5 Foods For Inflammation To Help You Heal Your Gut
One of the things most of us treat horribly in our bodies is our stomachs, and these foods for gut inflammation help us fix the damage.
Inflammation is how most illnesses start and get worse, and many people don’t think about protecting their gut until a problem like H. Pylori, which more than 30% of people in the world have, happens to them and their lives change.
These foods for gut inflammation help you protect your gut and, if it’s already damaged, help you heal it.
Remember, it’s not just about using these foods and herbs. Like any food, how you use it is just as important because it could mean getting the benefits or just eating for nothing.
5 Foods For Gut Inflammation
Turmeric
Ginger
Aloe Vera
Peppermint
Chamomile
What Is Inflammation? / Benefits of Good Gut Health
Inflammation is the body's reaction to something harmful or irritating, like an injury or infection. It's the body's way of trying to fix things.
That redness, swelling, and pain you get; that's inflammation.
But it can be a massive problem if you have too much of it because instead of helping, it can start to damage healthy parts of your body, which, as you guessed, means, yes, many more health problems.
PROBLEMS IN THE BODY = INFLAMMATION = FIXING THE PROBLEMS
TOO MANY PROBLEMS = TOO MUCH CONSTANT INFLAMMATION = INFLAMMATION STARTS DAMAGING HEALTHY PARTS OF YOUR BODY = MORE HOSPITAL + MEDS
A gut with much inflammation causes many problems like:
Digestive issues (abdominal pain, bloating, bowel problems)
Problems absorbing nutrients (you don't get a lot of the vitamins and minerals from the food you eat, and after a long time of this, you start to get more problems because you don't have enough)
Lining of the gut becomes weak, a.k.a. "leaky gut" (things that usually wouldn't pass through from your gut to your blood start to pass through, making it even easier for you to get infections)
Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) and Autoimmune Reactions (can happen because of these leaks)
Higher risk of cancers (ones like colorectal cancer because of the constant inflammation)
Depression and anxiety (the gut is connected to the brain (if the gut isn't feeling good, your mood won't be good, and if your gut never feels good, your mood will rarely be good)
If you don't have a chronically inflamed gut, this is what your gut usually does for you:
Great Digestion (the food you eat gets broken down properly so you absorb the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients in the food and adequately get rid of the waste)
Balanced Bacteria (the millions of good bacteria in your gut are balanced so they can help you digest your food very well and help your immune system in its job so you don't get as sick quickly)
No Gut Leak (you won't have a weak gut that lets harmful chemicals pass through and get into your blood)
Great mood (your mood will be much better)
Here’s how you use the 5 foods for gut inflammation?
1. Turmeric
What’s in it: Curcumin
How it helps you: Curcumin has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that lessen gut inflammation and support digestion.
The best way to have it: eat turmeric with black pepper or piperine so you can absorb the curcumin well
2. Ginger
What’s in it: Gingerol and Shogaol
How it helps you: It also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that help soothe and reduce inflammation in your gut.
The best way to have it: you want to go for the fresh one over the powder one since the fresh one has more gingerol and shagaol
Poll
3. Aloe Vera
What’s in it: Polysaccharides and Glycoproteins
How it helps you: Its healing and anti-inflammatory properties help soothe an inflamed gut, and if you have IBD or IBS, it also helps.
The best way to have it: get high-quality aloe vera foods that don’t have any sugar or artificial ingredients and start small and see how well you handle it, especially if you’re drinking aloe vera juice because aloe vera has something called anthraquinones that can cause some stomach discomfort to some people
4. Peppermint
What’s in it: Menthol
How it helps you: It has antispasmodic effects, which means it helps relax the muscles in your gut and has anti-inflammatory effects; many people use it to relieve IBS symptoms.
The best way to have it: if you get heartburn or acid reflux, this one could bother you if you take it as it is. Instead, take enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules, which work only in the lower gut instead of your stomach.
That way, you avoid any potential heartburn.
Also, for heartburn and acid reflux, you want to avoid them entirely or have very few things like peppermint tea because they can irritate you.
5. Chamomile
What’s in it: Apigenin and Bisabolol
How it helps you: It has a mild sedative effect (which makes you feel relaxed) and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
The best way to have it: drink it in tea before bedtime so you get that calming effect on your digestive system.
For each of these herbs, start slowly and see how your stomach reacts.
Just like fiber, if you take too much at once, you can have some abdominal symptoms.
If you react to any of these herbs, stop eating them until you speak with your doctor.
You might be allergic without knowing.
RELATED POST: Foods High In Fiber | 33 Choices And Why You Can’t Ignore Them
More Tips For Your Gut
Besides using these 5 foods, here are some essential tips to keep your gut healthy/keep it on the track of getting healthy:
PLEASE REMEMBER, so many people want to eat the foods that are good for their gut, but they completely forget about this- the way you eat the food (whether on an empty stomach, with food in your stomach, cooked, raw, cold, hot, fresh, or ground) is just as important as eating the food/thankfully we make it a point to tell you not just the REAL FOODS that benefit you, but how to eat them as well
Stress damages your gut and causes many other problems in your body. It’s not always easy, but if you can, try to remove all unnecessary stress from your life.
Making the majority of your food non REAL FOODS will cause many problems that are more than just about the gut because we were not born with the ability to constantly process and run on these foods (imagine filling a car with half water and half gas and wanting it to run smoothly)
FAQ
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If you experience fewer symptoms, such as less bloating and abdominal pain, regular bowel movements, improved digestion, increased energy levels, and a general sense of well-being. You can also speak with a healthcare professional to see what tests they can give you to see if there is any improvement.
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Generally, the benefits stay the same, but it depends on how and how long you cook them.
Turmeric: effective in cooking
Ginger: retains benefits when cooked
Peppermint: best as a tea or raw; cooking may reduce effectiveness
Aloe vera: typically consumed raw or as juice; not suitable for cooking
Chamomile: best as a tea; cooking is not recommended
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You can take these foods and herbs as supplements, but they can be less effective than eating them.
Supplements give you a consistent dose of the active ingredients but only some or none of the nutrients in the herb itself.
Eating the actual food offers more benefits because you get the full range of nutrients and compounds, which all work together to provide maximum benefits.
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Conclusion
Many of us forget that what we feed our bodies fuels us. If we're fueling ourselves wrong, parts of our bodies become inflamed, and things start to go wrong (skin, nails, hair, mood, energy levels, weight, etc). The foods we discussed, like aloe vera and ginger, can help fight gut inflammation if that's where the problem is. Just make sure to take them properly for maximum benefit.
Take the Next Step: What we eat is not the only way we can harm our bodies. Working at a job where you’re exposed to the same products every day can also cause you to develop things like allergies you’ve never had before. Check out List of Food Allergies You Can Develop After 30 next.
We Want To Know: What other food or herbs have you tried that helped with your gut inflammation? Benefit others in the comments!
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