Remember the old adage, you are what you eat? Well, it's more true than you ever imagined.
When you eat a balanced and nutritious diet in order to maintain a healthy gut, you automatically improve your state of mind and ability to concentrate and study, because the gut microbiome and the brain are intimately connected - both physically through the vagus nerve and chemically through hormones and neurotransmitters. This means that your gut is sensitive to emotions like anger, stress and joy, and your brain reacts to signals from your stomach. It is true to such a degree that the gut is even called the second brain.
One way of improving gut health is to eat more whole foods; in other words, unprocessed foods which have only one ingredient and do not contain preservatives or additives. These include meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, legumes and fruit.
Fermented foods like sourdough bread, cheese, kimchi and
sauerkraut, and drinks like kefir and kombucha, contain pre- and probiotics
which are excellent ways to create and maintain a healthy gut. If you don’t
have access to these foods, a good alternative is to take probiotic
supplements. Studies have shown that certain types of probiotics can improve
stress resilience, anxiety and depression.
A
surefire way to destroy your gut health is to consume too much sugar,
artificial sweeteners, and processed or refined foods on a daily basis. These
foods can cause inflammation in the body, which can affect the brain and cause
symptoms like anxiety and depression. This does not mean that you should never 'cheat' or eat them, but it will definitely help your gut to limit eating
them to once or twice per week only.
Comments
Post a Comment