How I Take Care Of My Gut Health With GoodBelly

If you have been following me for a while, you’ll know that I was recently hospitalized for intense stomach pain. They thought I had appendicitis, but it turned out to be diverticulosis. This is a condition in which small, bulging pouched develop in the digestive tract. These pockets occur when the inner layer of the digestive tract pushed through weak spots in the outer layer. Diverticulosis, on top of all of my other gut issues, has caused me to want to take care of my gut health. While I’m still working on added more fibrous foods into my diet, GoodBelly is always there to save the day! This post is sponsored, but all opinions and research are 100% my own!

Your Gut’s Superhero

Our intestines are home to about 100 trillion microorganisms, called intestinal microflora. This means we have good bacteria that help with digestion and our immune system, as well as bad bacteria that are harmful to your wellness. Like most things in life, it’s important to keep this in balance.

When it’s balanced, the microflora helps your immune system, aids in the absorption of nutrients, stops the growth of bad bacteria, and forms a barrier on the intestinal wall that prohibits harmful bacteria from crossing in your blood stream.

Basically, it’s a superhero.

So how do you know you’re out of balance?

Common symptoms you’ll experience when the bad bacteria take over are:

• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Bloating
• Gas
• Cramping

All of these are actually pretty common symptoms for me with all of my gut issues.

What effects your balance?

Some factors that influence your microflora balance would be:

• Medications (me)
• Lifestyle (Let’s change that!)
• Stress
• Exercise
• Diet

Okay, so what are probiotics?

One of my very first posts on my website (holy throwback) was actually talking about Probiotics and their benefit. Probiotics are living microorganisms that can survive the journey through your stomach acid to arrive in your intestines and get to work!

They create a balanced digestive environment, help restore your gut’s protective barrier, feed off of the same nutrients as bad bacteria causing them to die, and help lower your gut’s pH. This is important because bad bacteria has difficult surviving in a low pH environment.

GoodBelly

You have probably seen their juices in the store, but you don’t know a lot about probiotics to buy one of these! With so many products in the market now, it’s hard to decide which product will be good for you. Well, I have been using GoodBelly on and off for a few years, but really heavily since my diagnosis and I honestly and truthfully recommend them for anyone having gut issues.

Because not every strain of probiotics is the same, it’s important to read products and see how many probiotics they offer and what strain. GoodBelly uses strains that are well-documented and researched. The strain is Lactobacillus Plantarum 299V, which sounds like a fancy spaceship! This is a naturally occurring strain in the human gut and is recognized as one of the most effective probiotics available.

Too much Science!

My favorite thing about GoodBelly is how delicious their products are! I used to buy the supplements from a different company (GoodBelly sells supplements too!), but I really prefer the juice and enhanced drinks the most. I tried the lemon drop shots and did not like it, but if you like juice you are in for a treat! My favorite juice drink is the Strawberry Banana and the Mango!

They have this 12 Day Belly Reboot that is how I started using their products. Basically, you drink one serving of GoodBelly probiotics every day for the next 12 days. Studies show that it takes about 12 days for probiotics to start doing their job in your digestive system.

Their juices and shots are all Non-GMO, dairy-free, soy-free, and vegan! They also contain 5-20 times more probiotics than most yogurts and kombuchas! You hear that? You no longer have to pretend to enjoy kombucha.