When it comes to digestive health supplements, there is always that one question on everyone’s minds. Should they take them? Well, generally speaking, the answer is a resounding yes, as most natural gut health supplements are simply there to improve your nutrition. Otherwise, if you have regular bouts of food poisoning or have your lunch spilled on the floor where it was previously already on its way to your stomach, a doctor’s visit might be your priority.
Regardless, most digestive health supplements are generally safe and can often relieve digestive discomforts in a way that even doctors would recommend them. After all, why not? Better nutrition leads to better digestive tracts and better health overall.
So, here are a few natural gastric and digestive health supplements you can try out this summer.
Digestive Health Supplements – How Do They Work?
While it should be in the name, we still don’t always know what supplements exactly do to improve our health and well-being. Generally speaking, there are certain things that need to be addressed when looking at the health of any part of our body, and digestive health supplements look at four particular areas.
- They make sure our digestive system is in tip-top shape
When you eat, your body breaks down the food into smaller and smaller pieces until only the macronutrients are left. This is a lengthy process that can take hours, and the body does so through chemicals and physical processes. Complications in this system can lead to aches, a bloated stomach, and other ailments. Nutrition and eating foods that don’t ‘clog’ your digestive system help keep up its health, and supplements ensure this by providing nutrients for those physical and chemical processes during digestion.
- They keep our body’s ecosystems going
Believe it or not, our body is full of germs and bacteria that are both necessary and healthy for us and our digestive system. These are called probiotics. If antibiotics are meant to remove bacteria and generally refer to harmful germs, probiotics are meant to increase them and refer to healthier bacteria and yeasts. They help break down and digest the food you eat and are an essential organism to our body’s health. Some supplements have probiotics within them that help increase these live bacteria, which ultimately help with our gut health.
- Supplements help moderate our bowel movements
If your bowel movements occur on a regular basis and you have a certain ‘schedule,’ it can keep your digestive tract healthy and keep you healthy and comfortable as well. Supplements can help you receive the necessary nutrients on time so that you can relieve occasional bloating and gas while keeping your bowel movements regular.
- They help deal with gastrointestinal discomfort
Speaking of, gastrointestinal discomfort is just a fancy way of saying gas and bloat, and you can get them even if you are in a perfectly healthy condition. Some digestive health supplements are beneficial for maintaining your gut health, while others are useful for dealing with these specific ailments when they occur.
The Best Natural Digestive Health Supplements
We’ve covered what they do, but here we talk about the supplements themselves.
- Enzymes
An enzyme acts as an agent to help your body trigger or speed up certain chemical reactions. As the digestive process contains several chemical reactions, these enzymes can be beneficial to keeping your gut healthy. They support the processes to break down your food and can be especially useful if you have certain foods that seem to ‘stay’ in your stomach for longer than others. Different types of enzymes break different foods as well.
For example, there are different classes of enzymes to break down proteins, dairy products, and fat. Some food can be healthy but difficult to digest, so supplements can help with that as well! Of course, you need to have the information on them and know which specific enzymes are good for you, which is why most supplements have many benefits to them, using ingredients that are more than just one thing.
Of course, you could also get them from non-supplementary foods, such as fruits, which contain plenty of enzymes, such as pineapple, mangoes, and our personal favorite, kiwis.
- Prebiotics
Well, we talked about probiotics earlier and how these living organisms can help you break down your food. Well, prebiotics are not living organisms (thankfully!) but special plant fibers that help promote the growth of probiotic bacteria in your stomach. In essence, they help grow the thing that helps your digestive system stay healthy.
Of course, like all things, moderation is necessary, and even loading up on healthy bacteria can be harmful in the long run, so be sure to consult a medical professional about the recommended dosage, especially as it can vary from person to person. Taking a general recommendation from an article or blog is not enough. Visit your doctor, period. Vegetables such as garlic, onions, leeks, and fruits such as bananas have plenty of prebiotics within them for your non-supplementary needs as well.
- Fibers
Your body has a schedule, and it needs to receive its nutrition to stay on schedule. Fibers are the ones that keep that schedule going, and supplements with this ingredient are always helpful. Fibers help with bowel movements by absorbing water into the stool, which makes excretion easier and more comfortable. They even act as prebiotics! Raspberries, guavas, and dark-colored vegetables should be your primary source of fiber, with supplements filling the gaps where needed.
- A few honorable mentions
We could go on and on about fibers, enzymes, and more, but here are a few quick-fire natural supplements that help promote gut health.
- Vitamin C – Often found in citrus fruits (oranges), tomatoes, and potatoes and can help with constipation as a way of fighting a specific digestive ailment.
- Zinc – Found often in meat and fish, this mineral helps your digestive tract cells remain healthy, intact, and moving. It also helps reduce bloat.
- Gastrointestinal Ailment Supplements – When you have bloating or gas, a combination of ginger, artichoke, and fennel seeds can help fight it. However, this combo is far from tasty, so a good supplement does the trick!
Conclusion
We consume food every day and take note of having as healthy foods as we can. However, we don’t think about what happens after that or if that is a part of our health that we should focus on. Well, this should shed some light on that and help understand the importance of digestive health supplements as well.