Posts Tagged ‘Gut Health’
Monday, February 27th, 2012
I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day; I bet that feels like ages ago now…
How was Shrove Tuesday? Did you make loads of pancakes for breakfast, lunch or dinner? I bet the children were really excited about making them…
With all the indulging coming to an end, it’s time to give your body a healthy kick start again with a healthy balanced diet, giving you a healthy digestive system!
- Eat plenty of fruits and veg – Fruit and vegetables contribute to a healthy and balanced diet. They’re an excellent source of dietary fiber, which helps maintain a healthy gut and prevent constipation and other digestive problems. They are also a good source of vitamins and minerals, including foliate, vitamin C and potassium.
- Probiotics and Prebiotics – Taking a daily probiotic will increase the number of beneficial bacteria in your gut. This will reduce the chances of the “bad” bacteria from affecting the host. Why not also have choose foods containing prebiotics in your diet? Prebiotics are foods that will stimulate the growth of your own beneficial bacteria in the gut; foods include bananas, onions and leeks.
- Exercise – Regular exercise will make you feel more energetic, especially during these gloomy days, your body’s defences will also benefit. Exercising will help you manage your weight better and keep your body in shape
Having a poor unbalanced diet may cause an environment that is more favorable for “bad” bacteria to multiply in the gut, which can cause gastrointestinal problems such as bloating, constipation and diarrhoea.
Tags: digestive health, Exercise, fruit and vegetable, Gut Health, prebiotics, probiotics
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Monday, February 20th, 2012
As mentioned in our January 23rd blog exercise helps our digestive system as it help reduce transit time (i.e. the length of time it takes food to move through the large intestine). The reason a faster transit time is better for us is less water is absorbed from the stool into your body and therefore your waste food won’t become dry and hard to pass which essentially is what causes constipation. Exercise along with a healthy fibrous diet may help with constipation as it will help to stimulate the natural contraction of intestinal muscles therefore ensuring the stool moves more efficiently through your digestive tract. Therefore lack of exercise may make our digestive system feel sluggish.
Why not try the below tips to help keep your digestive system nice and healthy. They are easy to fit into your daily routine and won’t cost you a penny!
- Take the stairs instead of the lift
- Use tins of beans instead of weights
- Aim to do sit-ups before bed every night
- Download a free exercise class from youtube
- Take the dog for a brisk walk after dinner (maybe aim for three times a week?)
- Go for a run or arrange to run and meet a friend nearby.
Happy Exercising everyone!!!
Tags: constipation, dietary fibre, digestion, digestive system, Exercise, good digestion, Gut Health, gut tips, keeping healthy
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Monday, February 20th, 2012
Find it hard to get your children to each their fruit in the winter? Why not try this warm winter fruit salad. This delicious dessert will satisfy their sweet tooth and is an excellent way to keep their digestive system nice and healthy due to the fibre found in fruit. The delicious recipe will also provide them with essential vitamins and minerals needed for their growth spurts.
Ingredients:
600g read-to-eat dried fruits (for example; dates, prunes, apricots and peaches etc.)
3 tbsp clear honey
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
1 Early Grey tea bag
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Mascarpone or Greek yoghurt to serve
Method
- Tip the fruits and 700ml/11?4 pints cold water into a large saucepan. Add the honey and vanilla, scraping the seeds from the pod into the pan. Bring to the boil. Stir well, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until slightly syrupy.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the tea bag. Leave to infuse for 10 minutes.
- Discard the tea bag and vanilla pod, tip the fruits and liquid into a non-metallic bowl and pour over the lemon juice. Stir, then leave to cool. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
Tags: dietary fibre, digestion, digestive health, fruit and vegetable, Gut Health, healthy diet, healthy food, low fat, nutrition, vitamins
Posted in 5-a-day, FIBRE, Gut Health, Recipes, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Where has this month gone? Can you believe its February next week?
How has January been for you? Being bac
k at work, with the festive season over, gloomy mornings, Christmas debts and failed detox regimes – it’s no surprise that everyone’s feeling miserable and low.
Why not try lifting the mood with the following suggestions:
1 Mood foods: Research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids block chemicals called cytokines that can cause low mood. Oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel, and tuna), flaxseed oil, nuts and seeds are all good sources. Some studies also link diets low in folate to low mood. Cabbage, broccoli and sprouts are good sources of folate.
2 Foiling the norovirus: The health protection agency says levels of infection of the “winter vomiting bug” are at their highest since 2002 in England and Wales, and that around 100,000 of us every week will go down with this horrid, though rarely dangerous, bug. The Royal College of GPs says we can do much to prevent the spread: improved hygiene (rigorous hand washing, cleaning surfaces, and loos – anything that has been in contact with an infected person) and keeping infected people away from others for at least 48 hours after symptoms end are your best bet. Looking after your gut health may also help with increasing the strength of your immune system.
3 Probiotics/Prebiotics: Probiotics and Prebiotics – Taking a daily probiotic will increase the number of beneficial bacteria in your gut. This will reduce the chances of the “bad” bacteria from affecting the host. Why not also have choose foods containing prebiotics in your diet? Prebiotics are foods that will stimulate the growth of your own beneficial bacteria in the gut; foods include bananas, onions and leeks.
4 Eating breakfast: Attempts to reverse festive weight gain often involve meal-skipping. However, low blood sugar can affect energy and mood. So why not have a bowl of porridge, its low-fat and filling, the warmth provides mood-friendly B vitamins, iron and zinc, and keeps blood glucose levels steady.
5 Exercise and sleep: Regular exercise will make you feel more energetic, especially during these gloomy days, your body’s defences will also benefit. You may be tempted to eat more during the colder months. Exercising will help you manage your weight better and keep your body in shape, especially if you want to tackle the January bulge. Sleep experts advise establishing a regular pattern of seven to eight hours per night: keep your bedtime and waking times consistent to reset your body clock.
Give the above a go and see what changes you may feel!
Tags: breakfast, Exercise, fruit and vegetable, Gut Health, prebiotics, probiotics
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Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Staying healthy and maintain a healthy gut is not just about what we eat but also about how physically active we are too. With an ever increasing technological society we have become less and less active as time has moved forward. Things like lifts and escalators mean we don’t need to use the stairs or drive through car washes instead of manual carwashes all factor into us being less active. Even things such as electric tin openers reduce the amount of energy we expend on a daily basis. This all contributes to not only our overall health but also our gut health.
You may be unaware but not only does exercise keep you nice a toned but it also helps us internally. For example if we consume more energy than we are expending, it is stored as fat. Fat can build up as cholesterol along the arteries which will cause the blood flow to be reduced and potentially cause a heart attack if the artery becomes fully blocked. Exercise also helps to maintain the muscles within our internal organs for example in our intestines muscles are required for peristalsis (the movements of food down the digestive tract).
Exercise helps our digestive system as it help reduce transit time (i.e. the length of time it takes food to move through the large intestine). The reason a faster transit time is better for us is less water is absorbed from the stool into your body and therefore your waste food won’t become dry and hard to pass which essentially is what causes constipation. Exercise along with a healthy fibrous diet may help with constipation as it will help to stimulate the natural contraction of intestinal muscles therefore ensuring the stool moves more efficiently through your digestive tract. Therefore lack of exercise may make our digestive system feel sluggish.
The government’s recommendations are to exercise for thirty minutes five times a week. Whilst these seem quite a while to spend exercising within your daily routine this thirty minutes doesn’t actually have to be for example going to the gym or participating in sport. It could be as little as walking to work instead of catching the bus, going up the stairs instead of the lift or going for a walk over lunch.
If you plan on going to the gym or doing a class it is good to plan when you are going to eat after a big meal, give your body a chance to digest it before you start jumping around! Therefore it is advised to wait around an hour after a big meal before engaging in any rigorous physical activity. This is also be after eating, blood flow increases to the stomach and intestines to help the body digest the food. However, if you exercise right after eating, the blood flows toward the heart and muscles instead. Since the strength of the gut’s muscle contractions directly relate to the quantity of blood flowing in the area, less blood in the GI tract means weaker intestinal contractions, fewer digestive enzymes, and the food waste moving sluggishly through the intestine. This can lead to bloating, excess gas, and constipation.
Tags: bloating, constipation, digestive health, gut, Gut Health, gut tips
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