Healthcare Tips

Day to day life can be hectic, looking after a family, working full time, keeping a tidy house, juggling social activities, sometimes it feels like you need 28 hours in a day.

And without a magic wand to create those extra four hours, it’s much easier to push something aside to deal with it “later”. Often that means the smaller things in life which could actually be the ticket to a healthier, happier life aren’t considered high up in your priority list – if at all.

Top 10 Nutrition Tips
Get our nutritionist’s guide to support your immune system

 

The gut plays a really important role in maintaining overall wellbeing. If you consider that over 70% of your immune system are located in the gut, it comes as no surprise that a healthy gut tends to lead to overall health and likewise, an unhealthy, unhappy gut could lead to ill health in other areas of the body.

Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles, of processed foods and sedentary jobs are not doing our guts, and therefore our digestive and immune system any favours.

See below some tips we recommend to help support your digestive and immune systems and lead a healthy life.

Eat a wide variety of different plant foods

Increasingly, research is showing the importance of dietary diversity in promoting many different aspects of health including cognition, mood, weight management and a balanced microbiome.

Aiming to ‘eat a rainbow’ of fruit and vegetables every day provides an accessible way to help encourage variety in your diet and is a fun challenge to set yourself and your family.

We’ve put together this handy fruit and veg tracker (download PDF) so it’s really simple to follow your progress!

Eat plenty of foods high in prebiotic fibres

Such as garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, slightly under ripe bananas, Jerusalem artichokes, asparagus and dandelion greens, as these provide a food source for beneficial species in the gut.

Introduce beneficial species to the gut

By regularly consuming traditionally fermented foods such as kefir, live yoghurt, kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha and miso. These tend to be particularly high in beneficial Lactobacilli and Streptococcus species.

Introduce a regular bedtime routine

By getting up and going to bed at the same time each day. Ensure your bedroom is dark and cool enough and practice good sleep hygiene by avoiding screen use for at least an hour before bed and keeping electronic devices out of the bedroom.

Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins

By eating home-grown or organic where possible, filtering your water, and using natural skin care and home cleaning products.

Take steps to reduce stress

Such as signing up to a meditation or mindfulness course, cognitive behavioural therapy, or restorative exercise such as yoga. Prioritise carving out time for yourself, even if just 15 minutes a day to take a bath or a walk, read a book or do some deep breathing exercises.

What are Live Bacteria?

The trillions of microflora that can be found in the human gastrointestinal tract play an essential role in supporting and maintaining strong immune and digestive systems, so having the optimum balance of these beneficial bacteria is important.

A number of factors can compromise this balance, including antibiotic therapy, infection, stress, travel or a period of unhealthy nutrition or lifestyle.

An effective solution is to supplement the microflora by taking a multi-strain live bacteria supplement to restore the balance.