Introduction
Your gut health plays a crucial role in your overall well-being. If your gut health is affected, it will affect skin health, heart health, immunity etc. So a nutritionally balanced gut health diet impacts the microbial diversity in your gut, leading to improved digestion, better immunity, and enhanced mental health.
Here are 5 foods you must include in your gut health diet
1) Curd (gut health diet)
Curd contains live good microbes, that will prevent the growth of bad or disease causing microbes. It also strengthens the gut lining.This will prevent illness, diseases & will enhance your immunity. (1)
2) Banana (gut health diet)
Bananas contain prebiotics, which are non-digestible compounds that nourish beneficial gut bacteria or live microbes. Prebiotics act as food for probiotics, helping them thrive and improve gut flora balance.So prebiotics in banana helps in digestion process, allowing for better absorption of nutrients. It can also help alleviate digestive issues. (2)
3) Idli/dosa (gut health diet)
The cereals based functional foods are considered as an essential substrate to activate the growth of Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria.I) These 2 types of bacteria helps in constipation issue.II) it prevents the growth of pathogenic microbes like H pyloriThis is how to protects gut health & prevents the growth of bad microbes, thereby preventing gut related diseases. (3)
4) Water
More diverse the bacteria in the gut, better is your gut health. Drinking water helps in the production of diverse gut microbes. (4)
5) Chia seeds
Chia seeds are good source of soluble fibre. This soluble Fiber feeds beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract, which is absolutely essential for maintaining good flora nutrition and intestinal health. This how chia seeds helps in improving gut health.
Bottom line
Along with these 5 foods, make sure to work on your overall lifestyle. This includes having a healthy diet, exercising regularly, sleeping well (7 hours), reducing stress levels. Gut health is also closely related to stress levels. If your stress levels are on higher, it can deplete your good microbes. Also if your sleep cycle is irregular or if you don’t clock in good quality sleep or number of hours of sleep, then also it can cause diabalance in microbes in the gut. Both of these lead to poor gut health. So its important that along with diet, you take care of your stress & sleep to improve gut health.