Health enthusiasts all over the world are buzzing about gut health and for good reason. Your digestive tract is integral to the processes in your body that will energize you, allow your body to heal, and keep your muscles at peak performance. 

Your gut biome, which is the part of the tract that contains millions of bacteria, breaks down the food that you eat and passes along vital nutrients to the rest of your body. In addition to digestion, your gut has an effect on your mood, vitamin intake, and even your proneness to certain diseases. You need a diverse, healthy gut microbiome to keep your digestion optimal: here are some easy ways to get your digestion back on track.

1. Fiber

One of the best ways to improve the variety of your gut bacteria is by increasing your fiber intake. Your bacteria feeds on non-digestible carbs, which can be obtained through a variety of fiber-rich foods. Vegetables, fruits, beans, and legumes are all rich in fiber, which will stimulate the growth of good bacteria in your gut. This will aid in your digestion and ensure that your tract is moving at a good pace. In addition, foods high in fiber are generally high in vitamins and antioxidants, which will ensure that your overall diet is healthy. Some foods to consider:

• Beans
• Broccoli
• Whole Grains
• Apples
• Nuts and Seeds

2. Supplements

If your diet alone isn’t helping with your digestive help, you can employ the use of supplements. There are plenty of supplements on the market today, but choosing the one that is best for your health can be difficult. 

Generally speaking, finding a supplement that contains probiotics will increase the variety of bacteria in your gut. Probiotics are simply live bacteria that you can buy in gummies, powdered drinks, or in tablets. In addition, adding supplements like probiotics and certain enzymes can change your health long-term: for example, some supplements are great for helping with leaky gut, some include addition vitamin C for overall health, and many increase the overall function of your digestive system with added fiber.

3. Fermented Foods

Fermented foods are foods that have been changed by microbes from sugars into alcohol or acid. Fermented foods are high in certain bacteria (lactobacilli) that are helpful to diversify your gut biome. Adding a good amount of fermentation to your diet will increase your digestive health in addition to reducing your chances of irritable bowel syndrome. Some healthy, fermented foods you should consider adding to your diet are:

• Yogurt
• Kimchi
• Tempeh
• Kombucha
• Miso

In addition to aiding with gut health, many of these foods will add a great amount of variety and spice into your diet. Don’t be afraid to stray into new cuisine: you may even find new favorite food.

4. Sleep Tight

Good quality sleep is essential to overall health. In addition, research has found that sleep may have a large impact on how well your gut biome survives. After only two nights of lackluster sleep, researchers saw a significant decrease in good bacteria and an increase in bacteria linked to obesity and diabetes. 

Not getting enough sleep can disrupt your gut biome within a very short period of time. In addition, your microbiome also has an effect on the quality of sleep you get, which could send you into a downward cycle of sleep deprivation and poor gut health. To stop this cycle in its tracks, make sure you’re getting at least 7 hours of good quality sleep per night. Keep your room completely dark, play soothing noises to get you to bed faster, and consider employing the use of a slow alarm clock so you aren’t interrupted during a REM cycle.

5. Foods to Avoid

In addition to foods that aid in gut health, there are also some foods that are detrimental that you can begin avoiding today. Processed sugar, for example, can get your biome out of whack. These sugars are a great source of food for bad bacteria, whereas good bacteria feed on prebiotics found in high-fiber, plant-based foods. By overconsuming processed foods, you are bypassing your good bacteria and feeding the bad stuff. You should also avoid too much alcohol, which is too harsh for your delicate microbiome. Unfortunately for meat-lovers, research has shown that a diet high in animal proteins also leads to lower microbiome diversity. 

In general, eating high-fiber, plant-based foods that are low in processed sugar, in addition to supplementing with probiotics when needed, will lead to great gut health.