One of Hippocrates’ most famous saying is “all diseases begin in the gut” and the recent wave of scientific evidence supports this. Our gut health is the most important factor that determines our overall health. Unfortunately today’s modern lifestyle has wreaked havoc on this beautifully designed mechanism.

While some of us are really good at listening to our “Gut feelings”, often we forget to pay attention to its well-being. Sadly this leads to a wide range of diseases such as heartburn/gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), constipation, headaches, candida, autoimmune diseases, depression, asthma, skin disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity, and cancer.

The human gut consists of approximately 100 trillion microorganisms, also known as gut flora. They play crucial roles in digesting food, absorbing nutrients, producing vitamins, fighting disease, excreting toxins, and regulating hormones.

In fact, the majority of our immune system is in our gut. So if the ratio of good bacteria to bad ones (including yeast and parasites) is low, it can cause serious damage to our health.

Our gut flora can be thrown off balance by many factors such as:

• Medications such as antibiotics, acid blockers, birth control pills, and steroids
• Processed and refined foods
• Diet high in sugar and starches
• Environmental toxins and harsh cleaning chemicals
• Stress and lack of sleep

In addition to all the important roles our gut is involved in, our gut is also related to our brain health. It is considered as our “second brain” (also known as Enteric Nervous System) as it interacts with the brain (the Central Nervous System) sending signals that affect our mood and emotions.

It makes sense that in order to gain best health, both physical and mental, we need to listen to our gut. We need to eat a clean whole foods diet, exercise regularly, and adopt a healthy lifestyle with low stress and reduced environmental toxins.

To boost your gut health:

1. Eat whole foods: variety of vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains
2. Reduce or avoid sugar: since bacteria feeds on sugar
3. Avoid or eliminate allergens: identify if your are sensitive to any foods such as gluten, dairy, corn, yeast, soy, or eggs and see how you feel by cutting it out.
4. Eat fermented foods and drinks: natural live yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, and kefir are natural sources of probiotics
5. Don’t overuse medications: manage mild illness with natural remedies
6. Eat omega 3 fats: to reduce inflammation in the gut
7. Reduce the amount of environmental toxins: use homemade natural cleaning products
8. Stay hydrated: water helps bacteria and waste to move out of your system
9. Reduce your stress: practice yoga, breathe, meditate, or go for a walk
10. Probiotics: take good quality probiotic supplement

For my gut health, I drink kefir everyday and make sauerkraut. So how is your GUT FEELING?