After battling with the humid weather, the arrival of monsoon brings a great relief to each one of us. As much as people love getting drenched in rain, monsoon brings with it more than that. Yes, it is that time of the year when our body’s digestive system becomes highly vulnerable to waterborne infections. And one of the reasons your gut may be uncomfortable due to infection is an imbalance in the gut microbiota (the native microbes present in our digestive tract).
Waterborne diseases and infections are common during monsoon. Knowing your gut and how to protect it can help you avoid gastrointestinal problems and maintain your fitness level.
understanding your microbiota
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Most of us are guilty of treating a symptom without knowing what the underlying problem is. It is important to understand that a symptom is not a problem. This is your body trying to tell you that something is not right inside the body. Hence, it is prudent to know the root cause of the issue and take effective action from the ground level.
Unless one knows the composition of their gut microbiota, remedies to treat gut problems will only provide temporary relief. One way to get a clearer picture of what’s happening inside the gut is by profiling the gut microbiota. In-depth gut analysis is accessible with test kits like Bugspeaks (India), Flore (USA), Ombre (USA), Microba (Australia) etc.
This means that a person can become familiar with the population of microbes present in their gut and take action to meet the needs of healthy microbes while eliminating harmful microbes.
Also Read: Waterborne Disease: 8 Early Signs And Symptoms Of Dengue You Shouldn’t Ignore
consuming foods that support gut health
Once one becomes well acquainted with the unique microflora population living in their gut, it becomes easier to fine-tune the type of probiotics that will work best in a given case. Eating food that fills our gut with good microbes such as yogurt or taking probiotics like yogurt is one approach. When good microbiota are abundant in our gut, it prevents bad microbes from colonizing the gut, a phenomenon called colonization resistance.
Another way is to eat foods (prebiotics) that promote the growth of beneficial microbes. This includes fruits like green bananas and apples that promote gut health because apples contain pectin and bananas contain resistant starch, both of which have prebiotic effects.
Another prebiotic food is cocoa powder. It is rich in polyphenols, compounds that promote the growth of beneficial bacteria while inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria. Adding it to one’s meals such as smoothies or yogurt is a great way to add prebiotics to one’s diet.
Another storehouse of fiber are flax seeds which help in bowel movement and thus reduce constipation by promoting the growth of healthy gut microbes.
If proper hygiene and dietary measures are not followed to maintain gut health, stomach or digestive issues usually come with monsoons. Therefore, it is essential to drink and use only clean water for food preparation to keep away water-borne infections.
Taking care of the gut is important as a balanced gut provides immunity which can reduce the complications of infections, especially gastrointestinal infections. Taking a gut microbiome test helps a person know the composition of their gut microbiome.
One of the easiest and surest ways to maintain gut health is by eating foods that help the good gut microbes to thrive and thus help them not let the bad microbes take over the gut space.