The 5 Simple Steps to Better Gut Health

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Gut health is one of the most fundamental bases for overall health. As a celebrity food coach, I have worked with A-list actors, schoolteachers, chefs, doctors and more for over a decade. I learned a lot about how everything, from the hair on your head to your emotional state, starts deep inside your wonderful belly.

The intestinal tract has been shown to affect both physical and mental well-being. Diet, stress and medications can all mess up the balance of good and not-so-good bacteria inside our complex digestive ecosystem — and cause havoc. Candida, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and many other gut problems seem to become more and more prevalent.

I didn’t know what was happening to me when I started getting an itchy scalp, my knees were hurting, I was constantly tired, had gas and inconsistent toilet habits. Then in a single week, I saw both a Chinese medicine doctor and a Western doctor. They said the same thing: “You have Candida.”

It took me over a year to clear. The medication helped, but it kept coming back. Finally, I found a combination of taking probiotics and a natural yeast combating supplement that I took for around six months. I eventually had a calm, flat, comfortable belly, good energy and no more itches or pain. It’s never too early or too late to support your gut health. Here are a few ways.

1. Add in Probiotics — They are friendly bacteria that boost the immune system and digestive system, as well as the whole body. The term you’ve probably heard: “microbiome,” refers to a whole host of critters that live inside of us. If you get the right strains, probiotics are like the good guys in an action film. Especially if you have to take an antibiotic, a drug that kills all the bacteria, and probiotics help to repopulate your gut. Yogurt, unpasteurized pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso and kefir are all foods rich in probiotics that help keep your gut microbiome full of beneficial bacteria. Add prebiotics, which help with nutrient absorption and support the growth of probiotics. Apples, bananas, beans, oats and almonds are all examples of foods that contain prebiotic fiber.

2. Be a Diverse Eater — Several studies show that the easiest way to keep your gut full of beneficial bacteria is to eat a lot of different plant foods. One trick that helps me is to buy one new plant item a week that I haven’t had for a while, like turnips or raspberries. That keeps me from getting in a rut of eating the same few beloved veggies over and over. Beans are a versatile and easy item to incorporate into every meal. They are used in salads, burritos, spreads and a wide variety of main dishes.

3. Mix Up Your Water Too — Studies show that the type of water you drink will change your gut microbiome. Tap water versus well water can alter the composition of your gut. This makes sense since a lot of tap water contains chlorine, fluoride and other chemicals that are not added to well or spring water. We need water to help move things along and also to rehydrate particles from breads, dry cereals and other flour-based foods.

4. Get Plenty of Sleep — It’s fascinating to realize how much our microbiome affects everything, including the quality of sleep. Sleep heals, refreshes, and unfortunately, often gets interrupted more as we age. One study specifically targeted older adults and found that gut health is a contributing factor to better sleep, which in turn boosts immunity and overall health. It’s basically a win-win cycle.

5. Get Moving— You do not need to be an athlete or even athletic to get some exercise. You can go for walks or try something fun, like ping pong, to incorporate movement into your daily routine. Getting even moderate exercise helps the microbiome become more diverse, and that is what you need — to be full of all types of lively bacteria and organisms, so there is a balance of flourishing life inside you. We are all made up of smaller organisms that live deep inside of us, and when they are not happy, we are not happy. Here is a recipe to try that is happy food for gut health.