15 HEALTH TIPS FOR HEALTHY GUT IN MONSOON

When the monsoons arrive, they bring immediate relief from the unbearable summer heat. However, it is essential to remember that the monsoons bring many diseases and other health-related issues. Therefore, eating gut health foods and following healthy stomach tips are essential to staying healthy during the monsoons.

Why Do We Fall Sick During the Monsoons?

The primary reason most people fall ill during the monsoon season is that it impacts their immune systems. Around 70% of the body’s immune cells are found in the gut, where the disease-causing bacteria attack them. 

The gut consists of good and bad bacteria. The imbalance between these bacteria weakens immunity, resulting in many inflammatory skin diseases, such as acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, and gastrointestinal disorders. 

Gut immunity acts as a protective layer and defends the body against bacterial byproducts, undigested protein, and toxins from the bloodstream.

What Upsets Gut Health?

Weak gut immunity and an imbalance of bacteria caused by consuming junk food, fatty foods, and processed foods can irritate the mucosal lining and cause indigestion. Food that is not adequately digested forms a morbid lining in the gastrointestinal system, resulting in stomach problems. So, one must be more careful about what they eat during the monsoon season. 

This article has put together the best Tips For Gut Health and the most suitable and safe foods for this season! 

Foods Good For Gut Health: 

Here’s a list of gut health foods one must consume during monsoons. 

1. Have plenty of buttermilk

Buttermilk is a probiotic drink that contains healthy bacteria to aid digestion and is considered a crowd favorite for foods good for gut health. During summer, drinking buttermilk prevents dehydration and heat stroke as it is rich in water, calcium, phosphorus, and electrolytes such as potassium and water. Also, buttermilk helps balance acidity.

Drinking buttermilk is one of the best tips for gut health, even during the monsoons. The good bacteria in the buttermilk keep your digestive system healthy and prevent indigestion issues.

2. Avoid spicy food

Spicy foods should be avoided by anyone with allergies since they boost body temperature, stimulate blood circulation, and irritate the stomach and intestinal lining. This triggers digestion issues and causes allergies to spread more quickly. Spicy foods are surely not a part of foods to improve gut health during the monsoons.

3. Load up on seasonal fruit 

Fruits like apples, lychee, plums, cherries, pits, papaya, pears, and palm grenades are nutritious gut health foods and make the best diet additions in any rainy season to boost your immune system. Avoid watermelon and muskmelon during the season.

4. Follow proper hygiene

It is vital to stick to a strict monsoon hygiene regimen. Personal hygiene tips for the monsoon include washing and sanitising hands often, washing fruits and vegetables under running water, boiling drinking water, and adding a disinfectant to the bathwater. Hand hygiene is essential for killing bacteria on the skin and preventing illnesses.

5. Use Herbs

Those suffering from infections and fevers during the monsoon season might benefit from a decoction made from ginger and a dash of medicinal spices such as clove, pepper, cinnamon, and cardamom. In addition, it protects against allergies that grow more severe during the rainy season. Herbs are popular foods to improve gut health in all seasons, including the monsoons!

6. Take Prebiotic Gut Health Supplements

Prebiotics has several health benefits, including reducing inflammation caused by inflammatory bowel diseases and infection frequency and duration. Prebiotics are found in many fruits, like Asparagus, especially those that include complex carbohydrates. They become good digestive foods for the bacteria present in the gut. You can also find plenty of gut health supplements packed with probiotics and prebiotics.

7. Eat Raw Banana

Bananas are rich in resistant starch and also have prebiotic properties. Eating barley and whole oats with pieces of banana is an excellent way to consume beta gluten fibre that keeps your gut bacteria healthy and happy. Bananas are also good digestive foods that keep your gut healthy.

8. Eat Apples

Apples are rich in pectin fibers. Pectin helps decrease harmful bacteria in the stomach while encouraging the growth of healthy bacteria. Therefore, eating apples during the monsoons is suitable for a healthy stomach and gut.

9. Limit salt intake. 

Healthy stomach tips include reducing salt consumption during the monsoons to avoid water retention and high blood pressure. In addition, watery vegetables and fruits like watermelon should be avoided as they may promote swelling in the body. 

10. Regular workouts 

Regular exercise and yoga can provide a deep intra-abdominal massage that enhances blood circulation and digestion in the stomach area. Yoga asanas like Vajrasana, Pavanmuktasana, and Paschimottanasana have been found to be effective for gut health.

11. Drink only filtered and boiled water

During the rainy season, people drink less water, but the body needs to be adequately hydrated. Whether indoors or outdoors, one must get their regular water intake. Drinking boiled or filtered water is essential to prevent bacterial or viral diseases.

12. Avoid leafy greens

Though leafy greens are usually considered healthy as they are packed with critical nutrients, they should be avoided during the rainy season. This is because leafy greens are loaded with grime and wetness and are the perfect breeding ground for infectious disease-causing microbes. Therefore, if consumed, they must be thoroughly washed and well-cooked.

13. Eat small meals

During the rainy season, everyone loves to eat fried foods like pakoras and fries. While this may seem indulgent, eating such oily and fried snacks can delay digestion in the humid monsoon weather, increasing the risk of bloating, gas, acidity, heartburn and indigestion. 

14. Avoid meat and seafood

During the rainy season, it is best to avoid seafood. This is because water bodies are frequently contaminated by sewage, increasing the risk of marine species being exposed to toxic substances. In addition, most seafood sold during the monsoon season is pre-packaged or preserved, and the nutritional value of fish is lowered when stored for prolonged periods.

It may be a good idea to keep meat consumption to a minimum and opt only for well-cooked meats, as animals tend to carry infections during the monsoons. 

Limit sugar intake

One must reduce refined sugar intake since it can create inflammation, stimulate the growth of harmful bacteria, and disrupt the gut flora balance. They provide calories but no additional nutritional benefits. It is also advisable to avoid fried and junk food loaded with carbohydrates and unhealthy fat. 

Takeaway

These diets, healthy gut tips, and timely preventive health check-ups, can help safeguard one’s health from common medical illnesses and enjoy the rainy season to the fullest. For more health-related information, visit Wellness Forever.