Beams Hospital- Khar West

Hi,

I am Dt. Mikita Gandhi, Dietitian/Nutritionist. Today we will talk about gut health. It is the most neglected and untalked about the organ of our body. It is an organ which works as per the environment. We have been using so many medications, antibiotics, anti-virals, paracetamol, steroids, drugs, different kind of weight loss treatment, chemical products, packaged food which affects the lining of the gut. It also destroys the absorption of vitamins and minerals. When you are following an unhealthy lifestyle, we definitely land up to major trouble. You must be wondering why we come across different kind of diseases and lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, cardiac issue, cancer, depression, anxiety. All these things come into the picture when the gut is not really doing well. Because of this body is reacting to it.

First, we need to understand how our gut function works and what is its role? The gut is an organ which is called as the intestine and it helps in digestion, absorption on what has been consumed by you. But ou gut is consistent of variety million and trillions of gut bacteria and microbes. There is the production of vitamins and minerals. When we don't really take care of what we are eating, this balance is affected. Our gut consist of good and bad microbes and the balance is maintained within the body. So, you might have observed the dis-balance in a very simple way like hypoacidity, gastric issues, flatulence, bloating, constipation and then all those symptoms get unnoticed because we do know about it. It allows a variety of products to pass through the gut which is not supposed to be roaming around in the body. So, you might land up in developing a variety of diseases.

You may have thyroid, loss of muscle mass, increase in weight and fat. Now, how this can be reversed or can be improved by 3 simple steps. We need to increase the intake of probiotics. Then when we look at the ancient culture, there was a balance in the intake of food. Intake of fermented food, sprouts, pulses which definitely improve our gut micro-bio. So, increase the intake of fermented food such as idly, dosa, dhokla because this will improve the amount of good micro-bio. Now the 2nd most important thing is that you need to provide hem fruit which can thrive into your intestine. For this, you need to take a good amount of fiber which comes from vegetable, seasonal fruits, dry fruits, nuts, increase the consumption of vegetable juices, salads, soups. This will help you to maintain your an intestinal line. The most common topic is to maintain the pH level.

So, alkaline is maintained, but here we are not talking about blood pH. It is about gut pH. Because the stomach is acidic and intestine is alkaline. Try to avoid all the packaged food and the intake of the chemical. Avoid adding coloring agents into your food. Once the gut health is restored, our health will also be restored. So, only 3 things are required. Fermented food i.e. more amount of probiotics, more amount of fiber i.e. prebiotics and heavy alkaline food i.e. more amount of vegetables, fruits in our diet. I hope this was helpful to you. If you have any query, you can contact me. Stay fit, eat right, move more, and keep smiling.

Thank You!