With Christmas on the horizon, we are facing into lots of rich foods, sweet treats and for some plenty of booze.
We know fatty, sugary foods promote bacteria that are not as beneficial for gut health. And if you indulge over days or weeks, you are pushing your microbiome towards an imbalance.
Your gut health is like a garden. So if you want the good plants to grow, you need to look after them, otherwise the weeds may take over.
A preventative mindset always helps. If you do the right thing most of the time and indulge just now and then, your gut health will be fine in the end. Prepare yourself now by making choices that feed the beneficial organisms in your microbiome and enhance your gut health. What you feed your intestinal microbiota significantly determines how they populate.
Here are some tips which we hope helps you through this period of potential excess:
- At the dinner table load up on prebiotic foods such as garlic, onions, artichokes, and a variety of grains and especially our seasonal favourite the Brussel sprout. It’s hard to overlook this phenomenally nutritious and dinner table divisive vegetable. They contain decent amounts of fibre which is high grade fuel for your good gut bacteria. As well as many nutrients such as vitamin K, vitamin C and antioxidants.
- Drink plenty of water. Its easy to become dehydrated and not really notice its happening.
- Don’t forget to exercise over your Christmas break. Even going for a brisk walk can get things moving and keep your bowel movements regular, which helps improve your gut health.
- As always take it easy on the alcohol. If possible plan to have some low and no alternatives in your fridge. Some great options out there (even if we do say so ourselves). For example an Irish craft micro IPA can have 2-3% alcohol. They still have the full flavour you’d expect but the low alcohol after a few means you don’t get the downsides of their stronger siblings. Alcohol can affect the bacteria in the gut microbiome and lead to an imbalance between the bacteria that leads to health issues across the body.
If you fancy trying our Hopped Culture (hopped kefir soda using Amarillo, Citra & Mosaic hops) or any of our other flavours you can order them online or pick them up in your local Independent shop or Supervalu nationwide.
And if you cant find them in your favorite local store, you could always ask them to stock us, it really helps us out!