How To Have A Strong Gut While Travelling
Travel puts a lot of wear and tear on our immune system; from stress to viruses and bad toxins, a lot can affect your gut. If you plan to go travelling soon, and you're worried about your gut health, this article will help you. We'll show you six ways to keep up your gut health while on holiday or business travel.
How does travelling affect our gut
Gut health isn't just affected by what we eat, but also by how we're feeling, where we are, what time zone we're in, and how much sleep we get.
Travelling is an amazing thing to do, but has some unfortunate side effects for those ill-prepared. Constipation, diarrhoea, abdominal pains, and fevers are all common amongst travellers. High-stress levels can negatively impact our immune system, sending it into overdrive. This in turn exhausts itself, essentially meaning our gut isn't able to work properly and fight bad bacteria, leading you to get sick. If we care for our gut properly, it can go a long way in keeping our immune system strong while travelling.
Ways to prevent an upset gut while travelling
For the most part, it's about eating the correct foods, as food is what fuels us. Without the proper sustenance, our bodies won't be able to cope. Let's get on with it then, here are six ways to keep a strong gut health while travelling.
1. Keep yourself hydrated
We were just talking about eating the correct food, but first and foremost hydration is extremely important. Keeping hydrated should be on your daily routine. If you're in a country or location that doesn't have clean water, the best thing to do is to take bottled water with you wherever you go. It's very easy to get serious viruses if you aren't careful about the water you drink.
2. Get quality sleep
Chances are you're going to be jet-lagged when travelling to a new location overseas. This can take anywhere from a few days to a week to get over. Try to keep up a normal sleep routine whilst on your travels. Catch up with all the lost sleep so you can feel refreshed and keep your immune system healthy.
3. Monitor your carb intake
Especially in the morning, try to lower your carb intake and opt for healthy snacks like nuts, dark chocolate and even some raw veggies like carrots. This way you're lowering an excessive intake of sugar and processed foods. Sugar is hard to break down in your digestive system and can lead to gut issues like bloating and gas.
4. Bring some fruit
Seeing as we're on the subject of snacks to take, it's best to bring some healthy fruity snacks. Fruits such as apples, raspberries, strawberries, and mangoes are all high in fibre, which helps to feed your gut microbes. We realise sometimes fruit can be hard to bring as it can spoil, especially if it's for a few days. Dried fruit is a great option as it is lighter, smaller, and lasts for a long period of time while still containing high amounts of fibre.
5. Support your gut with digestive enzymes
Our immune system needs support so the good bacteria can do their job and your gut stays healthy. Some foods can be difficult to digest, such as unfamiliar street foods, which you're most likely going to eat while on the move. To help prevent digestive issues, and even food poisoning, digestive enzymes help to break down food. This in turn reduces gas, bloating, and headaches, and will help with any high-stress levels.
We recommend both Smidge Digestive Enzymes or Thorne Plantizyme. Both are great options and should be your travel companions everywhere you go. They come in capsules which can be taken once daily with food.
6. Probiotics make for a healthy gut
Promote a healthy gut bacteria culture and help your digestion with probiotics. These are full of healthy bacteria, which is what your gut needs to support a good immune system. Probiotics come in capsule form and can be easily thrown into a bag while travelling.
MegaSporeBiotic is one of our favourite probiotics, as it is proven to maintain a healthy gut even in harsh environments. The spores are designed to recondition the gut microbes to better fend against bad bacteria, viruses and heavy metals.
