It is important to maintain your overall body health, and your digestive system is just as important as maintaining your bone health, heart health and the health of the rest of the body parts. It matters what you do in your lifestyle especially with your diet to control your digestive health.
You should not wait until you experience a digestive problem; you need to start making simple steps that will ensure your well-being and the health of your gut. You also need to maintain the regularity of the digestive system so that you will have a proper metabolism of the foods that you eat. The following are tips for better digestive health.
Eat a High Fiber Diet
It is recommended that you take at least 20 to 35 g of fiber content in your daily meal to help your digestive system. The source of fiber is vegetables, nuts, grains, legumes, and fruits. Sometimes, you might not be sure if the fibers will help your digestive system, you need to take both the insoluble and soluble fiber.
Soluble fiber is good in slowing down the process of digestion to allow your body to absorb more nutrients and eliminate substances such as cholesterol. The insoluble fiber also helps in preventing the conditions such as constipation and diverticulosis.
Consume Adequate Proteins
You need to consume adequate proteins especially the non-animal foods such as the vegetable protein, beans, and soy products to ensure that the digestion system is in the right health condition. The animal protein is important to the body, but it is not good for the digestion health because it contains high levels of cholesterol and saturated fats.
You need to focus on the plant proteins because they contain beneficial monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats but no cholesterol. However, when you choose the animal proteins, take only the lean meats, poultry, and fish.
Limit Fats and Concentrated Sweets
Limiting your consumption of fats and concentrated sweets is beneficial. Instead, you can emphasize on the complex carbohydrates like whole rains since they contain important nutrients and fiber which is needed for optimal digestive health.
You need to beware that high fats diet can cause various diseases such as cancer, heart diseases, obesity among other serious illnesses. Experts in health and nutrition recommend choosing a diet that has less than 30 % of calories from fats.
Stay Hydrated Always
In all your daily meals, you need to include enough fluids from beverages so that you can stay hydrated to boost proper digestion. You are supposed to take about eight glasses of water daily to ensure that your digestion maintains good health. The fluids you take should not necessarily be water; you can choose to take water-rich food such as soup.
Similarly, you can try adding food substances such as lemon or cucumbers slices to water to have a refreshing twist. Another great way to hydrate yourself is by taking the decaffeinate herbal tea; this is an important fluid that will ensure proper digestion health.
