Tips to improve your digestive health

Maintaining a healthy digestive system is an important part of healthy living.

Your digestive system breaks down the foods you eat into the nutrients your body needs to survive. 

By neglecting your digestive health you could face problems digesting food and absorbing nutrients, which could affect your overall health.

Here are some other quick tips to help you improve your digestive health:

•  Drink more water: Staying hydrated helps your digestive system work more effectively. Not drinking enough water can slow down your digestive system. Remember it’s important to drink more water after you exercise as well to replace fluids you have lost. 
• Include probiotics into your diet: Probiotics are live microorganisms (healthy bacteria) which is naturally present in your digestive tract. Probiotics can help to restore balance of good bacteria and provides many health benefits. They are good at regulating the amount of healthy bacteria in your gut and normalizing bowel movements. A good course of probiotics is low-fat yogurt enriched with probiotics or why not try our Probiotic– a digestive health formula delivering probiotic with prebiotic in a convenient single-serve sachet. 
• Exercise: Regular physical activity increases blood flow to your organs and helps you to maintain a healthy weight. It also helps to keep food moving through your digestive system and reduces constipation. 
•  Look after your liver: Your liver is the body’s second largest organ and an important part of our digestive system. Everything we eat, breathe and absorb through our skin is filtered through the liver. It manufactures many important proteins and assists in the conversion of fats, amino acids, vitamins and minerals into more usable forms. It also helps to filter toxins from the blood and stores certain vitamins and minerals. Our HepaPlus is a great solution to caring for your liver and was formulated to provide a unique blend of antioxidants to help support healthy liver function. 
•  Eat more fibre: Consuming a diet that is high in fibre can improve your digestive health. It’s also important to have a balanced diet rich in wholegrains, vegetables, legumes and fruits. A high fibre diet can also help promote healthy digestive functions as well as help you to maintain a healthy weight. Try eating foods including oats, wholemeal or multigrain breads, nuts, and brown rice; or try our Fibergy – a natural high fibre, low GI, flavourless blend that supports digestive health. 
•  Limit fatty foods: Fatty foods slow the digestive process down and therefore by making it harder digest you become more susceptible to constipation. To try and limit your fatty food intake avoid fried foods and try choosing lean meats that are lower in fat such as chicken, turkey and pork, and fish. You can also switch from whole or reduced-fat dairy to low-fat or non-fat, and even replace butter and margarine with olive oil. 
•  Stick to a routine: Try to eat at the same time each day. This will help your body to get into a routine and keep your digestive system in shape. It’s also important to eat slowly as this gives your stomach time to prepare and properly digest the food and nutrients you are giving it. 
• Limit alcohol, caffeine and smoking: All of these can interfere with how your digestive system functions. By limiting these in your diet you reduce the chances of stomach ulcers and heartburn.

By taking on board some of these tips including supplementing with USANA’s digestive support products, eating a well-balanced diet and doing regular exercise you can help to improve your digestive health. For more information visit:www.usana.com

Vitamin supplements should not replace a balanced diet.
Use only as directed. Always read the label.