They say, ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’. But there is another saying, which is probably not as popular as this saying, ‘The way of most diseases passes through the stomach’. 

“The stomach health, known as gut health, is the most important factor in our overall health”, says Lavleen Kaur, a renowned dietitian based in Chandigarh, North India. Also, to reduce the tummy fat, to tuck that paunch in, it is essential to give the inside of stomach a cleansing. Not only tummy fat, our skin health, heart functioning, liver functioning etc are directly related with our gut health.

Here are a few factors which affect our gut:

What are you eating?

With an overflow of information on the internet and social media, we all are aware of what is categorised into healthy and unhealthy. Refined foods are the foods which are highly processed. So much, that their nutritional value gets depleted. Also, to increase their shelf life, a load of preservative chemicals are added, which makes them unhealthy.

Very common examples are refined oils, refined salt being sold under the name of iodised salt, refined sugar which is used in every thing sweet or otherwise, refined flour in the form of maida (All Purpose Flour, also known as APF). All this is common knowledge, which we are also aware of, but we just cannot win in the battle against our taste-buds.

Consuming a diet which excludes refined, junk, oily and spicy food is the key to a wonderful gut health, but these are things which are there in all the tasty food. One needs to train one’s mind to lean towards healthy instead of tasty, to achieve a good gut health.

How much you are eating?

The portion size of our meals is particularly important. Our portion depends on our activity level, our stress level and our sleep. Overeating and undereating are responsible to a turbulence in our gut health. For our portion control, I suggest having meals in a traditional thaali, a compartmentalised plate. It is highly effective in controlling the portions and displaying all the components of food. You can take another serving or a half as per your needs. It gives a visual representation of meals and helps in establishing a connection between food and other senses as well. 

Another thing which helps in keeping the mind attuned to how much are you eating is by keeping the gadgets away while eating. If the mind is busy in gadgets like phone, tablet, or television, it will not be able to send signals to stop eating on time.

How are you eating?

When we eat in a hurry, and do not chew our food properly to break it into small particles, the stomach is not able to digest it properly. It sends it off to the small intestine, which after being unable to handle bigger food particles due to its fishnet structure, pushes it to the big intestine, which turns it into waste. In this whole process, our body is not able to absorb the nutrients from our food like calcium, iron etc. as a result, the cells of our body do not get proper nourishment.

Our mental state affects our eating too. For instance, when we are hungry, and angry, it becomes a situation of being ‘Hangry’. Situations like these prove to be destructive as when we eat being ‘Hangry’, our body is not able to digest it well. It may convert it into fat, or also cause digestion issues. Therefore, feelings and method of eating play a role in our gut health which cannot be ignored.

When are you eating?

No matter how healthy foods we eat are, if we are eating them out of sync with our body clock, that healthy food is bound to give a negative effect. Our body has a biological clock according to which every meal has a designated function. As an example, human body is designed in such a way that after a timely dinner, it releases a hormone called melatonin which regulates our sleep-wake cycles. 

If we take our dinner late, and in turn sleep late, the release of this hormone gets delayed and disturbed, leading to an unhealthy and lazy beginning to the next day. It becomes especially important then, to regulate and bring discipline into our life, to let our body run its normal course of repair and cleansing. That is what is going to keep our gut healthy.

Foods categories to help improve gut health

There is a certain category of foods, which helps in keeping our gut healthy. Here are those food categories:

• Probiotics: Probiotics are the colonies of good bacteria which live in our gut. The health of these bacteria determines our gut health. Therefore, it becomes important to rejuvenate probiotics by taking it in the natural form. The food items which involve fermentation are probiotic rich food. Some examples are curd, kanji (fermented drink of black carrot/ beetroot), buttermilk, fermented dishes like idli, dhokhla etc and our good old pickles and fermented chutneys.
• Anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant food: These are free radicals which are not produced in our body. They reduce the inflammation in our body, strengthen our gut and boost immunity. Foods like Amla (gooseberry), coconut in any form (take a slice or coconut water), Jaun Sattu (barley sattu) in buttermilk, lemon, raw seasonal vegetables and fruits.

After doing all of the above, there are a certain things/habits to avoid, to keep our gut healthy. Here are a couple of those:

• Too much caffeine: As mentioned in another article of mine, too much caffeine products like tea and coffee dehydrate our body, and produce tannins which prohibit the absorption of iron in our body. Low iron leads to a bad gut health. Therefore, if unavoidable, tea or coffee must be had on proper time, which is in the evening. Avoid taking it on empty stomach.
• Antibiotics: Antibiotics should be the last resort. They kill the colonies of good bacteria as well along with the bad ones. This is the reason doctors always prescribe the intake of B-Complex along with antibiotics, to keep the good bacteria intact. I would suggest, instead of reaching out for those easily available antibiotics, try natural remedies.

Final words

Food is not the only thing which can improve gut health. Exercise plays an important role. At home, one can try yoga aaasans like dhanurasan and superman pose etc are very beneficial. Having a good night’s sleep is very important. It is during the night when the body repairs itself and readies it for the next day’s functions.

But the most important factor in our gut health is our stress level. As discussed in the beginning of the topic, a relaxed mind is the best incubator for a healthy gut. Mind, body and soul are connected, therefore, stay healthy, feel healthy!