• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • COVID-19 Resources
  • The Wellness Project
  • Find a Practitioner
  • Member Login
  • Cart

Membership

Price-Pottenger

Nutrition Foundation

  • Blog
  • Journal
  • Research Archives
  • Healthy Living
    • Traditional Diet
    • What Should I Eat?
    • Lectures
    • Healthy Living Topics
    • Dental Health
    • Diet & Weight Loss
    • Environment
    • Epigenetics
    • Fertility, Prenatal & Childhood Nutrition
    • Food Allergies
    • GMOs
    • Health Conditions
    • Healthy Lifestyle
    • Hormones
    • Mental Health
    • Natural Beauty & Anti-Aging
    • Natural Medicine
    • Nutrition
    • Organic & Nutrient-Dense Foods
    • Pets
    • Recipes & Food Preparation
    • Sustainable Agriculture
    • Toxins & Detoxification
    • Vaccines
    • Vitamins, Minerals & Other Nutrients
    • Ask A Question
  • Courses
  • Store
  • About Us
    • Our History
    • Our Journal
    • Our Board
    • Contact Us
  • Donate

Want to read full Journal?

Join
Price-Pottenger

Access to all articles, new health classes, discounts in our store, and more!

See Member Benefits

Already a member? Log in here

Why Is Gut Health Important?

There’s a lot of talk about gut health in the wellness world. It’s not a fad or a gimmick, either. Gut health is one of the most vital aspects of wellness.

Why Is Gut Health Important?

The gut can refer to many things specifically, but generally, it involves the small and large intestine. Your microbiome is a vast network of bacteria, both beneficial and potentially harmful, that live in the large intestine.

Gut health is separate from digestion, although they’re closely related. Your gut health involves:

  • Normal breakdown of foods in the small intestine
  • Absorption of nutrients into the bloodstream through the tight junctions and cells in the small intestine
  • Further absorption and production of nutrients in the large intestine
  • Contribution to bacterial replenishment and replication in the colon

Your gut health can be “bad” for many reasons:

  • If you have SIBO, Celiac disease, or some other condition that negatively impacts how the small intestine is able to break down or absorb nutrients
  • If you have a leaky gut, which can lead to improper regulation of what is allowed to enter the bloodstream
  • If you have nutrient deficiencies, IBD, or other conditions that negatively affect the large intestine
  • If you have frequent exposure to antibiotics, which negatively impact bacterial balance in the microbiome
  • If you eat a diet that is too low in fiber and fermented foods or probiotics

Gut health is important because it plays a major role in how your body is able to absorb nutrients. Your diet can be “perfect,” but if you can’t absorb the nutrients you’re eating, your body will still come up short.

Your immune system also mostly resides in the gut and your microbiome plays a key role in helping to modulate how immunity works in your body. You don’t want an underactive or overactive immune system.

How Do You Support Gut Health?

There are many simple ways to support good gut health.

  • Chew your food thoroughly.
  • Eat whole, unprocessed foods that are rich in nutrients.
  • Consume prebiotic foods that nourish the good gut bacteria.
  • Eat fermented foods that replenish your good gut bacteria.
  • Stay properly hydrated.
  • Get enough sleep and physical activity.
  • Manage your stress in healthy ways.

Even with doing everything “right,” you can still experience challenges to gut health. If you have an autoimmune disorder or other chronic diseases, you may need to do more to consistently support a healthy gut. (In tomorrow’s post, we’ll cover what leaky gut is and how to walk back from gut problems.)

Today’s Simple Step

Prebiotics are certain types of fiber that nourish the good bacteria in your gut. They don’t fully break down in the small intestine during the digestive process and arrive in your colon, ready to feed the microbiome. Prebiotics are different from probiotics but can be easily confused with them. Some of the best prebiotic foods are artichokes, garlic, onions, leeks, and asparagus. (Learn more about prebiotics and healthy fiber in this blog post.)

Today’s Recipe

This Onion Soup is a warming dish that is gut-friendly because of the prebiotic onions and the bone broth, which is rich in nutrients that support a healthy gut lining.


Thrive in 65 is a free daily nutrition series from the Price-Pottenger Blog.

View the complete Thrive in 65 series. >>>

Filed Under: Thrive In 65

Primary Sidebar

Featured Product

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS

A renowned dentist and researcher, Dr. Weston A. Price, DDS, and his wife traveled the world...

Get The Product >>

Featured Content

Decades of Journals!

Did you know ...? Price-Pottenger members can flip through decades of printed Journals (since the late 1970s), in an online magazine interface! Just click through to the Journals section and select Digital Journals to see them all.

Browse the Journals >>

Featured Course

Dr. Terry Wahls: Healing Chronic Disease with Traditional Foods

Have you been told you have an autoimmune condition or chronic illness? Or a condition that can’t...

Take The Course >>

Footer

Healthy Living Topics

  • Dental Health
  • Diet & Weight Loss
  • Environment
  • Epigenetics
  • Fertility, Prenatal & Childhood Nutrition
  • Food Allergies
  • GMOs
  • Health Conditions
  • Healthy Lifestyle
  • Hormones
  • Mental Health
  • Natural Beauty & Anti-Aging
  • Natural Medicine
  • Nutrition
  • Organic & Nutrient-Dense Foods
  • Pets
  • Recipes & Food Preparation
  • Sustainable Agriculture
  • Toxins & Detoxification
  • Vaccines
  • Vitamins, Minerals & Other Nutrients
  • Publications & Resources
  • Price-Pottenger Journal of Health and Healing
    • – MEMBERS: The Latest Journal
    • – ALL: Sample Our Journal
  • Brochure: Dr. Weston A. Price Discoveries
  • Brochure: Why Are These People So Healthy?
  • Dr. Price’s Tribal Food and Cavity Chart

About Us

  • Our History
  • Our Journal
  • Our Board
Price Pottenger
  • 1-800-366-3748
  • 619-462-7600
  • A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
  • Tax ID# 95-6104419
  • User Agreement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright © 2021 Price – Pottenger
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Youtube