Gut Health Supplement YOu can Take With Probiotics
How’s your health? More specifically how is your gut health? Researchers are finding more and more connection between our guts and our general health.
While trying Gut Connection but Country Life recently I did some more research into the connection between our general health and what’s going on in our guts.
I feel like this is one of those things that we should actually already realize. I mean what’s the first thing you think of when you catch a cold? To make some chicken soup or drink a cup of tea.
When you get sickness of any kind you usually start looking to improve your diet. You don’t turn to pizza and fast food. Soups and salads start making their way into your kitchen.
Why You Should Improve Your Gut Health
Studies have shown a link between some bad bacteria and the immune system. Also that a healthy gut can help you manage disease and stress better. But we are still learning about all the ways your gut microbe influences your health.
I’ll admit the contemporary American diet is no the best. Busy families rely on premade and fast foods. Cooking is not that popular and even though kitchens are getting larger they have less fresh food in them.
Obesity, heart disease, even allergies can come from your gut microbiome getting “off”. And can be improved when you improve your gut microbiome.
Your gut microbiome or flora are all those micro organisms living in your gut that keep things moving along nicely. They help you to digest foods, process vitamins, and helping your immune system.
What You Can Do to Improve Your Gut Health
So what can you do to improve your gut health?
The food you eat, your environment, and even the medicines you take in life can affect your gut health. This is food for thought and probably why foods such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, and sourdough are making such a resurgence. Fermented foods introduce good bacteria back into your gut.
You can also take supplements to improve your gut health. Many people are familiar with probiotics that contain thousands of good bacteria to introduce to your gut but are you familiar with prebiotics?
Prebiotics are the fuel for your probiotics. Prebiotics help to increase probiotics and since they are not as fragile they can help to improve your overall health.
Prebiotics can be found in fibrous foods such as apples with skin, oatmeal, wheat bread and more.
You can also find prebiotics in supplement form like the Gut Connection series from Country Life.
Gut Connection by Country Life
Momsmeet and Country Life sent me a few bottles of Gut Connection to try out and see how it helps with gut health. My gut in particular.
Gut Connection is a new series of Prebiotics from Country Life.
Gut Connection improves digestive health by using prebiotics from whole foods (that have been fermented) designed to work in balance with the probiotics already in your system. Gut Connection comes in 8 formulas.
- Cognitive Balance
- Digestive Balance
- Energy Balance
- Immune Balance
- Mood Balance
- Sleep Balance
- Stress Balance
- and Weight Balance
Each Gut Connection formula includes Epicor, a dried yeast ferment.
I was given the Digestive Balance and the Energy Balance Gut Connection blends to try for 7 days. And a journal to record my results (you can also download a printable journal on the Country Life website).
I chose to give the Gut Connection Energy Balance formula a try because I need energy for all the things I have going on. Initially before starting I was having a few issues with digestion. Minor but irritating nonetheless.
Keeping track in my little journal also let me see how bad I was about eating regularly. Since you’re supposed to take the supplement with food I ended up taking it closer to noon since I’m so bad about eating breakfast early.
The first day or so I didn’t notice anything but after about day 3 things were moving along (trying to keep this not-tmi). Also the energy formula includes B vitamins and healthy dose of Coffeeberry extract with kind of a lot of caffeine (100mg). I didn’t notice a spike in energy like I do with coffee but I did have energy that lasted me a while through the day. I was so productive! Love that.
According to the documentation Coffeeberry supports alertness and energy.
After taking the the Energy Balance Gut Connection for 7 days I left town for a 7 day vacation. During that time I didn’t take any of the the Energy Balance (because of the unpredictability of our travels and since I wasn’t 100% sure when the Gut Connection would kick in if you know what I mean).
But! Here’s the surprising part! I have a food allergy. Soybeans. It’s not life threatening as far as I’ve experienced but very uncomfortable and can be terribly unsightly. Usually when I travel I get exposed to soy in some way and I end up with a swollen itchy face and rashes as a result. I find myself reaching for diphenhydramine on vacations.
I tried to be careful as always but there was this fish fry thing happening and I did indulge. And then there was this cake my dad just had to have. You get the idea.
I drank a lot of tea on vacation and ate a lot of fruits and vegetables to keep healthy as possible without my usual multi and supplements. This time I did not experience any rashes or swollen itchy face.
Did the lack of an allergic reaction have to do with Gut Balance? I don’t know and I can’t say that. I know I do much better when my immune system is built back up, I’m eating well, and keeping up on my supplements.
I’m back home and back on the Gut Connection Energy supplement now along with my probiotic though.
If you’re looking for a good prebiotic to supplement your probiotic or even just take alone (because your gut is already so awesome) Country Life has several variations that may just work for you. You can get Gut Connection at Sprouts, The Vitamin Shoppe, Natural Grocers Vitamin Cottage, and Amazon. Also check the natural grocery near you and the locator on the website.
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I received this product for free from Moms Meet to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links
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