Four Types of Foods Your Gut Will Love—Don't Miss Out!

Food affects health through the gut microbiome. To "take care of" the gut, providing it with ample nutrition, avoiding constipation, and ensuring a robust intestinal function are essential for a healthy body. In fact, the gut has its own preferred foods, which should be noted in your diet.

1. Whole Grains: Replace half your white rice and flour with coarse grains

To keep the gut comfortable, you must first strengthen the population of gut probiotics. Probiotics love foods rich in dietary fiber and oligosaccharides, with whole grains being a prime example. But look at our bowls; they are almost always white rice and white steamed buns. The dietary fiber we get from our staple foods is incomparable to what we consumed two or three decades ago. According to statistics, the average dietary fiber intake for residents in China in recent years is around 15 grams, which does not meet the recommended amount of 20-30 grams. Replace half of the white rice and flour at home with whole grains. Choose a variety each time, cook them in an electric pressure cooker for a simple, convenient, and nutritious porridge. Alternatively, soak beans for 8-12 hours and coarse grains for 2-4 hours before cooking them into a porridge, which makes them easier to cook and digest.

Farm-style Mixed Grain Rice

2. Tubers and Legumes: Use dried beans as a staple, and fresh beans as a side dish

Both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber are abundant in sweet potatoes. If you're not used to mixed grain rice, cut sweet potatoes, potatoes, and other tubers into small pieces and steam them with rice to avoid a nutritionally monotonous staple diet. Legume foods like green beans, red beans, and soybeans contain even more dietary fiber than tubers. Soybeans, in particular, are not only rich in dietary fiber but also contain oligosaccharides that promote the growth of probiotics. Fresh beans like tender peas, fava beans, and edamame also contain a good amount of dietary fiber and are great as side dishes.

3. Root Vegetables: Make vegetable soups with burdock and carrots

Root vegetables like celery, burdock, and carrots are also foods the gut favors. Burdock, in particular, is known as "Oriental ginseng" and is rich in coarse fiber, which not only relieves constipation but is also beneficial for preventing various chronic diseases. For a vegetarian soup, burdock and carrots are excellent ingredients; simply simmer them lightly and season for a clear and delicious broth. Of course, fruits shouldn't be forgotten either. Apples, oranges, dragon fruit, kiwis, and others contain relatively rich fiber, hemicellulose, pectin, and gum, all of which have a positive effect on gut health and cancer prevention.

Burdock and Lamb Soup

4. Seaweed: Serve cold or in soup for a delicious and nutritious meal

Wakame is inexpensive but is an excellent sea vegetable that is high in dietary fiber and protein, low in fat, and rich in minerals and vitamins. Sea lettuce has a tender and smooth texture and is rich in trace elements like magnesium, calcium, and iodine. It also contains soluble dietary fiber like alginic acid. Moss grass has a high content of plant胶, which can absorb water and swell in the gut, making it very helpful for relieving constipation, so middle-aged and elderly people can eat more of it. Sea lettuce and other seaweeds have a high sodium content, so it's a good idea to soak them in water for a while, blanch them in boiling water, squeeze out the excess water, chop them up, and mix with salt, soy sauce, minced garlic, and sesame oil. Additionally, seaweed soup, nori soup, and sea lettuce egg drop soup are also excellent choices.

Seaweed Cold Noodles