Essential Tips To Keep Your Gut Healthy After The Holidays

We love the holiday season. The abundance of love, delicious food and festivities have us feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. But once we’re back to work and the first week of the new year is behind us, that warm and fuzzy feeling starts to feel more like sluggish and low.

We all tend to over-indulge during the holiday season, and while those cookies and heavy traditional recipes are too good to pass up, our gut could use a little break this January.

When your gut feels happy, you feel happy and more energized to tackle those New Year’s resolutions.

When you give a little love to your gut in the form of healthy foods, you can have that warm and fuzzy feeling all year long! Get your gut back in fighting shape for 2019 with a few simple changes to your diet. We promise it will be much easier than you think!

Increase Fiber

With all those heavy meals and sugary sweets this season, it’s possible you haven’t been getting much fiber in your diet. Remind your gut how much you love it by eating more fiber.

Your gut loves fiber. The fiber in the form of prebiotics feeds the good bacteria in your gut so they can do their job better and help you fend off sickness welcomed by imbalanced gut flora. Fiber and prebiotics also help your gut digest food more easily and aid in regular elimination.

Incorporate fiber into your daily diet by swapping your morning bagel for a bowl of oatmeal, eating plenty of leafy greens, and snacking on fibrous or prebiotic snacks like carrots and hummus, seed or lentil-based trail mix, or Rowdy Prebiotic Bars.

Eat Fermented Foods

Fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha, pickles, kefir, and sauerkraut contain gut-healthy probiotics that also improve overall health, including your mood! Probiotics work best when paired with prebiotics since prebiotics act as food for probiotics. Together they promote the production of good bacteria in your gut.

Fermented foods are easy to add to your diet. Throw some pickles on your sandwich, choose sauerkraut instead of fries at lunch, and drink a kombucha instead of coffee for your mid-afternoon pick-me-up.  

Eat Foods Containing Polyphenols

Polyphenols are essential to your health because they act like cops in your gut, searching for bad bacteria and taking them down. Polyphenols will help you get your gut back on track and keep it that way.

Ready for the greatest thing about polyphenols (besides the fact that they increase lifespan)? They are delicious! Foods highest in polyphenols include cloves, star anise, cocoa powder, dried Mexican oregano, flaxseed, dark chocolate, black elderberry, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Yum!

Take Your Vitamins

When it comes to reviving your gut, cover all bases. Replenish your body of essential nutrients and minerals that may be lacking from the not so whole foods we indulge in during the holidays. A daily multi-vitamin should do the trick!

Add Turmeric To Everything

While turmeric is a well-known versatile superfood commonly loved for its anti-inflammatory properties, turmeric also promotes gut health. Turmeric increases stomach mucus, which helps prevent damage against stomach acid and irritants. So if your stomach is still turning from too much meat, sugar, and refined carbohydrates, turmeric can help.

Take A Shot (of Apple Cider Vinegar)

Raw Apple Cider Vinegar contains plenty of enzymes that aid in digestion. The vinegar also helps promote the production of good bacteria. Raw Apple Cider Vinegar can be pretty intense, so dilute with some raw honey and some water if the taste (or smell) repels you. Remember to only choose Raw Apple Cider Vinegar too. It’s the only vinegar with these benefits.

Binge On Antioxidants

Antioxidants like vitamin C and E help reduce gut irritation and relieve symptoms associated with Crohn’s Disease. Show up for your gut and eat plenty of berries, nuts and dark leafy greens.

Experiment With Cleansing

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your gut is to give it a break entirely. A cleanse can be an excellent way to start fresh and allow your body to do some deep cellular cleansing without being occupied with digestion. Whether you choose to commit to a 7-day cleanse, try intermittent fasting, or stick to fluids for a few days, there are plenty of options to choose from. Cleanses aren’t for everyone, so do your research before committing to a cleanse.

What are your favorite tips or recipes to keep your gut healthy? Comment below!