Spring has officially sprung, and the calendar tells us that we are emerging from our winter sleep and into a fresh new season. For many of us spring is associated with a new start, no matter what culture or tradition, spring tends to be the season of renewal and growth, often marked by a spring cleaning or a diet detox from all those winter comfort foods.
We all have indulged in the comfort foods of winter, and we may find that we emerge from winter a little bit more sluggish, a tad plumper, having enjoyed too many sweet delights, deep fried treats, and all the other fun foods. Unfortunately, these fun treats may, through time, contribute to a microbiome imbalance, such as bacterial overgrowth in our guts. Many of us may reach for over-the-counter supplement regiments, in an effort to detoxify our bodies, in the hope of a quick fix, or additional supplementation.
The uncomfortable truth is that when our microbiome is out of whack, we experience side effects associated with a weakened gut such as poor nutrient absorption. North Americans spend more than $30 billion a year on dietary supplements, such as vitamins, minerals, and herbal remedies. Given the poor Western diet that most of us consume, we live with a compromised gut, rendering these supplements useless, because our bodies cannot absorb their benefits. Do not get me wrong, I am by no means suggesting that supplementation doesn’t have a place in our lives, because it does. However, since we are absorbing only a small fraction of the nutrient content in these supplements, it seems that we are then just spinning our wheels and wasting our time and money.
Our gut health was not weakened overnight, we may have contributed to its compromise through an array of illnesses, prolonged or frequent use of antibiotics, poor diet, or even stress. What is important is to know that much like Rome wasn’t built in a day, and our gut health cannot be solved with a short cut nor in a two-day intensive-detox session. So, in this case the bad news is that we cannot heal overnight, but the good news is that healing one’s gut doesn’t have to be a drastic or draconian diet of deprivation. We can start incorporation simple changes that will greatly benefit both our guts, our moods, our immunity, as well as improvement in an overall well being.
Start with simple changes like:
- Incorporating probiotic and fermented foods into our diets, such as pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, yogurt, and tempeh. These fermented foods will boost the beneficial bacteria in the gut and will be a better source of bacteria if a diet is made up of a diverse range of fermented foods to ensure a wide-ranging variant of nutrients and beneficial bacterial to boost the microbiome diversity.
- Nourishing your gut microbiome with fiber-rich complex carbohydrates. Eating a diet enriched with prebiotic, which are nondigestible carbohydrates, allows probiotic bacteria to stimulate the growth of good bacteria in the digestive tract. Basically, eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, with wide-ranging variants of nutrients, tastes, and colours.
- Drink more water, ensuring that you are well hydrated. Drinking water during and after meals helps the body break down food for better nutrient absorption and digestion.
- Cut down on processed foods, sugar, and artificial ingredients such as sweeteners. Many of these substances compromise the health of our gut bacteria and destabilize the microbiome.
- Try and reduce stress by incorporating more physical activities and getting better sleep. Our gut is like our second brain, and it is sensitive to high amounts of stress as well as fatigue due to poor sleep. Exercise actually contributes to enriching microbial diversity, as well as promoting good heart and weight maintenance, as well as contributing to a good night’s sleep.
It is important to note that incorporating a few small changes to our diets and lifestyles gradually is a great first step in helping our gut microbiomes. Nutritional supplements can have great impact on our health, however if we do not make the effort to improve our gut health for overall better nutritional absorption, spending money on expensive supplementation is completely useless. Starting a slow spring cleaning by incorporating a better diet for our overall gut health is a great fist step in a lifelong journey of health and overall well being.
