipation. While for others it may speed it up, resulting in (you guessed it) diarrhoea.
We can’t stress enough (pardon the pun) how important it is to make time for your mind. Allow yourself to relax – read that book you’ve been putting off, run yourself a bath, take a well deserved early night. Your gut and your mind will thank you for it.
Drink Up!
Constipation aggravation? We’ve all been there. Chances are, you aren’t drinking enough water. If your body doesn’t have enough fluid, stools can become hard making them difficult to pass (not fun). High levels of hydration have also been shown to have a beneficial effect on the mucosal lining of the intestines, as well as on the balance of good bacteria in the gut.
It’s recommended that we drink at least 1.5 litres of water each day, which is roughly 6-8 glasses. So if you’re not sipping enough of that sweet, sweet H2O, consider this your formal warning!
Daily Dose Of Life
As much as we can physically try our best to eat well, hydrate, exercise and practice mindfulness, for many of us it doesn’t quite seem to cut it. It can be difficult to get all the good bacteria we need from our daily routines. Scratch that. It’s really difficult. Perhaps this may not have been the case 100 years ago, but lifestyles have changed, eating habits have changed and the way we farm has changed too. So despite our best efforts, sometimes food and a healthy lifestyle don’t quite hit the mark.
So we put the work in.
We spent years developing a product that harnesses the power of bacteria and botanicals to deliver you a natural answer to gut health. After fermenting for 21 days using our NBTP (naked body temperature process), each bottle of Naked Biotics contains 12 strains and multiple classes of live bacteria, plus specially selected herbs, ready to survive and grow in your gut.
Easy to take in its liquid form – just shot straight or add to your favourite cold drink – it’s fermented so the bacteria are resilient, strong and equipped to support your body from the inside out.
Gut To The End Already…
Ok, so you’ve made your way to the end of what can only be described as a blog post as long as your large intestine, now it’s time to actually get down to gut business. We’ve given you the tips and tricks, now it’s time to turn our words into actions. To begin your Naked Biotics journey and to learn even more about what we do, take a scroll through our website and get ready to start living your best, gut-friendly life.
bethcarys 