Healthy Diet Amidst Corona
Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet especially these days can boost your immune system and help protect from diseases and reduce illnesses from infections like the COVID-19 and others.
Eating for a healthy gut cannot be any simpler so I will be sharing the main habits you need to adopt.
It is important to know that your GUT HEALTH impacts several different factors such as body weight, skin health, mood, immunity, allergy, inflammation in the body, nutrient absorption and bloating and digestion.
Gut health means we have a large diversity of bacteria and fungi in our intestine. On the other hand, low diversity of bacteria means one of two things: it triggers disease and inflammation and it reduces the number of beneficial microbes in the gut. Studies have shown that a low diversity meaning a low variety or types of microbes in your gut can cause a high inflammatory state in the body.
One of the main causes of diabetes is due to high inflammation in the body. High inflammation in the body can also trigger autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBS) or psoriasis of the skin.
Another important role of a healthy gut and a diverse gut flora is how it controls our sugar peaks. The less sugar peaks we have, the more our body maintains fat levels and weight. On This note, healthy gut flora has a lot to do with your body weight and helps you in your weight loss journey.
The Good news is that we can manipulate our gut flora simply with our daily diet.
- Eat more plants.
- Aim for a variety of fruits and vegetables per week. You get the most benefits when you eat more than 30 types of plants per week and this also includes nuts, seeds, herbs and spices.
- Eat more foods that are rich in polyphenols, those are powerful antioxidants that support gut health. Polyphenol rich foods include olive oil (preferably extra virgin), dark chocolate (try to aim for the 70% cocoa or more) and berries.
- Fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha and kefir.
- Few foods to AVOID will be artificial sweeteners and highly processed foods.
Hope you found the above information useful and it got you motivated to eat for your gut.