Plant Based Foods as Gut Healthy Medicine

We’ve heard it before, plant-based diets are the best for our health. Or that meat (especially red meat) is bad for our health. Neither of these statements is particularly true. Well-rounded, diverse diets are the best for our health, specifically gut health. But, there is some truth to plant-based diets being extremely beneficial! Plant-based foods are the best gut-healthy medicine you can take. In this article, we will explore why.

Why are plants beneficial for our health?

Plants grow much like we do. They require plenty of water, sunlight, and nutrition to grow and flourish. Because plants grow and extract nutrients from the Earth and from their photosynthetic process, we reap those benefits when we eat them. It’s kind of like in movies where a villain defeats other beings and absorbs power from them — only in a less evil way. 

Some of the beneficial nutrients we get from plants include:

• Polyphenols
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Phytochemicals
• Short-chain fatty acids
• Prebiotics
• Fiber

Now, this list isn’t exhaustive because if we went into every molecule we get from plants, we would never be able to finish the article. But, just know that when we eat plants, we get all of these nutrients from them. 

But that isn’t all!

Plants improve our gut processes as well, which provides our bodies with numerous benefits.

How do plant-based foods affect our gut health?

Fiber, prebiotics, and many other compounds we get from plants like polyphenols are the best kind of food for our guts. The gut microbiome is home to trillions of microbes that need these compounds to sustain their health and therefore our health. 

The microbes work synergistically with our bodies to maintain homeostasis and keep our health at its max. When we feed our body good, nutritious, plant-based foods our gut bacteria need to ferment many parts of a plant. This fermentation process is necessary to extract every nutrient from the plant. 

Through the digestive process, our food is broken down into smaller but still large particles. Some particles can be used right away so the body sends them through the bloodstream to their designated areas. The rest that couldn’t be processed moves to the large intestine where it meets our gut microbes. They happily and slowly devour the remainder and give off molecules into the bloodstream that the rest of our digestive system didn’t extract. 

Short-chain fatty acids and amino acids are great examples of molecules that our gut microbes send out into our bodies to help repair and maintain health. 

If we don’t have enough of these types of food, our healthy gut microbes cannot replicate and make more healthy strains. So there is room for unhealthy microbes to move in and they can begin to take over. These microbes cause inflammation and damage to our intestinal tract which allows bacteria to escape and cause a systemic inflammatory reaction. This leads to an overtaxing of our immune system and ultimately leads to disease. 

This is why keeping our gut happy with good, nutritious, plant-based foods is so important. 

But can plants really be considered medicinal?

They absolutely can, and here is how!

How are plants medicinal for our health?

Disease literally means our bodies are unable to be at ease for some reason or another. To be healthy, our bodies need different levels of nutrients to support cellular function. Each cell requires different nutrients to do its job and without them or if something is starving them of these nutrients they can die off or become mutated. 

Plants contain a majority of these nutrients that our cells need to continue to function. They also contain compounds that fight off problems that our bodies may encounter. Pollution, UV radiation, antibiotic use (in our food and as medication), and other factors can prevent our cells from getting this important nutrition. Additives to our food and processed foods can add to this. 

So when we eat unhealthy foods we obviously get sick and can become diseased. But eating healthy foods stops these bad processes in their tracks and allows our cells to function at their optimal levels. So while plants aren’t the way we see medicine, they truly can be used as medicine for our bodies. 

How can we get more plant-based foods in our diet?

When we say plant-based foods we don’t mean you should be eating salad all day every day. That would be boring and you probably wouldn’t stick with it for long. So here are some ways to spice up your daily food routines and get more plant-based nutrition.

Add spices and herbs to your foods and drinks. Spices and herbs are a quick and easy way to get lots of extra nutrients and flavor into your food. Some things to be careful of with this is making sure you get good quality spices and herbs and make sure they don’t have anything added to them. Grab regular powdered garlic instead of garlic salt. If they have preservatives like MSG (monosodium glutamate) or added salt or sugar put that one back and find something else. Some great spices and herbs to start using include:

• Turmeric
• Cayenne pepper
• Cumin
• Garlic powder
• Onion powder
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Black pepper
• Oregano
• Ginger

These are great starters that you can use in a lot of different recipes. They also have a ton of polyphenolic and antioxidative compounds in them to boost your immune system and fight systemic inflammation and oxidative stress.

Drink tea. We know hot tea is good for us, but we sometimes forget that it’s plant-derived. Tea offers a lot of the same benefits that we listed above. Green, black, dandelion, chamomile, or other flavors can give you tons of health benefits. Each type of tea can help with different ailments and is a great place to start using food as medicine. 

Don’t forget about nuts and seeds! Nuts and seeds not only provide us with fiber, polyphenols, and other normal nutrients from plants. They also give us a healthy dose of fat and protein. 

And of course fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are the way we normally know to get plant-based foods. But after talking about all the other ones we don’t want you to forget about the staples in your diet. Make sure that vegetables cover half of your plate and about one quarter to be fruit during each meal. 

Atrantil. Atrantil is a supplement that is plant-based. Our three main ingredients are extremely potent medicinal plants. We know the power of plants and polyphenols for our health and wanted to make sure that’s exactly what we provided our patients and customers. 

Try out some plant-based dairy products and oils instead of butter or lard. Making the swaps is simple and it will give you the longevity we all desire. If you found this article insightful, give it a share on your social media!