Gut health affects not only digestion, but also our immune system and well-being. You can find out here how you can do something good for your intestines every day.
The intestine of an adult human measures between five and a half and seven and a half meters. The largest part of this is made up of the small intestine with an average of five meters. The large intestine comes to about one and a half meters. Together, the parts of the intestine work hard every day to extract nutrients and water from the food we eat, send them into the blood, and finally form waste products into a solid stool.
According to the Deutsche Apotheker-Zeitung (DAZ), the intestine is colonized by around 100 trillion germs – the so-called microbiome – in order to be able to do this. According to gastroenterologist Prof. Dr. Brigitte Mayinger among other things detoxify the intestinal muscles and keep pathogens away. If the microbiome is not in balance, our immune system also suffers. Diseases can then spread more easily both in the intestine itself and in other areas of the body.
A sluggish intestine can also lead to constipation and flatulence, which can burden you in everyday life. The knowledge magazine Spektrum also reports on scientific evidence that the microbiome influences our psyche. If some intestinal bacteria are missing, this can have a negative effect on our mood and even promote depression. So there are enough reasons to promote your own intestinal health. You can do this with our five tips.
1. Promote intestinal health with dietary fiber
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Of course, our diet has a decisive influence on our intestinal health. The DAZ recommends consuming around 30 grams of dietary fiber every day. These increase the number of intestinal bacteria and “good” immune cells and stimulate intestinal activity. However, according to the DAZ, many people in Germany do not reach the recommended daily dose and take in an average of just 20 grams.
If you regularly suffer from a sluggish bowel, it may be because you are not consuming enough fiber. This can occur with a diet that often includes fast food. Because foods such as burgers, pizza, pasta or chocolate bars contain almost no fiber.
In order to promote your intestinal health, it is therefore advisable to integrate more high-fiber foods into your diet:
- fruit and vegetables
- legumes
- nuts
- whole grains
Maybe you can just prepare the pizza yourself at home and replace half of the white flour with wholemeal flour? Or you prepare the pasta dish with wholemeal pasta or add a salad or some fried vegetables to the pasta.
Note: If you are not used to a high-fiber diet, you should carefully increase the amount from day to day. Otherwise you can quickly overload your intestines and promote bloating and other digestive problems.
2. Promote intestinal health: with probiotic foods
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Probiotic foods contain live lactic acid bacteria. According to the DAZ, they also promote a healthy balance in the microbiome. For example, probiotics are contained in yoghurt, kefir, kombucha or fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut or kimchi.
However, make sure that these are raw products. Sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables in particular are often only pasteurized in the supermarket. The vegetables were then heated. However, this destroys the good bacteria.
You can also make fermented vegetables at home. You also make vegetables last longer. You can find out more about this here: Fermenting: preserving food like in grandma’s time
3. Reduce sugar, white flour and antibiotics
As part of a diet designed to promote intestinal health, it is advisable to avoid sugar and white flour or only eat them in moderation. You should not eat too one-sidedly from these foods. Because according to Prof. Dr. Mayinger’s easily digestible carbohydrates include refined sugar and white flour. They can therefore be broken down particularly easily by the bacteria. However, this means that only the intestinal bacteria that specialize in this type of carbohydrate multiply. This forces out other intestinal bacteria. However, a healthy microbiome is characterized by a high diversity of bacteria.
Antibiotics can also damage the microbiome because they also destroy the beneficial intestinal bacteria. After a course of antibiotics, Dr. According to Mayinger, it can take up to six months for the intestines to recover. During this time you should take special care of your intestinal health. You can find tips on this here: Build up intestinal flora: This is how your intestines get fit again after antibiotic treatment
4. Exercise for gut health
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About 30 to 60 minutes of exercise a day can already help to reduce the risk of colon cancer, according to the NDR. Because the movement can regularly push back potentially dangerous strains of bacteria. According to Mayinger, physical activity also stimulates intestinal activity and thus helps against constipation. Endurance sports such as jogging, cycling, swimming or walking are particularly good for the intestines. But regular walks also promote intestinal health.
5. Relaxation: This is why it is important for the intestines
In addition to nutrition and exercise, our psyche also plays a major role in intestinal health. This is already evident in phrases such as “But that upsets my stomach”. Maybe you know the feeling when you tend to have diarrhea or flatulence and constipation more often in stressful and pressure situations.
This is because our intestines and our brain are closely connected, according to psychosomatics expert Prof. Winfried Hauser in an interview with Apotheken-Umschau. This creates a vicious circle: Stress triggers complaints via the so-called abdominal brain in the intestine. These in turn increase our negative mood and tension, which in turn has a negative impact on gut health.
According to Hauser, there is a method known as intestinal hypnosis to break this cycle. For example, imagine the intestines as a calm river and imagine how light and warmth flow into the stomach.
But other relaxation techniques, breathing exercises, meditation or yoga are also recommended to reduce stress on a daily basis and thus promote your intestinal health.
Read more on Techzle.com:
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