Five Daily Foods for Better Digestion
Five natural remedies for better digestion- and you can eat them all daily!
- Ginger
- Sauerkraut
- Turmeric
- Cucumbers
- Apple Cider Vinegar (with the mother)
The following information is not medical advice and is only to be used as educational material. Always speak to your professional healthcare provider before adding or changing your diet. Digestion is a full body effort and when digestion is off, the entire body can feel a bit crummy or even terrible. We maintain our bodies in simple ways such as brushing our teeth, clipping nails, and skin care (always holistic at home) sometimes our bodies need more intensive care, but regular maintenance helps keep things running. We maintain our cars with basic oil changes and tire rotation, just like our bodies, sometimes we need more intensive work on the vehicles but the regular maintenance keeps things running smoothly. But what about that awesome gut that you are working food into three times a day, sometimes even more? When we help the digestive system have support it supports us back. There are many things we can do to better our overall digestive health and wellness. Today I will focus on my top five favorite ways to maintain overall digestive health.
1-Ginger
You may have heard once or twice or even many times that ginger helps the digestive system. Now raise your hand if you have taken this information to heart, or should I say take this information to gut…ha… (OK, put your hands down now). First, let’s look at the ginger as a whole. When you look at the root, what does ginger look like that is very similar to a body part? If you said kneecaps or left elbow, try again. Ginger looks like the intestines! I find it fascinating how closely connected herbs are to the body, to the point that they replicate those parts of the body. God knew what he was doing when he created the world and he made some awesome plants and foods to help our bodies heal. Ginger works by…
Now, I don’t want you to read this information and not do anything with it! This information is not just for someone who is struggling with digestive issues. If you have a body of flesh and bone, your body needs maintenance, so give your guts some ginger baby!
Ways to use ginger:
~Fresh ginger (my favorite way). Almost every time I go to my favorite grocery store (Natural Grocers) I nearly always buy a small nub of ginger to suck on on the drive home. Ginger is spicy and powerful, it may take a bit of time to eat ginger raw. If you’re not ready to start gnawing on a fresh stub of ginger, that’s fine, fresh ginger can be made into tea, grated into soups, stir fry, added to muffins, or any recipe you want to use it in. Always start with small amounts of ginger and work up! If you have an abundance of fresh ginger you can always use the next way listed below.
~Frozen. Maybe you purchased a large amount of ginger and you don’t plan on using it all. Or maybe walking out of the store the produce manager stopped you and told you they had an overstock of ginger so they gave you a full bag (did that only happen to me?). Frozen ginger is also so perfect to have on hand for when you need a quick blob in soup or a tummy tea.
~Dried ginger. I purchase ginger from Mountain Rose Herb. Dried ginger is great for dry storage. When storing all herbs it is best to keep them in a glass jar (some say glass is bad for herbs, but I have yet to see this as true). They also need dry, dark, and cool conditions, the less exposure to elements herbs have the longer nutrients will last.
Note: I avoid tea bags almost always. There are only a few brands I trust, but overall I just avoid buying tea bags because of the fillers, microplastics, and chemicals in the bags. I always purchase my herbs by the pound because we use such a large amount of herbs daily. The brands I like to purchase herbs from are Mountain Rose Herbs, Frontier, Azure Standard, and Herb Co. Just make sure your herbs are organic or wild-crafted.
2- Sauerkraut
Sauerkraut. Super bacteria for some super gut health. Now we are talking about fermented sauerkraut. This can be homemade or a store-bought product. If you choose to purchase one from the store, there are some things to know beforehand. First, not all sauerkraut is made equally, so reading ingredient labels is important! So, you trot into the grocery store for your sauerkraut- where do you go? All those fancy shelves with canned goods that last a few years in cans and jars?
Nope, we need the fresh foods section. Probiotics are alive (if we were talking in person you would hear me say some sound effects with the word “alive”, pretend I said it in a bit of a vampire/zombie voice.). Because they are alive, we need to give them that comfortable loving place where they are refrigerated. Next, we are going to read the ingredients. Your typical plain sauerkraut should have really basic ingredients; cabbage, salt, and possibly garlic. Now if you’re feeling extra adventurous you can find a sauerkraut with other herbs, spices, and sometimes a few other produce foods like beets, carrots, onions, etc… Make sure your container says something about live bacteria. Most people go for the big Costco container of Wildbrine. Yup, that one works. Now if you ever want to make your own Sauerkraut, that is something you can do, it’s easy!
Ways to use Sauerkraut:
~Put it in your ice cream… ha. Ok, not really but I hope you laughed. Though, I do through it in my smoothie sometimes. My kids eat sauerkraut easily in most foods, but it’s always a no-go in smoothies.
~Put it on tacos! We eat a lot of quick meals of lettuce-wrapped tacos, a bit of raw cheese, and well-seasoned grass-fed beef topped with a big plop of sauerkraut. We also add it to breakfast tacos of egg and beans.
~ Toss it into a salad. This is pretty easy, just add it into a veggie-packed salad, and the “sour” in sauerkraut just blends right in. You can also use my popular recipe for Happy gut salad, you can find it in my recipes section.
~ Side. This is the biggest way we eat it, just scoop it up and put it in mini cups to eat as a side. Some meals get tossed on and for some meals, we eat it on its own.
~ Your go-to food. Ya know when you are super hungry, nearly hangry and you just want to reach for anything in sight. This is where I have a bit of a rule for myself to reach for sauerkraut. That way I don’t go searching the cupboards for the potato chips that I don’t even buy anyway.
3-Turmeric
Oh man, I love me a big chunk of turmeric! Almost every time I go to Natural Grocers I get a small nub of turmeric and ginger to snack on on my drive home. Natural Grocers has baskets filled with multiple sizes of these fresh roots. Fresh turmeric has a bit of a crunch like a carrot but has a stronger flavor. You don’t have to use Turmeric raw though, you can purchase a bag of powdered Turmeric. I am careful to avoid turmeric from conventional sources because these can have traces of herbicides, pesticides e and fertilizers in the foods. I like Mountain Rose Herbs for my Turmeric powder and I also use Organic Herb Co and Frontier brands. Turmeric is the coolest because it’s extremely anti-inflammatory! Some “foods” cause inflammation (highly processed grains, refined sugars, processed meats, some dairy, refined oils, and preservative-filled foods). Turmeric is a superfood that can make the body feel great and it can help full-body inflammation go down! Inflammation causes pain and swelling, this is the body communicating that something needs some extra love! Eating whole foods free of preservatives refined sugars and flours is a huge step in reducing inflammation. But having this extra boost of turmeric gets the body in the right mindset.
Another really exciting thing about eating turmeric and other superfoods is how they help us make better choices of what other foods to eat next! When we feed our body sugary, highly processed foods we are feeding the bad bacteria. The bad bacteria love that! They say “Hey give me more of that sugar, I love me a bunch of butter rolls, and go back for multiple slices of that Costco chocolate cake! Feed me more sugar and carbs!!”. The good bacteria get sad when we eat these processed foods, the good bacteria want to be fed but sugar and carbs don’t do much for feeding them. Good bacteria love the healthy stuff, like turmeric, so they feel good and that makes the body feel good and the body starts to want these foods more. I like to notice patterns and our bodies are full of patterns! We exercise, we build muscle, we think positive thoughts we build new neuropathology, we eat well, we feel well, we get in the pattern of eating turmeric every day- we have a pattern of eating super-foods daily! Start your turmeric pattern (habit) today!
Ways to use turmeric:
-Snack on a nub of turmeric raw as often as you can. Turmeric doesn’t have as big of a flavor kick as ginger, so if you are slowly trying to introduce yourself to the raw root, just start with really small nubs and increase how much you eat daily. Try to always buy organic, my favorite and most trustworthy store is Natural Grocers.
~You don’t have to use Turmeric raw though, you can purchase a bag of powdered Turmeric. I am careful to avoid turmeric from conventional sources because these can have traces of herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers in the foods. I like Mountain Rose Herbs for my Turmeric powder and I also use Organic Herb Co or Frontier brands.
~Potatoes! We love to bake up potatoes with the organic garlic seasoning from Costco, some cayenne, a bit of Mediterranean or Cajun seasoning, and some turmeric powder. You can slip turmeric into most savory meals and even some sweet meals, just start with small amounts and build up to more as you adjust to the flavor.
~Capsules… Eh. I don’t love capsules, they are not what the body was created to ingest and they are a bit confusing to the body but you can read more about that here in my post “Why I don’t love capsules”.
~Smoothies. I try to drink a dinosaur smoothie every day. A small nub or a sprinkle of turmeric powder is pretty easy to cover up in a smoothie. You could also make an orange glow smoothie which also uses turmeric.
4-Cucumbers
Cucumbers are my go-to food almost daily. There is nothing like the refreshing aroma of a newly cut cucumber. Superfoods are foods that have exceptional nutritional content and boost the body, such as spirulina, chia seeds, ginger, fermented cod liver oil, and so many others. I don’t know if cucumbers are an official “superfood”, but I now declare them as such because I feel like they really are. Cucumbers help clean up the entire body, they freshen and clean the mouth, and they hydrate the body. Cucumbers help hydrate the digestive tract which helps flush the gut of toxins. Cucumbers smell refreshing because they are refreshing! Cucumbers can help regulate blood sugar and are a great snack free of sugar spikes. Cucumbers are by far my favorite garden snack in the hot sun especially if I have a bottle of salt nearby. Cucumbers are regularly listed each year on the EWG Dirty Dozen list, make sure you buy organic or grow your own!
Ways to use cucumbers:
~Slice and salt
~Likely if you know me, you have seen me carrying around a full cucumber chomping at it like an ice cream cone, they are such easy veggies to just grab and go.
~You can make my happy gut salad that you can find HERE or toss it into any smoothie.
~Throw them into a dinosaur smoothie.
~Fresh pressed juice! I love juicing cucumbers with celery and drinking it fresh to start my day. Juicing makes my body feel incredible, but my favorite part is I always see colors brighter and more clear after each time I drink fresh juice.
~Charchoterie board! Cucumbers add a beautiful pop and a healthy balance to a charcuterie board. Using a wavy slicer makes them look extra fancy.
~Slice them up pretty on a plate and share them with your neighbor.
~Water infusion. Slice up a full cucumber and toss it into a gallon of water to sip on throughout the day. You can add a bit of lemon, strawberries, or ginger for additional flavors.
~Popsicles! In my frozen foods cookbook, I have a recipe for strawberry cucumber popsicles.
5-Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is a necessary pantry staple in our home. Not all ACV is created the same, ACV needs to be sold “with the mother” for full effectiveness. I highly suggest Fairchild’s ACV, it is full strength ACV, made with pure, non-GMO, whole organic apples and free of Organipeel or apeel (Sprayed onto produce to make them last longer than their God-given nature intended). Fairchild’s makes quality stuff, no others compare. Back in the day, BRAGG was the hot stuff ACV, but after BRAGG sold their brand to some sad-sourcing billionaires, the quality and safety plummeted down. To get the most out of your ACV make sure you follow these guidelines.
-ACV should be unpasteurized and unfiltered
-ACV should be “with the mother”. This means all the enzymes and bacteria were not filtered and no heat was applied.
-ACV should be organic. Apples are a regular on the EWG dirty dozen list. Avoiding these hormone-disrupting chemicals is important in keeping the body in check because really, chemicals don’t belong in food!
ACV is high in acetic acid- this is one of the main parts of why this super drink has so many health perks.
ACV is great to add to your diet for endless needs, decreases bloating, helps the gallbladder release bile, reduces acid reflux, boosts digestion, balances blood sugar, breaks down proteins, helps fight off sickness and so much more. I use ACV to increase stomach acid because I am an “A” blood type, I am prone to have lower stomach acid, so breaking down high-fat and high-protein foods can be harder for my body if my stomach acid is not at adequate levels. ACV boosts the stomach acid to what it should be! ACV has enzymes
Ways to use Apple Cider Vinegar:
~Drink 1-2 TBSP of ACV in water. I use about 1/4 a cup of water but many people need to use more water to lessen the overpowering flavor.
~Add 2-3 TBSP of ACV to 1 cup of water with 1-2 TBSP of raw honey or maple syrup.
~Add ACV to fresh pressed apple juice until tolerable taste.
~Use ACV for making salad dressings and marinades
~Make a cup of lemon, ACV, cinnamon, and honey tea.
I love all of these superfoods and I know they are a great contribution to my health. Let me know if you try one or any! These superfoods can make you feel super!
