Trust Your Gut!

Why should you pay attention to your gut? And how can you improve your gut health? Read on to discover how gut health is connected to your general health and well-being and to understand ways you can protect it!

Gut wrenching, sick to my stomach, stomach in knots . . . whenever you feel anxiety, worry, or nervousness, it’s usually described by referencing stomach distress. Likewise, the phrases gut instinct, gut wrenching, takes guts, and go with your gut show moments of heightened intellectual ability. This is because of the brain-gut connection. Studies show that keeping your gut healthy helps to keep your cognitive skills sharp¹.

Your gut breaks down food and sends nutrients off to the blood stream where it delivers those nutrients to the rest of your body. When the flora of your gut is out of balance, the nutrient delivery system fails. Paying attention to your gut can help you to understand if there are underlying problems in your body. While occasional digestive distress is normal, chronic digestive trouble such as nausea or bowel troubles could mean that there are health concerns that need to be addressed.

Signs of Gut Trouble

From your energy production and skin to your mental health and hormone levels, your gut plays a role in so many different processes within the body. Paying attention to warning signs in your body can be helpful in knowing that you might need to restore balance to your gut health and help you solve those physical stresses.

• Chronic upset stomach
• Fatigue
• Unintentional or unexplainable weight loss or weight gain
• Food sensitivities or intolerances
• Chronic headaches
• Confusion

How to Improve Gut Health

Improving gut health means allowing the billions of “friendly” bacteria to flourish. Think of them like soldiers ready to do battle.

The impact of bacterial and microflora can have many health benefits and plays a critical role in health and disease prevention. Specific types of digestive bacteria work to regulate your immune and inflammatory responses, while others aid digestion and nutrient absorption by breaking down your food².

Fiber

Eat high-fiber foods such as fruits and vegetables. Fiber feeds the good bacteria in your microbiome and helps with digestion and healthy elimination.

Probiotics

Adding probiotics to your diet through fermented foods and supplements can add a preventative layer to your health. Research shows that New Zealand athletes had about 40 percent fewer colds and gastrointestinal infections when they took a probiotic compared to when they took a placebo³. Sunwarrior’s Probiotics contains both probiotics and prebiotics to enhance your digestive health and support the immune system. And if you’re looking for something that checks all the boxes, Sunwarrior’s Lean Meal has probiotics as well as fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein. It truly is a meal on-the-go!

Water

Drinking water aids digestion by helping to break down foods into usable nutrients that are easily absorbed

Exercise

As the song by Reel 2 Reel goes: I like to move it move it! Getting plenty of exercise helps move food through your digestive system and creates healthier bowel movements.

Reduce Stress

You know how we said that anxiety, worry, or nervousness is usually described by referencing stomach distress? There is a reason for that. Stress actually causes a disruption in the healthy bacteria found in the gut.

By staying hydrated, getting exercise, reducing stress, and eating a diverse range of foods with plenty of prebiotic fiber and Probiotics, you can restore balance in your gut and promote a healthy microbiome. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to trust your gut!

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4367209/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3983973/
3. https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-019-0329-0