With Christmas just around the corner and the world in Coronavirus crisis, it’s a good time to focus on the digestive system - our gut health. This part of our body turns the food we eat into fuel, making it one of the most important bits of kit we have especially when it comes to keeping our immune system in top form. So what can you do to keep yourself feeling good from the inside out?
One easy adjustment to make is keeping yourself well hydrated; many of us are not drinking as much fluid as we should be, so try to aim for around 1.5 - 2 litres a day. It isn’t just water that counts either - tea, coffee and juice can all be counted towards your daily total – just watch your sugar and caffeine intakes. Drinking enough ensures that your gut can soak up enough water as your food passes through and keeps it going smoothly on its journey.
Another way to make this journey easier is to include plenty of fibre in your diet. New recommendations say we are meant to get 30g of fibre every day, but most of us only manage around half of this. There are lots of foods, and two different types of fibre, which can help us to reach this target. Soluble fibre is the type we can get from the flesh of fruits, vegetables and beans as well as linseeds, oats, barley and rye. This type of fibre forms a sort of gel when it is digested, which helps to keep your food moving more easily through your gut. The other type of fibre is insoluble fibre, the type that we get from things like the skins of fruit and vegetables, seeds, nuts, whole-wheat bread, brown rice and bran. This type is not broken down by the body, but is instead used by the body along with soluble fibre to help your food move swiftly through your system. If you don’t each much fibre at the moment increase the amount slowly and drink plenty of water with it to stop any tummy trouble like bloating.
So that is what you can do to keep things moving through, but your gut also has some permanent residents that occasionally need a helping hand - millions of bacteria that help our digestive systems ticking over. There are two things we can do to make sure these bacteria can do their job. Firstly, we can adjust our diet to include things call probiotics, which improve the balance of these bacteria. Probiotics** are found in fermented milk drinks and some types of yoghurt, and there are also supplements available that contain them too. Probiotics can help to prevent an upset tummy caused by antibiotics and there is also some evidence to show that they can be useful at treating other problems such as IBS and constipation. Secondly, we can make sure they are well fed by including prebiotics in our diet. Prebiotics are the type of carbohydrate that our helpful gut bacteria use for energy. Eating foods rich in prebiotics, such as bananas, onions, garlic, chicory, artichokes and asparagus means that you will be keeping your helpful bacteria the fuel they need to function. All in all, think rainbow-coloured vegetables. The more variety, the better for your digestive system.
Hopefully these top tips can help you to keep your gut in top form, ready to deal with any bugs that may come your way.
Abbey Dunham
Nutrition writer
** Probiotics are generally safe for healthy people to take. However people whose immune systems do not work properly may be at risk so they should seek professional advice beforehand. This article is not intended to replace medical advice. If you are worried about changes in your digestive health you should speak to your doctor.