Being at your best means being able to maintain your energy levels and feeling great all summer, and it all starts in the gut. A healthy gut microbiome – the community of microorganisms living in your digestive system – is of utmost importance to your health. These sets of healthy bacteria are essential for a healthy metabolism, energy levels, digestion and much more. However, they can also be potentially harmful due to the change in their composition when the gut ecosystem undergoes abnormal changes due to the use of antibiotics, illness, stress, ageing, bad dietary habits, and lifestyle.

Check out the list of foods that you must feed these bacteria to optimise your health during summers.

Fruits

Summers are all about fruits and fruits that are high in fibre serve as the easiest way to maintain a favourable pH balance in the colon. The colon must be slightly acidic to support good bacteria and to prevent harmful bacteria from thriving. The pH value of the colon should range from 6.7 to 6.9 for good gut health. Fruits like pears, raspberries, apples, kiwis and blueberries are all rich in fibre and hence are the best foods to eat for a healthy gut during scorching sunny days.

The skin of pears is particularly beneficial as it has three to four times as many phytonutrients as the flesh while the fibrous kiwi binds with toxins in the colon and removes them, thus reducing the risk of colon cancer. Kiwis are low in fat but rich in nutrients. Blueberries are a major source of prebiotics like bifidobacteria which improve gut health.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are edible fungi that have numerous prebiotic components like alpha and beta-glucans, chitin, mannans,, xylans and hemicellulose. Mushrooms act as prebiotics, thus feeding the beneficial gut microbes. They further create nutrients like vitamin K and SCFA (short-chain fatty acids) that help repair the cells of the intestinal walls.

Various researchers from Hong Kong conducted a study which revealed that mushrooms can contribute to building our immunity against tumours, and pneumonia. Even simple white button mushrooms are known to increase microbial diversity and change the composition of the gut flora while stimulating local inflammatory responses. Not to miss out on the anti-cancer, anti-allergy and cholesterol-lowering attributes of mushrooms.

Green bananas

Green bananas are very high in resistant starch. A medium-sized green banana has as much as 38 g of resistant starch. Not only are they an excellent source of soluble fibre, but also keep your stomach full during summers while keeping your gut microbiome healthy and well-composed.

          (By: Dr. Surendra K Chikara; Source: NDTV)