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Gut Health During Ramadan

Yasmin Khalid, Certified Nutritionist, Science regulatory specialist at Yakult Middle East advises on maintaining a healthy immune system this festival season by improving the intake of your daily dose of probiotics

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Ramadan is the period of fasting from all food or drink from dawn to sunset, therefore, it’s important to maintain the health of our gut during the month. According to research and studies, fasting can benefit your gut health especially by increasing the diversity of the gut microbiome, which is home to trillions of bacteria. Fasting can control weight and improve insulin sensitivity. However, most people follow bad eating habits during Ramadan, which impact the digestive system and leads to constipation, bloating and upset stomach.

Almost 70 per cent of our immune system is located in the gut and it is considered the second brain in our bodies. Hence, it’s important to maintain gut health, where all the body nutrients get absorbed, contributing to a healthy immune system.

To practice fasting in the most beneficial way, you must follow some health tips to support your health during Ramadan and protect your gut from any unpleasant feelings. Firstly, it’s important to drink your daily intake of water during the eating window period. Your Iftar plate should include lots of vegetables, fruits, and complex carbs such as brown rice, sweet potato, and quinoa. Your Suhoor plate should include foods that can give and maintain your body’s energy throughout the day, it can be composed of foods such as nuts, yoghurt, fruits, and any source of protein. Make sure you are also exercising daily along with having probiotics.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that come in different strains, such as lactobacillus strain or bifidobacterium and you can find them in fermented drinks such as Yakult, kefir, pickles, kombucha, and miso.

Probiotics maintain the health of your gut by increasing the number of good bacteria in your gut and reducing the harmful ones. Also, probiotics support your body’s immune system by improving the balance of the gut microbiome, which helps in fighting infectious diseases and their occurrence of cancer cells. Probiotics work magic in your gut because they help in producing some vitamins such as Vitamin K.

Few recent studies have shown some positive correlation between the consumption of probiotics and reducing the level of depression and anxiety since the gut acts as a second brain.

Knowing the benefits of probiotics, we must consider that not all fermented foods or supplements can deliver live bacteria to the gut some of these beneficial bacteria die in the acidity of the stomach and don’t successfully reach the gut alive so our bodies won’t get the full benefits. The probiotic bacteria in Yakult products are scientifically proven to reach the gut alive as they are strengthened and cultured in a way to survive the long journey in the stomach.

I would recommend consuming one bottle of Yakult a day during Iftar or Suhoor to improve your digestion and support your immunity.

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