Gut Healthy Foods: Herbs and Spices

If you're looking for more ways to improve your gut health with the food you eat, you should definitely take a minute to watch this quick video on gut healthy herbs and spices. Hi, I'm Kelsey Ale. I'm a cookbook author and a gut health specialist and certified nutritional therapist at KelseyAle.com. And I help people heal their guts and recover from chronic illness like chronic digestive disorders and mood disorders using food and food-based supplements. And right here on YouTube, every week I put out a new video educating you on those topics exactly, how to heal your gut naturally. So if that's of interest to you or if you think it's relevant, please go ahead and subscribe to my channel and hit the bell to be notified when I post a new video. Now one thing I'm working on educating more people about is how important your diet is to your gut health. In fact, it's so important that what you eat is a bigger determining factor in the health of your microbiome than even your genetics. And a couple of great food sources of gut healing nutrients are herbs and spices. Now a spice is a seed or a root or the bark of a plant, whereas an herb is the flower or the leaves or the stem. And some studies have shown that consuming a total of about five grams of certain herbs and spices for two weeks straight has improved or increased beneficial bacterial counts by 20% and it's decreased non-beneficial bacteria accounts by 10%. And for those of you who are not on the metric system, five grams is about two tablespoons total of herbs and spices a day. So exactly what herbs and spices should you be eating every day to get these amazing gut health boosting benefits? Well, to start with, we have oregano. Oregano is probably one of the more potent herbs you can partake in to improve your gut health. It's a pretty powerful herbal antimicrobial agent that works by keeping your non-beneficial bacteria in check, which creates more space for the beneficial bacteria to flourish. Now curcumin is the active compound that's found in cumin, which of course means it's found in many curry mixes as well as turmeric. And curcumin and cumin are great spices for gut health because what they do is they do reduce inflammation in the intestines. They also moderate the amount of bacterial endotoxin that's allowed to circulate in your system. So they're good for detoxification and they also just generally support the mucosal barrier of the gut lining. Ginger is next on our list of gut healing spices because it's a root. And ginger is great, as you know, for easing nausea and soothing an upset stomach. But what you might not have known about ginger is that it's anti-inflammatory properties even extend to the gut and the gut lining. And by reducing inflammation in the gut, it allows for greater nutrient absorption. Ginger has also been shown to stimulate the production of digestive enzymes in the small intestine, which is an integral part of digestion. Another spice that you may or may not have thought of as being beneficial for gut health is actually cayenne pepper. Now cayenne pepper works to support gut health in a couple of different ways. First of all, it stimulates the production of saliva, which is a really important starting point in the digestive process. And it just like ginger helps stimulate the production of digestive enzymes in the small intestine. And last on my list for today, I have cinnamon smells amazing. One of the things you might know about cinnamon is that it is helpful for regulating blood glucose and insulin levels, but it's also really supportive to gut health. And one of the ways that cinnamon is beneficial to gut health is by basically protecting the integrity of the lining of the wall of the stomach and the lining of the wall of the intestines. So it's really beneficial for building a healthy, strong gut. All of these herbs and spices also contain prebiotics, which if you've watched any of my other videos, you know that prebiotics are the beneficial fibers that feed and nourish the good gut bugs that we want to help flourish in your system for better overall gut health. And there's research that's been done on many other herbs and spices that have shown benefit and promise for improving gut health. I was actually thinking about showing you and creating some demonstration videos for how to create some recipes using these herbs and spices. So if that's something you're interested in learning more about or seeing, just let me know in the comments below. And if you want to check out a complete list of gut healing foods, including tips for how to build your best gut healing diet, definitely click the link below to check out my new 28 day gut health reset program. It's a program that teaches you how to reset your gut and build a healthier microbiome in just 28 days using food and food based supplements. I've created meal plans, recipe books, a professional supplement guide, and so many more resources. So you can truly master your gut and feel comfortable in your own skin again. All right, that is it. That's all I have for you today. Go ahead and check out these videos next for more tips on how to heal your gut using food. And if you liked this video, let me know by hitting the thumbs up and the like button. Be sure to share this video with your friends and remember to subscribe so that you will see me back here next week and get a notification when I post a new video. All right, that's it. That's all. Take care and I will see you next week. Bye.