Improve Your Gut Health — 10 Easy Tips From a Registered Dietitian

_{This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my Disclosure & Disclaimer Policy for more information.}

Sharing 10 ways to naturally improve gut health from a registered dietitian – a very important aspect for overall health!

What is Gut Health?

The gut, or gastrointestinal tract, is a complex system that contributes to a variety of things including:

• healthy immune response
• heart, brain, and mental health
• proper digestion and absorption of food
• and possible prevention of certain cancers and autoimmune diseases

As you can see, having a healthy gut plays a huge role in how well your body functions and in how you feel. 

Good gut health is defined by having more good bacteria than harmful bacteria found within the gut flora, located in your intestines. When you have a healthy gut, digestive issues and stomach pains will not be a common occurrence.

What Affects Your Gut Health?

There are a variety of factors that may negatively impact your gut health. These may include diet, lifestyle and other environmental factors, in addition to medications (especially antibiotics), and infections.

What Are the Signs of An Unhealthy Gut?

What are signs of an unhealthy gut? Signs may include:

•  an upset stomach (gas, bloating, constipation, or diarrhea)
• undesirable weight changes
• sleep disturbances
• skin conditions, such as acne

10 Ways to Naturally Improve Gut Health

Here is a list of 10 ways to naturally improve your gut health. Please note: all 10 tips are crucial for improving gut health and are not listed in order of importance.

1. Consume a variety of well balanced meals. Focus on consuming an adequate amount of protein, healthy fats and complex carbs in your meals and snacks.
2. Increase your consumption of probiotics and prebiotics. Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, and kefir are a great source of probiotics; apples, bananas, onions and garlic are a great source of prebiotics.
3. Lower your stress levels. Meditate, journal, pray and work on breathing techniques. All four can drastically lower your stress levels.
4. Get adequate sleep. Review my blog post on 5 tips to get better sleep.
5. Limit alcohol intake. Alcohol has been shown to increase intestinal bacteria and cause intestinal inflammation. Limiting alcohol can be a great way to improve gut health. Try out my Appletini Mocktail or Sunset Sweets Mocktail recipes!
6. Be sure to stay hydrated. Aim to consume half your body weight everyday in ounces of water. To read more, checkout my post here!
7. Spend time with loved ones. This can be a great way to reduce both stress and inflammation within the body.
8. Spend time outdoors. I truly believe nature can do wonders for healing. What better way to spend your time than in the great outdoors?! This is also a great way to reduce screen time.
9. Limit the amount of added sugars and processed foods you consume. This can be major in improving gut health! Review my blog post on certain brands I recommend for their clean ingredient lists.
10. Get your body moving! Exercising not only enhances the number of good bacteria found in the gut, post-meal movement can also aid in digestion.

Sources

Bishehsari, Faraz, et al. “Alcohol and Gut-Derived Inflammation.” Alcohol Research : Current Reviews, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513683/.

“Improve Gut Health: Recognize the Signs of an Unhealthy Gut.” Healthline, Healthline Media, https://www.healthline.com/health/gut-health#foods-for-gut-health.

“What Is Gut Health?: Dietitians on Demand.” Dietitians On Demand | Professional Recruiting Services for Contract and Permanent-Hire Positions., https://dietitiansondemand.com/what-is-gut-health/.