Most of us know the feeling after enjoying a night out with friends—maybe you enjoyed it a little too much. The headache, nausea, the overall feeling of “Can today be canceled?” Hangovers are the body’s way of reminding us about the hazards of overindulgence. It makes sense when you break down the science of it all. The symptoms that we experience begin after blood alcohol levels start to fall. In fact, according to some experts, the worst symptoms occur when levels reach zero. How much you drank is just a small factor in the equation. Some studies even suggest that light and moderate drinkers are more vulnerable to getting a hangover than heavy drinkers. All that aside, we can all agree that recovery is the number one goal the day after indulging.

Usually, recovering from a hangover includes hydrating with some type of electrolyte-filled mixture. You might associate this with some version of a generic sports drink, loaded with fake sugars and artificial flavors, which is meant to aid you back to health. Problem solved—or maybe not so much. Although a pre-made, quick-fix drink sounds like a great choice, all the added artificial sugars, colors and flavors may be doing more harm than good. The common artificial ingredients found in typical sports drinks have been known to cause symptoms that include headaches, stomachaches, cravings, inflammation and irritability. Ironically, these are some of the same symptoms we experience with a hangover—which the sports drink was supposed to cure in the first place!

Instead of loading up on a blue or purple flavored drink with a hint of electrolytes, opt for one of these natural options instead.

Water

Maybe this goes without saying, but nothing hydrates better than water—simple as that. After a night out, dehydration is common. This is because alcohol depletes your body of water and vital nutrients. If you are dehydrated, you may experience unpleasant symptoms such as dizziness, fatigue and vomiting. Next time you are out on the town, remember to drink one 8-ounce glass of water between alcoholic beverages and then continue to load up on H₂O the next morning.

Coconut Water

We’ve already addressed that alcohol doesn’t only make you lose fluid—it washes away essential electrolytes. Potassium is one of the electrolytes depleted, which can leave you feeling weak and crampy. Potassium helps control the amount of fluid in the body, maintains a healthy blood pH level and is vital to cell function. Coconut water is a great choice to replace your sports drink. It has more potassium per ounce and is free of artificial colors and sweeteners.

Orange Juice

Another classic choice for morning-after recovery. Vitamin C is one of the major vitamins depleted by alcohol. We need vitamin C to support our immune system and act as an antioxidant to scavenge for free radicals, which cause inflammation and tissue destruction. Ever wonder why your skin looks so lackluster after a hangover? Vitamin C also helps your body produce collagen, which makes your skin appear hydrated and rejuvenated! Freshly squeezed OJ is the perfect drink to reach for when you’re on the mend.

Ginger Lemon Tea

Nauseous? Ginger is your new best friend. It works wonders to alleviate nausea. Add lemon in the mix for the ultimate recovery drink. Lemon supports your liver, which goes into overdrive trying to metabolize all that ethanol (aka alcohol). You can make it yourself by boiling some water and adding fresh slices of ginger and the juice of half a lemon.

Bone Broth

Before you turn your nose up at the thought of drinking bone broth, hear us out. Bone broth has tons of benefits. It contains L-glutamine, which supports the health of your small intestine, and glycine, which supports detoxification. While homemade is best, store-bought versions are still a great option. Just make sure you look for one made with whole food ingredients—like grass-fed beef bones and pasture-raised or free-range poultry bones—without additives, coloring or flavor enhancers.

Miso Soup

Let’s talk about another important electrolyte: sodium. Our body requires small amounts of sodium for nerve and muscle function as well as fluid balance. Drinking alcohol drains your body of normal sodium levels, so it is important to replenish those levels after the fact. Fermented soybean—otherwise known as miso—has naturally higher levels of sodium and contains probiotics and antioxidants that help sooth digestion, making it the perfect thing to sip on. Make sure when you are purchasing store-bought versions that you stay away from any ingredients with GMOs. As always, organic ingredients are best.

Beet Juice

After consuming alcohol, the liver is hard at work processing all that ethanol. You might feel achy or run down—but not to fear, beets are here! Beets contain betaine, which is an antioxidant rich in anti-inflammatory compounds. A clean pressed juice containing beets will help your liver cleanse your body and put that pep back in your step—just make sure it contains 100% juice and no preservatives if you go the store-bought route.

Virgin Bloody Mary

They say a little hair of the dog will do the trick, but your best bet to recover as fast as possible is to give your body a break from the booze. The ingredients that make up a Bloody Mary are a surprisingly great mixture for detoxing your body. Omit the alcohol but keep the tomato juice, lemon, olives and celery, and you have yourself a great recovery drink. Tomatoes have natural sodium, potassium and, most importantly, lycopene—an antioxidant that helps with detoxification. The lemon juice adds a nice kick of vitamin C!

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More and more research is being done to help us understand the true impact of gut health on other systems in the body. Commonly reported symptoms like weight gain, weakened immunity, anxiety, depression, changes in mood and energy levels, aches and pains are being reported alongside inflammation, digestive issues and other diseases. Do you see the pattern here? They all stem from the gut!

Anxiety in particular is something a lot of us carry with us and thus is an important topic of conversation. Out of all mental health diagnoses, it is the number one issue in the United States, affecting 40 million adults every year. Maybe you fall into this category or know someone who does. Health journals have been reporting on anxiety for years. And recently, scientific reviews of these journals have been suggesting thatyour gut could be a major factor playing into your mental health.

In a review published in General Psychiatry, researchers from the Shanghai Mental Health Center looked at over 20 studies, examining more than 1,500 participants, to see if gut bacteria had any effect on anxiety. Some people might say this is out of left field, but in fact, a growing amount of research indicates that bacteria found in the gut play a role in brain and mental health—namely, the gut-brain axis, which facilitates communication between the nervous, immune and endocrine systems.

As soon as we heard this, we had to know more! After all, Dr. Jennifer Noonan recently sat down with our co-founder Morgan Kline for the Coffee & Kettlebells podcast to talk about how important a healthy gut really is. So, there must be something to this whole “gut health” thing. When your gut is out of balance, everything else in your body is too. Balancing your gut is essential to living your life with greater vitality.

First things first: What makes a gut healthy? There are trillions, yes trillions, of microorganisms in the gut. We call them microbiota. These little guys perform important functions in the immune system and metabolism by providing essential inflammatory mediators, nutrients and vitamins. When intestinal flora is affected, a series of changes in physical and/or mental symptoms can occur. Here’s where we hear about the ever-so-popular IBS, IBD, GERD and a number of other acronyms related to gastrointestinal (GI, in case you needed another one) issues.

If you’re unsure whether your gut is healthy or not, here are some symptoms that might indicate bad gut health. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list but does address some of the most common symptoms.

1. Gas, bloating and bowel movement changes

The number one telltale sign of gut dysfunction is digestive issues like bloating, gas or bowel movement changes. This is due to the number and diversity (or lack) of bacteria living inside your gut, intestines, stomach and colon. Gas in particular should signal to you that food is fermenting in your gut because your stomach acid is falling down on its job. This leads to an imbalance of bacteria, resulting in the inability to break down the food you’ve eaten…and, yes, gas.

2. Bad breath

But I swear I brushed my teeth! Sometimes bad breath isn’t just a result of poor dental hygiene. In fact, chronic bad breath, aka halitosis, stems from odor-inducing microbes, which increase when the ratio of good and bad bacteria in your gut is off. This may start as a mild inconvenience for your social life, but if your gut flora is off, you are more vulnerable to health conditions linked to bad breath such as kidney infections and diabetes.

3. Skin problems

Diving further into the realm of vanity and mild inconveniences, another sign of an unhealthy gut might be staring right back at you in the mirror. Your skin can tell you a lot about what is going on inside your body. For many people, food intolerances or poor digestion of foods consumed can cause things like eczema and breakouts. By balancing the microbes in your gut, you might be doing more for your skin than any face wash ever could.

4. Sugar cravings

Scientists have determined that the bacteria in your gut produce proteins similar to leptin and ghrelin, which are dubbed the “hunger-regulating hormones.” Here’s a quick breakdown: Bacteria try to get us to eat foods that they thrive on. So if you eat a lot of sugar, you feed the unhelpful bacteria that love it and they pump out the proteins to make you crave more sugar. It’s a vicious cycle! Not to worry, though—there is still hope! By fixing your gut, you can eradicate the bacteria that cause you to crave these foods in the first place and—boom!—no more sugar cravings.

5. Mood changes and mental health problems

Last but not least, we underestimate the impact our gut function plays on the levels of our “happy hormones,” serotonin and dopamine, as well as vitamin D. Part of the reason people with leaky gut may experience mental health issues is the micronutrient deficiencies that happen when the body is unable to absorb nutrients. The majority of the happy hormones are actually made in your gut. If you are unable to absorb micronutrients that help facilitate these hormones, it is likely you could experience moodiness, anxiety or depression due to a lack of crucial hormones responsible for regulating emotions.

Don’t worry, we won’t leave you high and dry to figure this out on your own! If you are wondering how you can get your gut health back on track (or keep it on track), there are a few things you can start being aware of in your diet that will definitely have in impact.

Like we touched on before with sugar cravings, a diet high in processed foods and added sugars can decrease the number of good bacteria in your gut. High amounts of refined sugars, particularly high-fructose corn syrup, are what the bad bacteria crave, helping them to outnumber the good guys. Cut out the sugar, cut out the bad bacteria, lessen the cravings and make more room for good bacteria to thrive! So stay away from added sugars. Instead, try eating a wide variety of whole foods. A lack of diversity within the gut bacteria limits recovery from harmful influences, such as infection or antibiotics that kill off good bacteria. Fruits, vegetables and whole grains can lead to a more diverse gut flora. This is because the food you eat provides nutrients that help bacteria grow. A diet rich in whole foods provides your gut with a variety of nutrients that help promote the growth of different types of bacteria, resulting in a more diverse gut flora. The adage “the more the merrier” applies here!

Also, if you don’t eat probiotic-rich foods already, now is the time to start! Foods like yogurt, miso and tempeh and drinks like the ever-popular kombucha all have the wonderful microorganisms that make up a healthy gut. One great part about the research we told you about earlier is that they looked into the use of probiotic-rich foods to help address symptoms of anxiety. Their findings indicated that more than half of the studies found that regulating gut bacteria helped to improve anxiety. Obviously, there is still a long way to go with research in the gut-brain axis world before determining direct causation between anxiety and gut health. With that said, eating more gut-friendly foods has been shown to help the bacteria already in your intestines flourish (instead of simply introducing more bacteria, which happens when taking supplements). If your gut is flourishing, the cause-and-effect chain can ripple on up to your brain, improving your mental health as well.

A huge bonus of eating a diverse diet with loads of probiotic-rich foods is that you’re also going to be getting more prebiotic foods! Not to be confused with probiotics, prebiotics are a type of fiber that passes through the body undigested and promotes the growth of good bacteria. Again, many whole foods have naturally occurring prebiotic fiber. Some examples include legumes, oats, bananas, asparagus, garlic, onions and nuts. Including these in your diet will help your body flush out the bad stuff and leave room for more of the bacteria that can absorb all of the micronutrients necessary to help regulate emotions.

Mental health issues like anxiety can be overwhelming, but getting your gut health in check could be just what the doctor ordered to give you some peace of mind. Isn’t it wild that whole foods have the ability to heal such an intricate system of hormones in the body—minus all the extra pills and supplements that can rack up a huge bill and actually have a negative impact on your gut health in the end? The potential for a more accessible solution for mental illness, like anxiety, with small changes in your diet and lifestyle is an incredible step in a positive direction! As always, we encourage you to speak to a doctor before making dietary changes or if you think you may have anxiety. Head to the BE. blog to learn more about prebiotics and probiotics as well as the link between gut health and cravings, and to learn more about the importance of gut health and how to heal your gut, listen to this episode of Coffee & Kettlebells!­­­­

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To take control of your gut health, you have to work on repopulating your gut with good bacteria as well as providing that good bacteria with an environment it can thrive in. Introducing prebiotics and probiotics into your diet is a great place to start.

Probiotics are the actual bacteria in your gut, and prebiotics are what the probiotics—or gut bacteria—live on. A simple way to look at the two is by imagining probiotics as seeds and prebiotics as soil.

So which is more important: prebiotics or probiotics? Herbalist and wellness practitioner Rachelle Robinette says, “You can make the case that prebiotics are more important because if you take probiotics but there is nothing in your gut microbiome to sustain their wellbeing, they will die very quickly.” Ultimately, consuming probiotics without prebiotics is like planting a seed in dried-up soil.

How do you add prebiotics to your diet?

Prebiotics are found in fibrous foods. Therefore, more fiber in your diet equals more prebiotics. The best way to ensure you are consuming enough prebiotics daily is by tracking your fiber intake, just as you might track your carbohydrate, protein or fat intake. If you consume at least 30 grams of fiber a day, more likely than not, you will be eating enough prebiotics to feed the good bacteria in your gut. 30 grams is a great starting point, but don’t be afraid to build from there. “There has been research on people who have eaten 100 grams of fiber a day and they have shown to have extremely diverse gut flora (good gut bacteria),” shares Rachelle.

How do you include more fibrous, prebiotic-rich foods into your diet? “I am a fan of high-fiber smoothies; it’s a simple way to boost your intake. Acacia fiber, dandelion root powder, high-fiber hemp protein, flax seeds, chia seeds, raspberries and plantains are all great high-fiber, prebiotic-rich options to blend into your protein smoothies,” says Rachelle. “You may find getting enough fiber each day is difficult at first, but if you make small swaps in your diet, it can easily be met. For example, if you eat raspberries instead of strawberries, you can increase your fiber intake by 10 grams.”

Some other great options include root vegetables (especially sweet potatoes, yuca or cassava and jicama), chicory root, garlic, onions, green bananas, cacao powder, seaweed, coconut, coconut flour and cabbage.

How do you add probiotics to your diet?

While it’s common to supplement with probiotics, you can also add probiotic-rich foods to your diet to boost your intake. Probiotic-rich foods include many fermented foods, such as kimchi, kombucha, miso, tempeh, kefir, apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut (not canned—the raw, unpasteurized kind from the refrigerated section of the grocery store) goat cheese and full-fat, grass-fed yogurt.

Probiotic supplements can also be extremely beneficial, but it can be overwhelming to figure out which probiotics actually work and which ones are a waste of money because there are many varieties out there. Dr. Mark Hyman, a physician and best-selling author, says, “When shopping for a probiotic, look for one with at least 25 to 50 billion living CFUs (colony-forming units), including the most beneficial strains like bifidobacterium bifidum, bifidobacterium longum, bifidobacterium breve, lactobacillus acidophilus, lactobacillus rhamnosus and lactobacillus bulgaricus.”

The United States does not have any federal regulations or standards for probiotic supplements, which means it’s possible to purchase ones that either do not actually contain the strains of bacteria stated on the label or, even worse, contain strains that are no longer alive. This makes it extremely important to research different brands prior to purchasing to see if there is any evidence-backed data supporting the effectiveness of the product. Dr. Mark Hyman recommends the brands Align, Culturelle and Florastor.

Will consuming prebiotics and probiotics heal your gut?

While prebiotics and probiotics are essential for a well-functioning gut, there are many everyday exposures, lifestyle habits and gut-damaging foods that you must avoid as well. To learn more about what you can do to heal your gut, listen to Coffee & Kettlebells Episode 25: Is Your Gut Healthy? Why It Matters and How to Fix It with Dr. Jennifer Noonan as well as Episode 51: Becoming Metabolically Fit with Primal Health Coach Courtney Bursich.