2 – Tummy Health

Be good to your tummy

A healthy bacteria life in your tummy is super important for your well-being. ‘The microbiome in our digestive tract has a wonderful word in Swedish ‘Tarmflora’. Our microbiome consists of trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes that live mainly in your large intestine or colon. Together they weigh around 1-2 kilo’s (!) and until relatively a few years ago they were mostly ignored in nutritional science.

Benefits of good tummy health

We now know that your microbiome or tarmflora can influence your immune system, but also plays a role in how your mood is, how you develop allergies and to the amount of weight you will put on. Good tummy health reduces inflammation, which helps heal bowel problems from bloating to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but also heart disease and type 2 diabetes. 

AND it improves your mental health. Your tummy and your brain are intimately connected by the vagus nerve. Good tummy bacteria also produce a range of chemicals that they use to influence your brain, from “feel good” hormones like serotonin to hunger hormones that influence how hungry you get and what you eat.

What foods promote good tummy health?

Sugars and saturated fats for instance are the foods our ‘bad bacteria’ love. Natural prebiotics and probiotics are foods that our good bacteria love. It makes them stronger and they can multiply faster. So the more food you give to the good bacteria the more they can thrive. Asparagus, onion, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes and foods rich in natural fibre are good prebiotics. Fermented vegetables like kimchi and sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir and probiotic yogurt are examples of probiotics. As we mostly eat few of the above on a regular basis, I recommend you take a probiotic supplement next to a balanced diet.

Detox and Tummy Health

The detox program gives your digestive tract the space and time to clean up and retrieve the healthy nutritions in your detox diet. You can easier absorb nutrients and the lack of sugar, meat and processed foods makes room for the good bacteria to thrive.