February 2018 Newsletter

Leaky Gut- Importance of Healthy Gut for Optimal Health (Part II)

In our previous newsletter, we talked about leaky gut- the risk factors and symptoms. In this part, we will learn about ways to heal a leaky gut and improve our digestive health.

Here are some useful tips:

• Eat foods that are considered prebiotics: the one that promotes growth of friendly bacteria’s in our gut. Example of prebiotic foods:

• Yogurt
• Kefir
• Kimchi
• Miso
• Tempeh
• Pickles
• Kombucha
• Add probiotics to your daily supplement list

Probiotics are the healthy gut bacteria in capsule or tablet form which has known to improve our gut health, alleviate allergies, reduce inflammation and known to improve some specific gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal pain or lactose intolerance. Side effects are extremely rare.

• Ditch the refined carbs and processed foods

Intake of these type of foods should be very minimum in order to preserve gut health. White bread, cakes, pastries, doughnuts, chips, ice creams, puddings or custard, white rice, most crackers, candy, pies, waffles- the list goes on, try to replace these with gut healthy fruits and vegetables.

• Eat whole foods
• Eliminate gut damaging toxins
• Stay away from NSAID’S- Motrin, Aleve or Aspirin
• Avoid alcohol intake
• Environmental toxins such as mercury, pesticides or BPA
• Avoid chronic stress

Chronic mental stress can undermine our immune system which can empower harmful viruses, bacteria, and parasites.

• Avoid animal products treated with harmful antibiotics and hormones
• Minimize antibiotic intake as much as possible.