Summer is fast approaching, and the new season can be a great time to switch up or improve your eating habits. For many people, there’s a new focus on gut health, and eating the kind of foods that can improve it.
Gut health refers to keeping your microbiome healthy and varied, and you can do this by eating a wide range of nutritious food. But if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to give it a boost, there’s one label you should look out for at the supermarket when doing your weekly shop. The experts at Beneden Health say this one switch can work wonders for your gut microbiome.
Abir Hamza-Goodacre, registered nutritional therapist, said: “The gut microbiome is an ecosystem, and it is important that all the different microorganisms within it are balanced.
“When it comes to supporting this diverse ecosystem and looking at your gut health, it is never just one thing in isolation.
“Given the gut is so intrinsic to your overall wellbeing, you have to look at your wider lifestyle and what could be affecting your gut health.
“While the gut is complex and a multitude of factors impact an individual’s digestive health, there are fortunately a range of changes you can make to your lifestyle and diet to support a balanced gut.”
One simple dietary change to make for your gut is to buy natural and organic food as much as you can.
By opting for organic where possible, you can reduce your gut’s exposure to chemicals from the environment and food, which can cause an imbalance within and upset the microbiome.
Organic food can often be more expensive than its non-organic equivalents.
So if you’re on a tight budget, researching and prioritising foods that are most likely to contain pesticides, while comparing prices across supermarkets, can help you find the best deals.
As well as shopping organic, some of the best foods you can eat to support gut health is fermented food.
Eating fermented food can help boost the number of good bacteria in your gut, known as probiotics, ultimately helping your digestive system.
Examples of fermented foods include plain yoghurt, kefir, kimchi, miso, and tempeh.
These foods are not only great for your gut, but they taste good too, and they’re versatile enough to be used in so many different dishes – from curries and stir-fries to noodle and rice dishes.