Can­di­da Khan

I of­ten get asked about the mag­ic of fer­ment­ed foods like kim­chi, which is usu­al­ly made with fer­ment­ed cab­bage. This is be­cause, as a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist, gut health among women has been a ma­jor con­cern. I was asked about su­per­foods that can heal the gut, but it’s im­por­tant to fo­cus on bal­anced eat­ing with ev­i­dence-based prac­tices. Fer­ment­ed foods have nu­tri­tion­al ben­e­fits, but there are many foods that con­tribute to di­ges­tive well­ness.

Pro­bi­otics and pre­bi­otics are vi­tal for gut health. Pro­bi­otics are live mi­croor­gan­isms. Pre­bi­otics are non-di­gestible food com­po­nents that feed the ben­e­fi­cial bac­te­ria in your gut.

The high in pre­bi­ot­ic foods that I eat, and you should too, in­clude:

1) Fruits, for ex­am­ple, ba­nana, paw­paw, pineap­ple, man­go

2) Veg­eta­bles such as callaloo, okra

3) Pro­vi­sions like sweet pota­to, cas­sa­va

4) Legumes, for ex­am­ple, black beans, lentils

5) Grains such as flaxseed and oats

The foods that are high in pro­bi­otics that I eat, and you should too, in­clude:

1) Yo­gurt

2) Fer­ment­ed cab­bage

3) Pick­led veg­eta­bles, for ex­am­ple, in vine­gar

Let’s put it in­to prac­tice. If we make a nu­tri­tious break­fast that is gut-friend­ly, I want you to think of oats with paw­paw or ba­nana and flaxseed pow­der, yo­gurt and cin­na­mon pow­der with a hand­ful of nuts. A nu­tri­tious main meal can in­clude callaloo, pro­vi­sion and chick­en or peas and beans. Gut health is in­flu­enced by more than just the ab­sence of pro­bi­otics in the di­et.

For women, we have is­sues with bloat­ing, among oth­er di­ges­tive dis­com­fort that can stem from:

1) Too much sug­ar or re­fined car­bo­hy­drates.

2) High amounts of stress.

3) Men­stru­al cy­cles, preg­nan­cy, and menopause can in­flu­ence gut health.

4) Med­ica­tion such as an­tibi­otics, NSAIDs.

5) Food al­ler­gies to lac­tose and gluten.

6) Sleep de­pri­va­tion.

Lifestyle changes are just as im­por­tant as fo­cus­ing on spe­cif­ic foods that help with gut health. From my ex­pe­ri­ence, con­sum­ing a va­ri­ety of foods re­al­ly heals the gut and avoid­ing sup­ple­ments as much as pos­si­ble. I have had clients who de­vel­oped acid re­flux and gut is­sues caused by over­con­sump­tion of pills for var­i­ous rea­sons. As women, we need to di­ver­si­fy our di­et with a com­bi­na­tion of plant-based foods and healthy lifestyle changes.

Gut well­ness is about bal­ance, not per­fec­tion. It’s about nour­ish­ing your body with in­ten­tion, un­der­stand­ing your unique needs, and in­cor­po­rat­ing safe, heal­ing foods that pro­mote over­all health. As a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist, my fo­cus is to em­pow­er. I can help women to make food choic­es that sup­port long-term well­ness. By eat­ing mind­ful­ly, en­joy­ing nu­tri­ent-rich foods, and ad­dress­ing lifestyle fac­tors, we can all cre­ate a gut-friend­ly foun­da­tion for a health­i­er, more vi­brant life.

Can­di­da Khan, MSc.RD, al­so known as Di­di, is a Reg­is­tered Di­etit­ian Nu­tri­tion­ist.

She is al­so the CEO of Di­di's Nu­tri­tion Con­sul­tan­cy didis­con­sul­tan­cy.com