Do You Have Happy Gut Bacteria?

Well, that’s a hard question to answer honestly. But there are many ways to help improve your gut bacteria. Why? Having a healthy gut can help with SO many different things! It’s still being researched but we know that it can have an impact on our immunity, overall health, mental health, metabolism…just to name a few.

I’m continuing my talk on IBS (since it’s still IBS awareness month) and specifically addressing our to get and maintain good gut health by using fermented foods. What are fermented foods you ask? These are foods that have gone through a fermentation process – a way to preserve foods. Through this process healthy bacteria and some digestive enzymes are created that can essentially help with digestion and help to rebuild good gut bacteria!

As mentioned in previous posts, IBS can be caused by many different things and one could be lack of good gut bacteria. Now as easy as it could be to say let’s just take probiotics, I like to focus on rebuilding foods, as it’s not recommended to be always be taking probiotics. We need to learn how to use foods and probiotics in their natural state to help our bodies out. Not that I am against the use of probiotics but they definitely have an appropriate time and place.

So what are some options for fermented foods? There are many!! The ones I’ve included in the picture are yogurt and kombucha! But there are foods like miso, soy sauce, tempeh, kefir and quark. Or from vegetables and fruits like sauerkraut, kimchi, pickled vegetables/fruit and even mead, beer and wine! But there are many other obscure options that you can choose from too!

But how much should you be eating to get the benefit? In fact, there isn’t a recommended amount set per day but ideally if you were to have a few servings per week, you’ll definitely see the benefits! What would like look like? Add a few forkfuls of sauerkraut or kimchi with a few meals. Have a couple glasses of kombucha tea mid-day or even. Just remember that cooking will kill the bacteria – so don’t heat them up! Also, there is always that saying of too much of a good thing can be bad, so don’t overdo it!
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What sort of fermented foods do you like?