Tips for a Great 2020-2021 School Year
The end of the last school year was a bit of a whirlwind, to say the least. We were thrown into online schooling and nobody had much chance to prepare for it. This school year has raised a lot of questions, but at least we’ve become a little more prepared (if you’re taking the online route).
Making the decision to keep your kids home or send them on campus has created a lot of tension for parents. There is a lot of information out there and most of it is telling you conflicting advice.
We want to help you to feel fully prepared for this school year. You might be asking yourself what a gut health company can teach you about school? Well, a lot actually.
You see…
Your Gut is Your “Second Brain”
We’ve always been taught that our brain controls everything our bodies do. Recent research suggests that what we eat influences our brain health through our gut microbiomes. Essentially we can control our brains with what we eat.
Eating your way to being a genius is a stretch, but good foods do enhance your brain’s capabilities for cognition, memory, and mood control.
These are all things you and your kids definitely need this school year.
A level head.
Improved memory capabilities.
Higher cognition.
All of them are important to be able to adapt to the new situations we will be put up against. Which means your food choices are extra important this year.
Making better food choices can also help to improve your circadian rhythms meaning you’ll get on your tighter sleep schedule a little faster.
Improving your gut health can also help you to better manage your stress response through hormone regulation.
Eating better isn’t a cure-all, but it sure is a start. As a parent, you can help to nourish your own microbiome by taking Atrantil. Atrantil helps to feed your good bacteria. From there, your healthy bacteria can improve your intestinal barrier health, fight off pathogens, and improve your overall body health through their postbiotic byproducts.
Eat a Wide Variety of Healthy Foods
We say this a lot around here, but it’s worth mentioning again.
Eating the same foods day in and day out regardless of if they’re healthy is depriving your body of essential nutrients.
Right now we have a huge focus on how to better improve our immune systems. Each cell type in our body requires certain nutrients so they’re able to have the energy to continue protecting us.
By not feeding our bodies a large variety of foods it’s like sending knights out to battle but not giving them weapons to protect themselves and their kingdom. You aren’t giving your cells what they need to protect you and fight off viruses and other pathogens we come into contact with.
Larger diversities of food groups also help to improve the bacterial balance in our guts, this also helps to improve our immune systems. A study conducted across different ethnicities showed that cultures that incorporate more food types into their diets had lower incidences of chronic illness.
Try meal prepping ahead of time so whether you’re homeschooling or sending your child to school you and them are equipping your bodies with the right weapons.
Meet Your Fruit, Veggie, and Nut Daily Requirements
This is an important part of diet diversity and improving your gut health. But there’s another reason your fruits and veggies are so important. They provide your body with special phytochemicals that only plants can provide our bodies with.
Polyphenols are great for tons of things like antioxidants to get our bodies out of oxidative stress and antiaging capabilities. But they’re also fantastic for our immune and brain health.
If you want help fighting viruses, polyphenols are the way to go. They’re all-natural, easy to include in your diet, and most are good on the go snacks.
These little plant chemicals also boost your immune system through gut microbiota modulation. That’s just the fancy terminology to say it feeds your good bacteria and fights the bad bacteria so your gut barrier is tight and safe.
Hand Sanitizer vs Soap: Which Should You Keep on Hand?
Hand sanitizer could be setting you up for sickness.
Yep, you read that correctly.
Now, it isn’t all bad. It does what it’s supposed to do — kill germs. But hand sanitizer in non-discriminatory about what germs it kills. While we’d think that’s a good thing, let’s talk about what is considered a germ.
Bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms are all considered germs. But some of these bacteria and other little critters are actually good for you (like those in your microbiomes — skin, gut, and all the others).
Anti-bacterial means it’s fighting all the bacteria and whatever other germs it says it’s going to kill (or 99.9% of them).
So what about hand soap that boasts the same thing? What’s the difference? Hand soap also kills all of these germs. And both can disrupt your skin barrier since the same mechanism that kills the germs (destruction of the lipid layer) will also mess up the function of your skin microbiome.
Hand soap is slightly more gentle on the skin since most hand sanitizers are made with alcohol bases. Hand soap is also superior since it actually gets rid of dirt and grime that will be on your skin. Hand sanitizer will just mix in with the dirt and spread it around — which will leave you still exposed to some of the germs you thought you killed.
If you have the option, wash your hands with soap and warm water. If you don’t have a choice then hand sanitizer is okay, but try to limit the usage since becoming overly sanitary is being linked to the rise in autoimmune disorders.
All in all this year is going to be a little crazy. But it’s already been that way for the whole first portion of the year. Try to manage your stress. Keep yourself on good schedules: sleep, eating, exercising, and time management.
We are all fighting this battle together, but the more we provide each other with knowledge like this the better off we will all be. If you found this article helpful, give it a “Share” to your fellow parents so their school year is a little smoother, like yours will be.
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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31187868/
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