Sharing a secret.
For the month of June and part of July I battled with a serious infection in my colon that scared me a little. I was on some pretty heavy antibiotics and I am now doing ok. What I’ve learned most, is how important it is to keep our insides (our intestinal tract/gut) balanced and how important that balance is to our well being overall. Being pretty health conscious the last 7 or more years, I have paid attention to my body and I try to stay active by exercising on purpose a 4-5 times a week. However, my habits slipped in the past year. I had been eating less green and more processed and fast food. And I felt the difference.
Our bodies are made up of trillions of microbes- good and bad. Simply put, in order to have a healthy gut, we have to keep a good balance of them. What you eat plays a huge part in what bacteria thrive in your gut. So including a vast range of fruits, veggies, fiber rich foods will keep your gut performing at optimal levels and you reap the benefits of better health, stronger immune system and possibly weight loss.
Probiotics, the good microbes, typically live within the intestinal tract. They balance out the bad bacteria. And Prebiotics are foods that serve as food/fertilizer for probiotics
So here are some gut healthy fiber rich prebiotic and probiotic foods that I have decided to include in my diet as often as possible to keep my gut happy.
Prebiotics~Asparagus, bananas, chia seed, jicama, potato, yogurt, garlic, onions, berries, seaweed, oatmeal, beans.
Probiotics~ kimchi, kefir, pickles, miso, yogurt with live cultures, kombucha, apple cider vinegar.
This experience was a wakeup call for me. Basically, the habits I was maintaining before not only helped me with weight loss but also helped me to maintain a healthy gut.
And I am learning more and more about how to better take care of my body and my family. More to come!!
