GUT HEALTH ESSENTIALS

Have you heard about the Gut/Brain Connection? Gut health is essential for mental and physical vitality, immune function, vitamin and mineral absorption, and so much more, and is all about balance and harmony.  Your gut is connected to your oral microbiome, your brain, nervous system, liver, and all the way down to your exit and is all heavily impacted by the balance of good to bad.
When it comes to gut health, most people run to probiotics at the earliest sign of an issue, without realizing that most probiotics don’t make it past a certain point, only last a few days without needing to be replaced, and are not a quick fix.  There is also a risk of "monogut" by overpopulating certain bacteria and not keeping the harmony of many types. There is definitely a place for probiotics, they just aren't everything. If you are taking probiotics, make sure to change them every 3 months to avoid monogut.
Having a healthy gut and microbiome is about having a diverse ecosystem of good bacteria, and creating an environment, duet, and lifestyle that doesn't allow the bad to survive and thrive.
As a family, here are some of our favorite free ways to support our gut and microbiome:
+ Play in the dirt!  Let yourself and your kids get dirty!
+ Expose our bare stomach to the sun
+ Eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, fibers, fermented foods, and prebiotic foods
+ Support our liver to produce bile with coffee enemas and detoxes
+ Mouth taping
+ Nasal breathing

Here are a few things we avoid when possible to keep our microbiome diverse:
+ Antibiotics when possible - there can be a season for antibiotics, but even using them for 2 days can wipe out years of good bacteria as well as the bad
+ Hand sanitizer
+ Mouthwash (kills the active oral microbiome)

Having a functional and optimal gut and microbiome doesn't happen overnight just as Rome wasn't built in a day. But if you start incorporating the free tools we recommend above, you'll have momentum moving in the right direction.
To help you faster on this journey, we've given you countless tools and products we've found over the years that we incorporate into our life to keep our gut strong! 

All of the links below are affiliate links, if you purchase using one of the links below - you are supporting us in sharing our wellness journey, and for that we are genuinely grateful! You can read our full affiliate disclosure here.