Why Should We Focus On Keeping Our Gut Healthy?

There’s a lot of talk about gut health these days, and for good reason. Gut health affects so much more than just your gut. Eating the right foods, exercising, and being mindful of stress can help keep your gut working properly. When people eat a Standard American Diet, it’s often full of processed foods that are devoid of nutrients. This can negatively affect gut health, so it’s important to be aware of the quality and quantity of the foods you’re putting in your body to properly fuel it. There are many reasons we should focus on keeping our guts healthy.

Digestion and Proper Absorption of Nutrients

When our gut flora is off balance, our digestion can be negatively affected. Digestion is such an important process, but when you’re not digesting food properly you may not be absorbing nutrients from your food. This can lead to a  host of health problems. Taking nutritional  supplements can be a good idea if you’re working with a knowledgeable practitioner,  because they will recommend ones that are targeted specifically for your issues.  There are supplements that can help support your digestion and gut health, and other ones that can also fill in nutrient gaps. 

Support Your Immune System

This may be a surprising fact, but a large percentage of your immune system is located in your gut. The intestines host a large amount of mostly beneficial bacteria, and there is tissue located in your gut that also helps to fight off microbes. Probiotics are the good bacteria needed to help balance the microbiome. When there’s a foreign invader, the immune system kicks into overdrive to fend off the intruders. It’s important to make sure that your body has enough beneficial bacteria and that your gut is healthy enough to support your immune system. A fiber-rich diet helps to support your microbiome,  as the microbes survive on fiber that our own cells can’t digest. Eating plenty of fiber-rich plant foods like yams, apples, and broccoli can help give the gut the fiber it needs to stay balanced. 

Mood and Mental Health

The bacteria in our guts respond and produce the neurochemicals serotonin, GABA, and dopamine as well as many others. When the gut bacteria balance is off, people can suffer from mental health problems or mood disorders. It’s important to make sure that the gut is healthy to have a positive effect on mood and overall mental health. Have you ever been in an experience where you felt nauseous as a result of the interaction? When you’ve been nervous, have you felt the butterflies in your stomach? The gut-brain connection is real, and there are nerves that communicate back and forth between the two. A properly balanced gut can send information to the brain, and the brain can send signals to the gut. 

Optimize Your Gut Health

Working on improving your gut health is never going to be a bad thing. Whether you feel your digestion is optimal, or you know you have gut issues, seeing a knowledgeable practitioner can really help you get your gut health in order. We enjoy serving clients from the Greater Gulf Coast including Pascagoula, Mississippi, Pensacola, Florida, Gulf Shores and Mobile, Alabama.  Give us a call today at The Gut Authority to start working on your gut health!