Good gut and digestion health is the foundation of optimum health, and essential in making sure you have a strong immune system. With flu and cold season upon us, let’s all make sure that we give our gut a chance by eliminating the following foods that mess with your digestion.
- Diet Soda: Diet soda maybe even worse than regular soda because the artificial sweeteners are just the worst for your digestive system. It’s no wonder that a new study published earlier this year connect diet sodas can increase belly fat and lead to obesity. Part of this may be due to the way that the sweeteners alter our but bacteria.
- Sugar: This is such a huge one because consuming large amounts of sugar will simply feed the “bad” bacteria in your gut (yes, there is good, and bad bacteria). If you have been through a lot of stress and/or been on a course of antibiotics, your gut may contain an overgrowth of yeast. Sugar just feeds this yeast – ewwww, right? So starve the yeast and allow the good bacteria to flourish.
- Fried & greasy foods: Fried foods put a heavy burden on your digestive system – they just do. So during cold and flu season I recommend avoiding them as much as possible. And if you do sit down to a platter of fish & chips, take a digestive enzyme before your meal.
- Raw Food: If you are a health nut like me, you probably eat a lot of raw foods (especially in the form of salads) – this is great because you are getting all those healthy enzymes, but remember that certain veggies are more easily digestible when they are lightly steamed/cooked.
- Coffee: Coffee is acid-forming in your body. The best way for your digestion to function optimally is when your body is in an alkaline state. Avoiding coffee (and red meat) is the first step toward alkalizing your body.
- Alcohol: Sorry to be a downer but alcohol is definitely an example of foods that mess with your digestion. It contains a lot of sugar and is also acid-forming.
- White refined flours: Generally speaking bread, baked goods, crackers, and pasta that are made with highly refined flours (and this can include gluten-free products), are not good for your gut because they lack dietary fiber, and they are likely stuffed with all kinds of other unfriendly ingredients.
- Gluten: This feeds into the previous point, but I will say that gluten can be irritating to your gut, even if you are not officially gluten-intolerant or Celiac. Try giving up gluten for 6 weeks and see if your gut feels better.
- Dairy Products: The sugar lactose, that is found in most dairy products can cause bloating and other digestive problems if you are intolerant. Many of us are intolerant without knowing it. Again, I recommend abstaining for 6 weeks and see if you feel better.
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