How to create a healthy gut – Part Three
Don’t eat a very low carbohydrate diet.
It is never good to follow extremes and go either extremely low or high carbohydrate. This sentiment is further echoed if you want a healthy bacterial balance. Certain bacteria within the colon require carbohydrates to survive. As we reduce our intake of carbohydrates these little critters also reduce in number.
This is not good as these bacteria eat carbohydrates we cannot digest and in turn produce a substance called butyrate. This feeds certain cells within our own body improving our own health and wellness and reduces our risk of certain cancers.
Therefore one of the first things is to avoid eating a low carbohydrate diet, instead keep a more balanced intake of all macronutrients.
Manage your stress
I won’t go into much detail here as this requires a whole article itself, but stress is very bad for gut health.
Eat lots of fruits, vegetables and resistant starch rich foods
Fruits and vegetables contain a lot of fibre that helps feed our bacteria and we should eat these whenever we can, but hopefully you are already doing that or will be soon. However a less known prebiotic that our bacteria love and in return helps us love them back is resistant starch.
Sometimes a small part of it passes through the digestive tract unchanged. In other words, it is resistant to digestion.
This type of starch is called resistant starch. Many studies in humans show that resistant starch can have powerful health benefits.
This includes improved insulin sensitivity, lower blood sugar levels, reduced appetite and various benefits for digestion. (4)
Basically resistant starch is kind of like a super-food for your microbiome. It helps send good bacteria numbers through the roof, giving huge benefits including weight-loss, better energy levels and a stronger immune system.
Many people eat a healthy diet and follow all the recommendations in this section already without really meaning to. Resistant starch is something very new to most people and could be the factor holding you back from having a super strong microbiome. Which in turn could reduce your appetite, aid weight-loss, improve your digestion and so much more.
I strongly recommend adding resistant starch to the diet. More and more evidence is emerging for its benefits to our bacteria and in turn us.
If you want to know how to add more resistant starch to your diet and find out the final keys to a healthy gut, read our final instalment by clicking here