6 Super Foods for Digestive Health
Your digestive system doesn’t run by itself. It needs proper nutrition with foods that help calm the stomach, increase motility, and decrease gases in the gut. Here are some great foods that can help you maintain excellent digestive health.
Foods high in fiber add bulk to the stool to prevent constipation and blood sugar spikes that can lead to diabetes. The best sources of fiber include brown rice, whole fruits, green vegetables and whole grains, like bread, oats, and cereals.
Drink lots of fluids, particularly plain water that promotes digestive health, prevents constipation, flushes toxins from the intestines, and softens fiber through the digestive process.
Eat a low fat diet as too much fat is not healthy for your gastrointestinal tract and can increase the workload of your stomach. This means avoiding difficult-to-digest fried foods, pizza, hamburgers, chips, and pastries and choosing grilled lean meats and fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, and skim milk.
Spicy food can cause upset stomachs, especially in those who have digestive problems. This means chili peppers, and even dishes with too much garlic. These foods, like fat, can cause reflux disease and indigestion. Get your flavor from ginger that supports digestive health and prevents nausea.
Caffeine in black tea, colas, coffee, and energy drinks increase stomach acid and lead to heartburn. Instead, drink green tea and milk which are more easily digested and don’t cause heartburn. Green tea also contains healthful anti-oxidants that protect the gut from the negative effects of oxygen free radicals on the cells.
Yogurt is extremely healthy for the digestive tract. It contains probiotics, which are healthy bacteria necessary for proper metabolism and good digestive health. If you eat yogurt, you help colonize the gut with healthy bacteria and drive out unhealthy bacteria that result in traveler’s diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome and other nasty problems.
Daniel Micksfield