Healthy Gut, Healthy You

Transform your health from the inside out.
A healthy gut communicates with the brain through nerves and hormones, which helps maintain general health and well-being.

Your gut and emotions are a two-way street. They both impact each other. Addressing the state of your gut is not just about the food you eat. Every day we live and every meal we eat we influence the great microbial organ inside us- for better or for worse.

Healthy Gut is the Key to Overall Health

A healthy gut contributes to a strong immune system, healthy heart and brain, improved mood, healthy sleep, and effective digestion, and it may help prevent some cancers and autoimmune diseases.

A healthy gut, good digestion, and mental health have deep connections. These factors have an influence on our minds and emotions. 

The Road To Health Is Paved With Good Intestines

Ayurveda & Agni

Ayurveda has long emphasized Agni/digestive fire. Agni’s primary functions are digestion, absorption, assimilation, and the transformation of food into energy. In Ayurveda, digestion affects not only the food you eat but also your mental capacities and energy levels. 

Agni is responsible for digesting food into nutrients and helping process feelings, emotions, and thoughts. An important concept in Ayurveda that goes along with Agni is Ama. 

According to Ayurveda, any food that we consume when the appetite is not strong and is too heavy for the digestive system to metabolize is usually converted to a toxin called AMA. 

Ama and Agni

Ama (toxins) depletes Agni (your digestive fire), which leads to weight gain, food allergies, and low energy levels. Ama has accumulated toxins or undigested food, emotions, and thoughts that get stored in our fat cells. Thus with wrong eating habits and lifestyle issues, a vicious cycle of impaired Agni and the production of Ama is established.

Imbalance

An imbalance caused at the level of Vata, or air & space elements, will have an influence on thought, emotions, sleep, bones, joints, and the nervous system. This is normally caused by a combination of factors like poor diet, weak digestion, stress, and disturbed sleep. 

Accumulation of Vata imbalance over an extended period of time can result in a susceptible gut and common digestive disorders.

Ayurveda involves a holistic approach to addressing the Vata Imbalance. This will include an easily digestible diet, including simple home-cooked food with warming spices. Spices like asafoetida and ajwain (carom seed) are recommended to be used in cooking or as a tea to prevent bloating and enhance digestion. 

Food & Digestion

The Ayurvedic principle of having food freshly prepared and mixed with various digestive spices helps maintain a healthy fecal pH level. The concept of eating locally and with seasonal ingredients helps in improved digestion and elimination functions. 

Fresh and seasonal produce has a better concentration of antioxidants, nutrients, and life force in them than those which are stored in cold storage. 

Spices like turmeric, black cumin, ginger, garlic, etc. which are commonly used in Ayurvedic cuisine are also proven to have strong anti-cancerous properties.

Fasting and Rebalance

In Ayurveda, fasting is recommended as a method of cleansing or detoxification. Fasting purifies both the body and the mind. Ayurvedic fasting works on removing the body from accumulated toxins by following a body-type diet. 

A properly planned fasting will not only cleanse but will also build up the digestive fire and prepare it to metabolize heavy and difficult-to-digest food. Checkout post on Ayurveda Cleanse, Reprogram Your Digestive Fire

Balanced Diet

Ayurveda recommends a diet that is balanced in all six tastes. They are sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter, and astringent. A diet that is balanced in all six will naturally include all the nutrients and would not make us feel unnecessarily unsatisfied or create undue cravings. 

You may like to read: 10 Ayurveda Daily Routine, Detox Cleanse

Gut Cleanse Detox

Some simple Gut Cleanse Detox can be done at home on a more regular basis and can do Ayurveda panchakarma detoxification therapy once a year. This consists of five purificatory actions combined with abhyanga or oil massage; swedhana, sweating; and a mono-diet of kitchari. This Ayurvedic Cleansing is best done at the change of seasons to rebalance accumulated doshas. Heal Your Gut Naturally with Gut Cleanse Detox

Understand Ayurveda: Holistic Healing System
Ayurveda is one of the world’s oldest holistic (“whole-body”) healing systems. It’s based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit. Its main goal is to promote good health and the prevention of diseases through diet and lifestyle regimens.

• Simple Ways for Ayurveda Lifestyle
• The Right Way of Eating as per Ayurveda
• Herbs & Spices for Enhancing Immunity & General Wellness
• Benefits Of Drinking Warm Water (Ayurveda Perspective)
• Bad Food Combinations Cause Inflammation
• Boost Your Metabolism with Ayurveda

Resources

• The Microbiome: Learn more about the role of diet, probiotics, and future research areas. … that contain live active bacteria—advertised to promote digestive health.
• The Brain-Gut Connection: Researchers are studying whether probiotics — live bacteria that are safe to eat — can improve gastrointestinal health and your mood.