HOW TO HEAL YOUR GUT ON A VEGAN DIET | best probiotic foods
Welcome back to RainbowPlantLife. Today I want to share with you some of the
best foods to eat for a healthy gut.Before we get to the specific foods
let's talk about why your gut healthmatters. Your gut health is so important
to the rest of your body's overallhealth. Chances are if you have a healthy
gut you probably also have a healthybody, but if you have poor gut health it
might be the root cause behind some ofyour other health problems, ranging from
physical to mental health issues. So ifyou find yourself getting sick
frequently and you're not sure why, oryou have brain fog and trouble focusing,
it might be because you have anunhealthy gut. Your gut health is
affected by a bunch of different factorssuch as the environment, whether you are
taking certain medications, and of courseyour diet. And because it can be hard to
control external factors like theenvironment, the easiest way to heal your
gut is to heal your diet. When it comesto diet, there are two main things I want
to talk about. The first one isprobiotics. You might have heard of
probiotics before. They are the healthygut bacteria that live in your gut
microbiome. And foods that are rich inprobiotics tend to be fermented foods.
And a food is fermented usually byleaving it out on the counter for a long
enough period of time that it's exposedto bacteria and yeast. Of course you
can't ferment every single kind of food. For instance you can't just leave a
chicken out on your counter and hopethat after ten days it'll be fermented
and good for you. It'll give youSalmonella so don't try it. On the other
hand, you can ferment lots of vegetablesand that's why it's great for a vegan
diet.The second part of your diet that Iwant to talk about is fiber. And dietary
fiber acts as a food for thoseprobiotics, enabling them to grow. And the
reason you want the healthy gut bacteriato grow is because the more you have and
the more diverse your bacteria, is thehealthier your gut, which means you're
less likely to have chronic illnessesand inflammation. And you'll find dietary
fiber in fruits vegetables, whole grainslegumes, nuts, seeds. So basically if
you're eating a vegan diet, particularlya whole foods based vegan diet, you're
gonna have no problem getting enoughfiber. So now that we've talked about
probiotics, let's talk about foods thatcontain probiotic. Of course you can take
a probiotic supplement, but they can bereally expensive particularly the higher-
end brands so if you want to heal yourgut through food only and save some
money, here are some great plant-basedfoods that are full of probiotics.
A really rich source of probiotics issauerkraut, which is simply fermented
cabbage. You might have had sauerkraut on a burger or hot dog before, and my
favorite way is actually to pair it witha kale salad and some creamy salad
dressing and a bunch of nuts and seeds. The combination of textures and flavors
is really delicious. The next food on ourhealthy gut list is kimchi. It's salted
and fermented cabbage, usually Napacabbage and Korean radishes, and it's
then flavored with chili powder and abunch of other seasonings. It's really
delicious and like sauerkraut you canmake it at home and ferment it at home or
you can buy it at the store. Typically Ipair kimchi with some Asian flavored
food like ramen or rice, but you can putit on a sandwich or burger or really
anything.The next food on our list istempeh, which is whole fermented soy
beans. I talked a lot about thenutritional benefits of this superfood
in an earlier video on "where do vegans get their protein from?" so if you want
to check that out and learn more abouttempeh, I will link to that right here.
Our next source of probiotics areplant-based yogurts and kefirs. You
might have heard that traditional dairyyogurt is a great source of probiotics
and it is, but it's not the dairy that'sthe source of probiotics. It's the live
active cultures that are used to makeyogurt.
So most plant-based yogurts and kefirsare also going to have a high source of
probiotics. These are two of my favoriteplant-based yogurts and kefirs. One is
almond milk based the other is coconutmilk based. If you look at the
ingredients on this, you will see there are live active
cultures in here. Just try to stick tothe unsweetened yogurts or yogurts that
have a low amount of sugar because youwant to make sure that the bacteria in
your gut is feasting on the probiotics,not on the sugar. Next up on our
probiotic list is miso. Miso is atraditional Japanese condiments and it's
made of fermented soy beans. Of courseyou've put miso in miso soup which you're
served at Japanese restaurants, but Ialso like to put miso in salad dressings,
marinades and sauces. I actually put alittle bit of miso in my vegan cheese
sauce because it adds that extra umami flavor. If you want to check out
that recipe, I will link to that righthere. Next up in our healthy gut list are
olives. Once olives are soaked in brine,which is a solution of water and salt,
the healthy bacteria causes them toferment, making them a good source of
probiotics. So if you love olives as muchas I do, take this as your excuse to eat
as many as you want. Another saltyfavorite of mine are pickles. You want to
make sure though you're buying picklesthat have been pickled in salt water, not
in vinegar. If they've been pickled invinegar, they're not going to have the
fermentation process. And they'll still bedelicious but you won't be getting any
probiotics. Saltwater pickles aretypically sold in the refrigerated
section and they might carry a labelthat says "active cultures"and vinegar
pickles are usually sold in theshelf-stable aisle of the grocery store.
Last but not least, my favorite source ofprobiotics is kombucha. Kombucha is a
black or green tea that's beenfermented by a colony of bacteria and
yeast. And you can buy kombucha at thestore or you can make it at home.
Now that we talked about foods that are rich in probiotics, I want to quickly talk
about prebiotics. As I mentioned earlier,probiotics are live microorganisms that
need food in order to grow and flourish, and the food they eat usually comes in
the form of dietary fiber, but it's also referred to
as prebiotics. Some of the best sourcesof prebiotics are onions, garlic
artichokes, asparagus, leeks, sweetpotatoes, bananas, legumes, whole grains.
You get the point:stuff that vegans would eat anyways. But
I do want to mention two of my favoritesources of prebiotics because it might
surprise you that they're good for yourgut. If you're like me, you probably don't
need any excuse to eat more chocolate,but here's just another excuse. Chocolate
is actually a prebiotic food becausewhen you eat chocolate, the healthy gut
bacteria in your microbiome ferment thecompounds in cocoa. I don't know about
you, but that certainly makes me feelbetter about all the times I've eaten
a dark chocolate bar in one sitting. It happens all the time, like once a week,
so I feel better now. The last prebiotic I want to talk to you
about that might surprise you is redwine. And you might have heard that red
wine is good for your heart, but it'salso good for your gut. Like cocoa, red
wine encourages the healthy gut bacteriato grow in your gut. Of course I feel
obligated to tell you to drinkresponsibly and to not treat red wine as
your sole source of prebiotics. Make sureyou also eat vegetables and all that
stuff. So the next time you have a glass ofred wine and a piece of dark chocolate,
or a few pieces of dark chocolate, giveyourself a pat on the back because
you're doing your gut and your health abig favor. Well that does it for my video
on foods to eat for a healthy gut. If youfound this video informative or helpful
or learned something new, I would love itif you hit that "thumbs up"button as well
as that "subscribe" button so I know thatyou're enjoying these videos. If you want
to talk more about gut health, if youhave questions, leave me a comment below
and I would love to talk to you. Alright, I'll see you guys next week. Thanks
for watching
Sharing my tips on how to heal your gut on a vegan diet and the best probiotic foods you should be eating. Food-specific discussion starts at 2:30, so skip ahead if you don’t want to geek out over the science behind gut health. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO ORDER MY COOKBOOK, The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook ORDER ON AMAZON: https://amzn.to/2EeFYx0! MORE COOKBOOK INFO: https://www.rainbowplantlife.com/blog/vegan-instant-pot-cookbook I'M EXCITED TO MEET SOME OF YOU! I'm doing a few cookbook tour events this summer and I hope you'll join me! I'll update this space as more info becomes available and more dates are added. https://www.rainbowplantlife.com/cookbook-events For orders outside of North America: search on the Amazon page in your home country OR visit the Book Depository: http://bit.ly/my-cookbook-international *90+ delicious vegan recipes made in the Instant Pot* *With tons of gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, and refined-sugar-free options --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Film & photography equipment used in this video: https://www.rainbowplantlife.com/photography-gear --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE for new videos every week! http://bit.ly/2sMoHae Learn more about veganism, healthy eating, food photography, social media, and happiness.