Are you tired of feeling sluggish and bloated? Do you want to improve your overall wellbeing and lift your energy levels? Then you may need to add some gut health supplements to your daily routine. These powerful allies can help to revolutionise your gut health and transform your life.
Gut health plays a crucial role in our overall wellbeing. When our gut is out of balance, it can lead to a host of issues, including bloating, constipation, and even mood swings. If you are suffering from these issues, then regularly including gut health supplements in your day can help to revitalise your wellbeing.
Gut health supplements work to restore the balance in your microbiome. They can provide the essential nutrients, beneficial bacteria and more that your gut needs to thrive. Say goodbye to digestive discomfort and hello to a healthier, happier you.
Whether you're looking to improve your digestion, support your immune system, or simply feel better overall, gut health supplements are the answer. They offer a natural and effective solution to support your health journey.
Take control of your health today and experience the transformative power of gut health supplements.
The microbiome is the community of all microbes, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and more, that naturally live on and in our bodies and the environment they inhabit. This also includes the molecules they produce, structural elements, metabolites and more (1).
The microorganisms are dynamic and change in response to a host of environmental factors, such as exercise, diet, medication and other exposures. A well-functioning microbiome is important for digestion, immunity, fighting off pathogens, and even making key vitamins that are essential to health.
A balanced microbiome rich in a diversity of friendly microorganisms helps to enhance our physical and mental wellbeing. Research has highlighted the links between better gut health and a variety of conditions, including mental health issues and physical illnesses. If the gut is out of balance this can be reflected in skin health, mental health, immunity and more.
The foods you eat significantly impact your gut health. That’s why, if you are looking to support gut health, it’s essential to be mindful of your intake of processed foods and excess sugar. These foods can upset the balance in the gut, leading to a decrease in beneficial bacteria and an increase in harmful ones. This could result in digestive issues, inflammation, and even affect your immune system.
Consuming too much sugar can feed harmful bacteria and yeast in your gut, encouraging them to multiply. This can disrupt the balance of your gut microbiome, leading to potential digestive problems and other health issues (2).
To support gut health focus on incorporating more whole foods into your diet – fresh fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains are all fantastic choices. These foods are not only healthier overall, but they also help support a healthy and balanced gut microbiome.
The health of our digestive system is also profoundly linked to our mental and emotional state. The relationship between the brain and the gut, often called the gut-brain axis, means that when we’re stressed, our gut feels it too. Chronic stress can upset the balance of bacteria in our gut, leading to a host of potential digestive issues and negatively impacting our overall gut health (3).
Managing stress, therefore, is crucial for maintaining a healthy gut. There are numerous ways to approach stress management, and what works will depend on your personal preferences and lifestyle. Regular exercise, sufficient sleep, and a balanced diet can all contribute to reduced stress levels, but it’s also beneficial to include some specific stress-reducing activities in your routine.
Probiotics are helpful bacteria and yeasts that modulate the balance and activity of your own microflora in transient or more long-lasting ways, depending on the species you take and the strength of the dosage. Probiotics may be also consumed naturally through the consumption of lacto-fermented probiotic foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi and beet kvass.
They contribute to health by temporarily changing the balance of the gut microbiome, theoretically crowding out bad bacteria in favour of beneficial bacteria. They can help to improve digestive and immune system health, manage mood disorders, improve skin health and more.
Prebiotics are non-digestible food components that serve as fuel for beneficial gut bacteria, contributing significantly to a healthier gut and overall wellbeing. They are made of indigestible carbohydrates and can help to promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria, strengthen the immune system, improve nutrient absorption and more.
Add prebiotic-rich foods like onions, garlic, artichokes, and bananas to your daily diet or consider a prebiotic supplement.
A symbiotic is different from a probiotic and a prebiotic in that alongside multiple strains of beneficial bacteria, it comes with a complete environment to nourish the digestive terrain. This helps the bacteria within to thrive, much like probiotic foods do.
A symbiotic is highly concentrated, food-based nourishment providing an array of phytonutrients, enzymes, peptides, polyphenols and other plant compounds that work together to optimise the beneficial bacteria’s anti-inflammatory and immune-regulating effects.
Living Nutrition’s Your Flora Symbiotics are based on a specially developed kefir-kombucha formulation that draws on traditional fermented medicines. By supplying the digestive environment with naturally fermented nutrition that the body can recognise and make full use of, Your Flora Symbiotics encourage healthy balance throughout the microbiome.
Bone broth has a rich history of being used as a digestive tonic and immune supporter, dating back over 2,500 years. It is an easy way to get key digestive nutrients into the diet, and it is often recommended as part of gut supporting protocols.
Bone broth is rich in glutamine which helps to support the gut lining and acts as an energy source for the epithelial and immune cells in the gut. Studies have shown it can protect the gut lining from becoming permeable and heal the intestinal barrier.
Other amino acids in bone broth like arginine and proline help to build tissue in the digestive tract and support intestinal health, and glycine also helps to stimulate the production of stomach acid which is vital for digestion. The glycosaminoglycans in bone broth continually restore the intestinal lining which is critical for proper functioning of the digestive and immune system.
Love for our bone broth supplements:
LISA MITCHELL about Organic Bone Broth - Pure (Unflavoured)
“I've have been having serious inflamed symptoms in my stomach. The taking of this bone broth has helped so much when taken on empty stomach in morning.... It tastes great and is very wholesome.”
Hannah Evans about Bone Broth Protein Powder – Chocolate
“I absolutely love this bone broth - a high protein drink that I can have on the balcony in the morning sun. It’s the perfect way to start my day!! I am focusing on gut healing at the moment, so this drink is excellent as it’s full of collagen and amino acids to help my gut lining integrity. I recommend this to all my friends because I love it so much!”
Omega-3 supplements are known for their wide-ranging health effects, and they can offer benefits for digestive health too. Studies have found that higher intakes of omega-3s are linked with greater microbial diversity.
Researchers have found that, besides possibly increasing microbial diversity, omega-3s also help increase the production of anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids. In addition, other studies indicate that omega-3s may help maintain the integrity of the intestinal wall and interact with host immune cells (4).
A great way to optimise gut health is through consuming a fibre-rich diet. Fibre is important for relieving constipation, maintaining bowel health, feeding the intestinal cells and more.
There are two types of dietary fibre:
Add these fibre rich foods to your diet to optimise your gut health.
Fermentation is an ancient practice; it is nature’s way of converting basic foods into nutritional powerhouses. Fermentation was a dietary staple of all cultures throughout the world, making up to 30% of dietary intake. Fermentation is an excellent way to preserve food and drinks, but it offers many more benefits for health.
During the fermentation process microorganisms convert nutrients into highly active and easily digestible forms, as well as creating a vast array of additional nutrients that support our health. The enzymes produced via fermentation also assist us in digesting, absorbing and utilising the nutrients in food.
Fermented foods are rich in beneficial microbes, enzymes, and nutrients to support gut health, they are linked to an increase in healthy gut bacteria and reduced inflammation in the gut.
Because fermented foods contain living organisms, it is best to add them to recipes after cooking, try:
When we talk about hydration, it’s more than just quenching your thirst – it’s essential for your gut health. Water helps break down the food you eat, making it easier for your body to absorb the nutrients. This assists the beneficial bacteria in your gut, ensuring they have ample resources to perform their functions.
A lack of adequate hydration can lead to issues like constipation, which hinders the smooth movement of food through your gut. By drinking enough water, you ensure your digestive system can effectively process food and expel waste, a key aspect of improving gut health.
Dehydration can also cause acid reflux, leading to heartburn, bloating, and discomfort. In severe cases, dehydration can also trigger irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and associated symptoms.
There are many drinks we can include in the diet to support gut health. From teas to fermented beverages, these are some of our favourite gut health drinks:
Over recent years the gut and the microbiome has been a prominent area of research and discovery, but the importance of gut health is nothing new. Hippocrates stated, many hundreds of years ago that "all disease begins in the gut."
Modern day lifestyle, including changes to our environment, toxins, diet and stress takes a toll on the body, leading to chronic inflammation, and an imbalance of gut flora and the gut environment.
The gut is the foundation for many different systems in the body, and it’s thought that a healthy gut is critical to overall health. If the gut isn’t balanced then this can be reflected in skin health, mental health, immunity, and more.
Making small changes to your daily routine with addition of gut health supplements, foods and drinks can make a big difference to your overall health and wellness.
Find our range of supplements for digestive health, including our organic bone broth powders and digestive collagen for gut health.
References:
1: https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-020-00875-0
2: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7284805/
3: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7213601/
