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Know about your gut health! –Part 1

Gut health word cloud on a white background.

                                                        “All diseases begin in your gut”-Hippocrates

Why is it that we pay attention towards our digestion only when something goes wrong? Oxford dictionary defines,‘digestion’ as the person’s ability to digest the food. There is a whole physiology behind how the digestion takes place?  But, what is more, important is, maintaining a good digestive health!

          Have you heard about probiotics and prebiotics?

Probiotics are live bacteria which are good for health! I recently had a query where a person asked me bacteria is supposed to be harmful then how is it that you term this as good for health?   This is when I started researching the world of bacteria to understand more and also be able to make others understand the goodness of bacteria.

Whenever you have stomach upset, curd rice is something which is always preferred. Curd rice is old-time grandma’s remedy. Have you ever wondered why curd is recommended? Well, curd has live bacteria which helps in settling your gut which helps in improving the stomach upset!

There are different types of microbes which work in different ways, some are good for the gut and some are not. These microbes together are termed as MICROBIOME.

Now let’s get into the depth of the topic!

Microbes are brilliant chemists which take up a small thing from our body and convert them into chemicals which are sometimes used for our body and sometimes they are not.

Gut-Bacteria

 Healthy and unhealthy microbes

Healthy Microbes:

        1. Firmicutes

         * Firmicutes are microbes which are used in the fermentation of beer and wine.

* Firmicutes help in clearing up the toxic wastes

* These microbes are found in your gut and its main function in the gut is to help in digestion of fats in your diet.

  1. Bacteroidetes
  • Bacteroidetes helps in maintaining the lean body and helps in reducing the inflammation in the gut.
  • They help in regulating immune responses which protects you against the autoimmune diseases (Autoimmune means body starts attacking its own cells)
  • Bacteroidetes helps in breaking down of undigested fibre which we obtain from vegetables.
  1. Akkermansia
  • Akkermansia is a rare type of microbes found in the gut,
  • They don’t live on food remains.
  • They live on mucus which is a slimy substance that is secreted by the gut lining to protect itself.
  • It helps in reducing inflammation, so the count of akkermansia should be higher in your gut.
  1. Christensenella

      *  This bacteria is inherited from your mother.

  • This bacteria helps in keeping your body lean in spite of poor diets.
  1. Lactobacillus

 This bacteria helps in lining your intestine to protect against harmful microbes.

  • It also helps in protecting the intestine from a fungal infection, heard about candida albicans?
  • Lactobacillus works like a pesticide on these pathogens.
  • Lactobacillus count in your gut will go down if you are on antibiotics which is why I always prescribe probiotics and prebiotics with lactobacillus with an antibiotic course.
  • It is a very popular probiotic!
  1. Bifidobacterium 
  • Bifidobacterium helps in breaking down the indigestible fibre in the body and also protects your intestines against harmful microbes.
  • This bacteria is inherited in you from your mother’s breast milk.
  • It is a very popular probiotic!

Unhealthy Microbes:

As I had mentioned earlier, if there are some microbes which can help in maintaining the gut health then there are many microbes which help in creating gut problems!

Let’s talk about the unhealthiest microbes:

  1. Campylobacter
  • Campylobacter is a very common cause of food poisoning with symptoms of abdominal pain, severe diarrhoea, and vomiting.
  • Campylobacter is strong enough to be one of the reasons for miscarriage in women.
  • This harmful bacteria is found in raw chicken available in the supermarkets.
  • The most common mistake we do is washing the chicken thoroughly before cooking it. This makes the bacteria spread everywhere. The best technique is to rinse it with water from the top and cook it properly.
  1. E. coli
  • Not every E.coli is harmful but there are some strains which can cause severe anaemia. They are also one of the leading causes of UTI (Urinary Tract Infections)
  • coli in the gut mostly comes from uncooked meat. Catching it up from a raw milk is also quite common.
  1. Salmonella
  • Another common cause of food poisoning induced diarrhoea and stomach cramps are salmonella.
  • You will start getting the symptoms within 72 hours after swallowing this unhealthy bacteria and it can last up to a week.
  • Sometimes the food poisoning gets critical and hospitalization is required to recover from extreme dehydration caused by diarrhoea.
  • I am sure you must have heard about Salmonella typhi which causes typhoid which can be fatal if left untreated.
  1. Clostridium difficile

 This bacteria is always found in abundance in your gut lining which causes minor infections. If these minor infections flare up and start to give you symptoms, your doctor will give you a list of antibiotics to get rid of it. Because your healthy microbiome cannot cope up with those antibiotics, they are swiped out of the body which gives a chance to Clostridium difficile to capture all the gut space.

  • Clostridium difficile is a very antibiotic resistant bacteria so it’s not very easy for antibiotics to swipe this off.
  • Symptoms like watery stools, fever, and abdominal pain are common because of C.difficile flaring up.

Functions of healthy microbiome :

  • It helps in regulating your body weight. Microbes can actually decide how much energy your body extracts from different types of food you eat. If you are unable to lose weight, one of the main reasons could be unhealthy microbiome.
  • The microbiome helps in regulating your immune system. There was a research which proved that healthy microbiome helps in reducing the occurrence of cold and cough episodes. It also helps in reducing the inflammation of the body.
  • The microbiome helps in taking the bits of food which our body cannot digest and it actually converts them in hormone and chemicals.

How to make your healthy microbiome diverse in your body?

  • Please avoid antibiotics as much as you can because a week of antibiotic course can destroy your healthy microbiome for 3 weeks.
  • Increase your outdoor activities, try to open your house windows. It helps in increasing the diversity of healthy microbes
  • Include different types of seasonal fruits and vegetables in the diet.
  • Try to connect with nature whenever you can. Put your hands into the soil. This connects your body to healthy microbiomes.
  • Include foods rich in different healthy microbiomes as mentioned above.

Foods that nourish your gut:

  (1). Olive oil

  • Healthiest fats.
  • Rich in polyphenols and antioxidants which helps in reducing the inflammation.
  • Extra virgin olive oil is good to try!

   (2)  Oily fish

  • Rich in good fats, omega 3
  • Anti-inflammatory benefits
  • Fish oil capsules available in the market are not as good as eating fish because of the poor quality. It might not give you the same effect as oily fish.

   (3) Cocoa

  • Excellent source of flavonoids and polyphenols which helps in increasing the population of healthy gut bacteria!
  • It’s good for your cardiovascular system.
  • Always go for raw cocoa powder.

  (4) Wine

  • Polyphenols are chemicals which are found in tea, coffee, wine, fruits, vegetables and dark chocolates. When you eat any of these foods, half of it passes through the small intestine to the large intestine where it is extremely beneficial to increase the population of healthy microbes.
  • Red wine helps in reducing the inflammation in your body.

PS: I normally get this question that how do you know about inflammation in your body? Well, there is a blood test which is most commonly done called as CRP- C reactive protein which gives you an idea of the levels of inflammation in your body. Research has shown that consumption of anti-inflammatory foods reduces inflammation by 45% in the body.

(5) Turmeric

  • Turmeric is a gut-friendly spice. There are other herbs and spices like thyme, oregano, basil, ginger, cumin which are having anti-inflammatory benefits but turmeric works in increasing the population of healthy microbes,
  • The best way to consume turmeric for gut health is 1 tsp of turmeric with ½ tsp of honey in 150 ml of lukewarm water before bed.
  • An active component of curcumin is also available in capsule form but make sure about the quality of curcumin used to prepare the product is genuine.

 Foods to avoid for better gut health:

 Sugar

  • Sugar is cheap which has an excellent addictive effect.
  • It increases the cravings for particular food which encourages the growth of unhealthy microbes in the guts. All these unhealthy microbes need more sugar to survive which increases the population of unhealthy microbes in the gut and decreases healthy microbes!

    (2) Artificial sweeteners

  • They have a huge impact on your body, especially on your gut. It depletes the population of akkermansia (The healthy microbe which I have mentioned above!).
  • Addition of probiotics with artificial sweeteners might not give the required effect!

    (3) Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

  • MSG or monosodium glutamate works as a leptin blocker. Leptin is a hormone which tells your brain “I am full”. That’s how you crave more foods which have MSG!

My next upcoming article will cover different probiotic and prebiotic sources, how to choose your probiotics and gut-friendly recipes!

To be continued……..

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10 Foods that can fill you up

rainbow-smoothies

If you were to describe ‘The Perfect Food’, it would probably be: healthy, delicious, bigger than a morsel and filling enough to fight hunger for hours. “Foods that promote satiety”—a feeling of lasting fullness. In this blog, I have listed down some foods which are healthy and yet filling.

  1. Baked potato

The potato has been unfairly demonized—it’s actually a potent hunger tamer. Though potatoes are often shunned because they’re considered high in carbohydrates, they shouldn’t be. Whether baked or boiled, they’re loaded with vitamins, fibre and other nutrients. Baked potato get you steady energy and lasting fullness after noshing on them.

Feel even fuller: Eat baked and boiled tubers skin-on to get more fibre for just 160 calories a pop.

2.  Bean soup

Soups have high water content, which means they fill your stomach with very few calories. Broth-based bean soups, in particular, contain a hefty dose of fibre and resistant starch—a good carb that slows the release of sugar into the bloodstream—to make that full feeling really stick. “Once in the stomach, fibre and water activate stretch receptors that signal that you aren’t hungry anymore.

Feel even fuller: Resist the cracker pack on the side in favour of a bigger soup helping. Beans are starchy, satisfying and caloric enough on their own. To give variations to your soup, you can throw lentils, black-eyed peas or kidney or navy beans into a vinegar-based salad too.

3.     Eggs

Eggs are one of the few foods that are a complete protein, meaning they contain all nine essential amino acids that your body can’t make itself. Once digested, those amino acids trigger the release of hormones in your gut that suppress appetite.

Feel even fuller: Don’t discard the yolks—about half an egg’s protein lives in those yellow parts. Adding vegetables to a scramble boosts its volume and fibre content for few extra calories (an egg has 78Kcal, and a cup of spinach just 7Kcal).

4.     Yoghurt

Yoghurt is the single best food for shedding pounds: Over time, people who downed more of the protein-packed stuff lost pounds without trying. Yoghurt contains dairy proteins which increase satiety, reduces food intake and keeps blood sugar steady.
Feel even fuller: Top yoghurt with fibrous foods like raspberries (4 grams of fibre per half cup) or cucumber (9 grams per three-quarters of a cup).

5.     Apples

Apples are one of the few fruits that contain pectin, which naturally slows digestion and promotes a feeling of fullness. In fact, people who ate an apple as part of a meal felt more satiated and ate less than those who consumed a calorically equivalent amount of juice and applesauce. “Whole apples take a long time to eat for very few calories. Your body has more time to tell your brain that you’re no longer hungry. That means you can eat lots of this low-energy-density, high-satiety fruit and avoid feeling deprived while losing weight.

Feel even fuller: Add apple chunks to oatmeal or salad.

6.     Popcorn

This movie-night favourite is a low-energy-density food—for 90 calories, you could eat 3 cups of air-popped corn but whereas for the same number of calories you can just have a quarter cup of potato chips. This means, that a quarter cup of potato chips has 90 calories whereas 3 cups of plain air-popped popcorns have just 90 calories, so it is more filling. Popcorn takes up more room in your stomach, and seeing a big bowl of it in front of you tricks you into thinking that you’re eating more calories and that you’ll feel full when you’re finished.

Feel even fuller: Sprinkle some red pepper on popcorns or any meal. In a recent Purdue University study, people who added a half teaspoon of the spice to their meal felt less hungry.

7.     Figs

A great natural cure for a sweet tooth, fresh figs have a dense consistency and sweet flesh that’s high in fibre (each 37-calorie fig packs about a gram), which slows the release of sugar into the blood, preventing the erratic high caused by cookies or cake.

Feel even fuller: Split the fig in half and add protein such as a teaspoon of cheese or add walnuts.

8.     Oatmeal

Oatmeal’s filling force comes from its high fibre content and its uncanny ability to soak up liquid like a sponge. When cooked with water or skim milk, the oats thicken and take more time to pass through your digestive system, meaning you’ll go longer between hunger pangs.

Feel even fuller: Sprinkle almonds on top of your bowl. “The nuts pack protein and fibre and contain unsaturated fats that can help stabilize insulin levels,” regulating blood sugar.

9.     Smoothies

While most beverages don’t satisfy hunger very well, drinks blended full of air are an exception: They cause people to feel satiated and eat less at their next meal. Just be sure you’re not whipping your smoothie full of sugary, caloric ingredients like fruit juices or flavoured syrups, which will negate the health benefits.

Feel even fuller: Put ice and fat-free milk or yoghurt in a blender, add in fruit and give it a whirl. Try strawberries, which are extremely low in energy density—they’re 92 percent water!—and bananas, which are loaded with resistant starch.

        10.   Wheat berries

Wheat berries are whole-wheat kernels which contain one of the highest amounts of protein and fibre per serving of any grain (6 grams of protein and 6 grams of fibre).

Protein triggers the hormone ghrelin to tell our brain that we are satisfied and fibre activates appetite-suppressing gut hormones.

Feel even fuller: Toss wheat berries with apples, nuts and other diet-friendly foods to make a super tasty salad.

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Benefits of Cucumber

cucumber

It’s summer-time and you should definitely not forget to pick a handful of these firm, dark green cucumbers and put them into your shopping basket. But, well do you know that you have just bought yourself a fruit (yes,  this is a fruit and a not a vegetable) full of good health!

Here is a short list of the impressive health benefits that a cucumber carries with it:

  • Keeps you hydrated-If you are too busy to drink enough water, munch on the cool cucumber, which is 96 percent water. It will cheerfully compensate!
  • Fights heat, both inside and out. Eat cucumber, and your body gets relief from heartburn. Apply cucumber on your skin, and you get relief from sunburn.
  • Flushes out toxins.All that water in cucumber acts as a virtual broom, sweeping waste products out of your system. With regular use, cucumber is known to dissolve kidney stones.
  • Lavishes you with vitamins. A, B and C, which boost immunity, gives you energy, and keeps you radiant. Give it more power by juicing cucumber with carrot and spinach.
  • Supplies skin-friendly minerals: magnesium, potassium, silicon.That’s why cucumber-based treatments are abound in spas.
  • Aids in weight loss.Enjoy cucumbers in your salads and soups. My favourite snack- Crunchy cucumber sticks with creamy low-fat yogurt dip.
  • Revives the eyes. Placing chilled slices of cucumber on the eyes is a clichéd beauty visual, but it really helps reduce under-eye bags and puffiness.
  • Cuts cancer. Cut down your risk of several cancers by including cucumber in your diet. Shows its cancer-fighting potential.
  • Stabilizes blood pressure. Patients of blood pressure, both high and low, often find that eating cucumber brings relief.
  • Refreshes the mouth. Cucumber juice refreshes and heals diseased gums, leaving your mouth smelling good.
  • Helps digestion. Chewing cucumber gives the jaws a good workout, and the fiber in it is great for digestion.
  • Smooths hair and nails.Silica, the wonder mineral in cucumber makes your hair and nails stronger and shinier.
  • Soothes muscle and joint pain. All those vitamins and minerals in cucumber make it a powerful enemy of muscles and joint pains.
  • Keeps kidneys in shape. Cucumber lowers uric acid levels in your system, keeping the kidneys happy.
  • Good for diabetics. Patients of diabetes can enjoy cucumber while also reaping its health benefits: cucumber contains a hormone needed by the cells of the pancreas for producing insulin.
  • Reduces cholesterol.A compound called sterols in cucumber helps reduce bad cholesterol.

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Best fat loss exercise for Indian women

In India, most women have only one fitness goal – WEIGHT LOSS.

From my experience as a fitness coach, most young girls/women have similar goals – flat stomach or that thigh gap or those toned arms.

One of the biggest mistake women make in their fitness pursuit is that they are chasing “weight loss” when they really should be chasing “fat loss”.

Young girls and women have a very clear picture of their fitness targets. But, too many women are misinformed about the CORRECT way of achieving those targets.

KEY: CARDIO will not get you to your goals fast.

Losing WEIGHT by purely starving yourself and doing exhaustive cardio workouts, but neither is good for your overall well being, nor is it the most effective means of burning fat.

Let’s break it down. When you do any form of CARDIO exercise. Running, jogging, even some hipster cardio exercise like some form of dance or martial arts, you’re burning calories. You’re burning off the fat that is stored in your body and using it for energy.

So it is burning fat but, keep in mind that the fat burns only WHILE you’re doing that particular exercise. Once you go home, your body enters a period of rest and things are normal.

Now let’s consider what happens to your body during and after WEIGHT TRAINING.  So weight training is like any other EXERCISE. In order to go through with it you need to exert your body. You need to spend calories.

While you’ve undergone resistance training, while you’ve done squats or push ups or a bicep curl, your muscles are made to fight against that resistance. In doing so, your muscles undergo a number of minute tears.

After your exercise, when you go home, and you’re resting, these tears in your muscles are repaired by your body. In order to repair them, your body spends calories, and continues to burn fat even when you’re on your couch, watching TV and even when you’re asleep.

SIMPLE CARDIO – Burn calories only while you exercise.

RESISTANCE TRAINING – You’re burning calories while you exercise AND you’re burning calories even after the exercise, while you’re chilling at home.

The added advantage of resistance training is the lean muscle you put on in the long term. The more muscle you put on, as a woman, the more fat you’ll burn.

The other big issue I’ve seen in India, is that many women are afraid to take up weight training because they think they’ll end up looking like a “bulked up bodybuilder”. They don’t wanna get “Bulky”. You need to know that these overly bulky women have taken a LOT of steroid injections to make their bodies turn into THAT.

Many of them have used testosterone, the male hormone. The testosterone is what makes those women bulky and it’s also what makes mens’ muscles bigger.

Rest assured you won’t become like that UNLESS you take testosterone injections. As a woman, your natural biological make up will make you look beautiful always, it will make you look “girly”, unless YOU mess around with it.

Priyanka chopra, Bipasha Basu, Alia Bhatt. All these women lift weights and have been lifting weights for a long time. They aren’t bulky by any means.

If you still aren’t convinced about this, I urge you to at least try it out for a couple of months. Go to a good gym, get a good trainer, see the results for yourself. As a woman, especially if you’re someone who has never tried resistance training, you owe it to your body to give it a shot. You have only one body, its time to maximize its potential.

THIS IS THE FASTEST WAY TO BURN FAT.

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