How To Heal Your 🫶How to maintain your health

1. Chew

Somewhere along the way, we forgot that our mouths have a more important function than just talking and tasting food. The oral cavity is the first part of your digestive system. It’s where we break down that food using our teeth, the tongue and lots of saliva. Between 0,75-1l of saliva/day to be exact and fascinating. That saliva is an important part of the digestive process – it contains natural disinfectants (like IgA and lysozyme) and enzymes that help break down the food so that it can then be further processed in the stomach

If you don’t chew your food and don’t break it down to a very smooth consistency – the next parts of the gastrointestinal tract – your stomach, small intestine and large intestine are going to have to work harder to try to digest and absorb something from that piece of carrot you didn’t chew all the way.

Now, I’m not perfect with this and I don’t chew nearly enough. But once I read more on this topic I started doing it. I said I will chew each bite at least 15 times (I noticed on average I chew 4-5 times, so that’s a big step for me).

You know what happened?

1.I don’t want to eat so much – it gets boring.

The things that taste good when you actually chew them more than twice are fruit and vegetables. Not kidding, try to chew a cupcake 20 times. It’s disgusting.

I can’t stuff my mouth with so much food. In order to be able to chew and not choke, I need to eat smaller bites – which again helps eat less. And well, if you read this article, you already know – helps you live longer.

So if you want to improve your gut health for better skin, healthy brain and a fit body overall – I highly, highly recommend to start chewing more. Start with 10 times, then go up. My goal is 30.

2. Try to relax

You’ve probably heard there’s a gut-brain axis and how your gut health affects your brain (here’s an article on this). While there’s undeniably a connection between your gut and your brain health, we don’t really know much at this point. I mean, no, there isn’t an evil genius bacteria sitting inside your gut telling your brain what to do or what not to do.

It’s far more complicated than that. It’s not like you eat something bad, your gut bacteria changes and you start being depressed all of a sudden. After all other things happen in life besides just eating.

So what I mean by that is that stress can also affect your gut flora and it’s diversity (the bacteria inside your gut) and this, in turn, can affect your mental health. It’s very much like a cycle.

So try your best to eat healthier, but also to reduce stress. Go on daily walks, spend time with people who make you happy, don’t sweat the small stuff and know everything will pass.

3. Get Moving

Another thing that can affect your gut health and your gut microbiome is exercise. It’s been shown in mice that exercise can change their gut microbiota – and these changes are different than the changes you’d get from just changing your diet. (study)

Regular physical activity has also been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer. (study)

So stay active throughout the day, don’t sit for hours at a time and walk more.

4. Practice intermittent fasting

I talked about caloric restriction and how it can extend your life, but it turns out – eating less and spacing out your meals can help your gut heal and recover.

In fact, intermittent fasting, again, changes the diversity of the bacteria inside your colon, which can then affect your brain health, your weight and your skin. With intermittent fasting, I find the simple 16:8 hours split works best for me (16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating).

5. Sleep

Don’t go a week sleeping 6 hours a day – that’s not good. Sleep is probably the most important thing you can do for your body to heal. It’s a restorative process. It’s important for your immune system (which is also related to longevity), for repairing the damage that happens to our bodies throughout the day. And your gut and the microbiome are not an exception to that. Here are 7 things you can do to sleep better.

6. Stay hydrated

And when I say that I mean drink water, but also consume more water-containing foods, obviously – fruits and vegetables. Because you might be drinking water, but if you’re also consuming dehydrating foods like coffee, chocolate, soy sauce, fried foods – you’re not doing yourself, your gut and skin health any favor.

So make it a point to eat more foods that hydrate, like cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli – pretty much most vegetables and fruits you know.

7. Choose the right diet for you

When it comes to digestion, you’re the only one who can figure out which diet works for you. Some people need more fiber, while others don’t do well on so much fiber. Some people feel great following a vegan diet, others like the paleo diet. Both are known to positively affect the bacteria inside your gut. However, this doesn’t mean that you need to do either of these diets to be healthy.

How To Heal Your 🫶How to maintain your health

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