Improve your gut health with these expert tips
Many of us are taking extra efforts to build our immunity at the moment. But along with that, it is also very important to maintain good gut health as it is paramount to overall well-being, including one’s immunity. Much like immunity, good gut health can also be developed over a period of time with proper dietary measures. Nutritionist Lovneet Batra recently gave insights into the right way to build gut health which includes a combination of prebiotics and probiotics.
What are pre and probiotics?
While probiotics are gut beneficial bacteria, prebiotics are food for these bacteria. Probiotics are gut-friendly bacteria, and can be found in foods like kefir and curd. Prebiotics, on the other hand, become food for the gut-loving bacteria and nourish them for good digestion.
Batra said, “If you feed these bacteria the wrong kind of foods, the gut balance gets messed up. For example, if you are on an antibiotic course, your gut flora is bound to get awry. The bad bacteria in the gut then grow manifold while the good ones diminish causing slower digestion. Eating balanced amounts of both pro and prebiotics can help ensure that you have the right balance of these bacteria, which should improve your overall health and help boost immunity.”
Good gut health practices
*Include prebiotics like onion and garlic, and probiotics like curd, root veggies like fermented carrots and beetroots, in the form of kanji, idlis and appams in your diet.
*Observe a no-salt day once a week and season your foods and drinks with lemon juice as much as possible. You will realise that you don’t really miss salt much.
*Completely cut out processed sugar and caffeine during a gut detox.
*Have more vegetable juice, soup, water-based fruits and veggies, coconut water in addition to the 2-3 litres of water you have.
*During gut detox, have very light, easily digestible and freshly cooked foods.
*Include alkalinity in your diet by having coconut water and coriander seeds water on an everyday basis.
