Want to avoid having disease in the future? Tired of having bloating, headaches, and stomach issues after eating your favorite meals? Want to benefit from improved mental clarity and health overall? This isn’t some ad for a magic pill or recipe, but a call for you to switch to maintaining a new lifestyle that boosts your chance for having a healthy microbiome. A microbiome makes up the variety of healthy gut bacteria that keeps the digestion system strong. Anti-inflammatory foods contain antioxidants, minerals, and other important bacteria that improves the efficiency and strength of our immune system. It promotes the popular “gut health” we are hearing about so much in the media.

Not everyone knows that exactly gut health even means, and I sure didn’t even a year ago. Luckily, I’ve compiled the best tips for building up a microbiome that helps keep your body strong. You’ll want to learn these tricks that are easy to implement into your daily schedule so you benefit from less digestion issues, lower risk of disease, and even weight loss when accompanied with consistent exercise!

Building A Healthy Microbiome

Common diseases like diabetes, heart disease, or irritable bowel syndrome can be traced back to having an unhealthy microbiome. Eating many inflammatory foods can further irritate our body and lower its strength to deal with dangerous agents from the outside environment. At the end of the day, all we have is our health is make sure you eat well and stay mindful of your nutrition in general. The first step to take is to cut out highly processed and sugary foods that provide you zero nutritional value. While you can eat these foods from time to time for a treat, you should eat natural and organic produce the majority of the time so your microbiome is supported. Sugar causes our digestion to go into overdrive and has no nutritional benefit at all. Sugar also leads to mental crashes shortly after a huge amount is eaten. Eating enough vegetables, fresh fruits, lean meats or dairy (if you’re vegan), and healthy fats is a great place to start. These foods are available at any grocery outlet and you don’t have to break the bank at a place like Whole Foods to get your fresh foods. After you gather your materials, start cooking more meals at home to save money and limit the amounts of oils and sodium that are added to it. Most restaurants secretly add ingredients to boost flavor that skyrocket the amount fats and sodium total.

Another basic rule to follow is to stay hydrated. Drinking at least seven to eight glasses of water each day so your body can work well during the day and night. Our bodies are made mostly from water so having enough of it is crucial for us to stay healthy. Being short on water can cause dehydration effects like headaches, aches, low energy, increased appetite, and poor sleep. It’s a simple but crucial building block to helping our bodies fight inflammation and disease. Drink your black teas, red teas, and green tea as well if you want more flavor during the day. Make sure you limit the sugar and milk you use in it and never order the “regular” from restaurants because it contains lots of dangerous additives.

Adding Probiotics

Increasing the amount of probiotics you eat will also help your microbiome stay healthy and maintain a beneficial variety of bacteria to aid digestion. They may improve digestive health, reduce depression, promote heart health and some evidence suggests they may even give you better-looking skin. Some foods that have probiotics naturally include Greek yogurt, kefir, and soy milk. These foods come a wide variety of flavors and types of milks made from so you can easily add them to your diet. Just remember that any recipe that requires heating the yogurt in any way is going to kill off its good bacteria, so stick to no-cook recipes for the most gut benefits. Other great foods that contain probiotics include kombucha and pickles because of their fermented prosperities. In the past few years kombucha has skyrocketed in popularity and comes in an assortment of brands to choose from. As for fruits or veggies, raw apples, bananas, asparagus, beans, artichokes, garlic, onions, and leeks are all great sources.

If you don’t like to eat any of these choices, you can also take a daily probiotic supplement by pill or powder form to aid your gut health. Make sure these supplements are organically made and come in a flavor you like! You can then taking them with water in the morning or add the powder to a daily smoothie or parfait that is packed with essential nutrition for your body. If you have any more questions, consult your doctor and do some research on your own for the best brands to try in this category.

Maintain A Microbiome For Life

To get the results you want, make sure to stay consistent and be more mindful of what you’re eating and drinking during the day. Make sure you keep in mind of what is in your beverages and foods when you eat out and take enough vitamins and minerals throughout the week. Don’t overlook important things like drinking enough water and sleeping at night because allows our body to continue to work well. If something is lacking in one of those categories, make the necessary changes in your lifestyle so your health is put first. Limit your wild nights of drinking, cut out your chocolate cake desserts, and buy more organic produce for starters so your body can have a break. Just listening to your body makes a world of a difference!

Eat natural foods for a healthy microbiome.