What To Eat After Antibiotics
Video Transcript:
Hi everyone. Welcome back to our channel.
What are antibiotics?
Antibiotics are one of the most common prescriptions given approximately 236 million prescriptions were given in 2022.
In the outpatient setting alone, the role of antibiotics can be truly lifesaving and in some instances are absolutely necessary.
However, like any medication, they come with their own set of risks and side effects with the excessive use of antibiotics, concerns like digestive issues, damage to the intestinal lining, as well as a weakened immune system.
One of the ways to mitigate the effects of antibiotics on the body is through your diet.
So in today's video, we are going to review how antibiotics affect the body and what you can do through your diet, including which foods to include to help the body and the gut recover more quickly and effectively after antibiotic use.
Hi, I'm Katie Bailey. I'm a gut health dietitian at Oswald Digestive Clinic, where we help individuals improve and resolve their bothersome gut issues.
If you'd like to learn more about gut health, I've linked our free guide 5 Ways to Improve Your Gut Health Below in the Description Box.
All right, let's jump into today's topic.
Effects of Antibiotics on the Body
Like I mentioned previously, antibiotics are crucial in certain circumstances as they're able to combat bacterial infections.
However, antibiotics are not selective, which means that they not only kill that harmful bacteria, but they also wipe out our beneficial bacteria. Our gut microbiome is home to trillions of microbes that play an important role in our digestion absorption in our immune system.
It's essential to have an abundant and diverse microbiome, but with the use of antibiotics that healthy microbiome becomes disrupted or imbalanced leading to digestive issues, nutrient deficiencies, and a weakened immune system.
Unfortunately, we can't always avoid the use of antibiotics, but what we can do is focus on our diet and including more foods that help to promote the beneficial bacteria and help promote our overall gut health.
What to Eat After Antibiotics
Okay, now let's talk about what to eat after antibiotics. The first foods I want to talk about are probiotics or your fermented foods.
Now, these foods are going to provide you with those live bacteria and yeast that are going to help replenish that beneficial bacteria in the gut that may have been wiped out with antibiotics.
This is going to include things like yogurt and keefer, sauerkraut, and kimchi.
Now, the second type of foods I want to talk about are your high fiber and your prebiotic foods. High fiber foods are going to provide that fuel source for that beneficial bacteria, particularly prebiotic fiber, which will promote the growth of that good bacteria.
The gut prebiotic fiber not only feeds that good bacteria, but they're also fermented in the gut into short chain fatty acids, which support a healthy gut lining.
Now, high fiber foods are going to be things like fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, legumes, and nuts and seeds. Prebiotic fiber in particular are going to be things like your onions and garlic, apples, asparagus, flaxseed, Jerusalem, artichokes, and oats and barley.
And lastly, you want to make sure to also incorporate high protein foods.
Now, protein is essential in helping to repair the gut lining, which can be damaged with the use of antibiotics. Now, the high protein foods are going to be things like those high quality proteins like beef and pasture raised eggs and poultry, and wild caught fish, among other things.
Is collagen good for gut health?
And another thing that you could incorporate is collagen, because collagen is also really great for repairing the gut lining, and you can either have this in a supplement form or it's also found naturally in bone broth.
Not only is it important to know which foods to include in your diet after antibiotics, it's also important to know which foods that maybe you should limit. So there are certain foods that can further disrupt your gut health and slow down recovery.
That's going to be things like alcohol and highly processed foods and excessive sugar intake.
So to wrap up our topic for today, eating the right foods after antibiotic use can greatly aid in your recovery and restore your gut health.
Emphasizing a balanced diet rich in those probiotic fermented foods, high fiber and prebiotic foods, as well as adequate protein can help to replenish the gut microbiome and provide the essential nutrients needed for recovery.
Incorporating healthy lifestyle habits into your routine as well. Things like adequate sleep and regular exercise and managing your stress can also aid in a faster recovery.
If you liked this video, please hit the like button and subscribe for more nutrition videos. If you're interested in working with our clinic, you can click the link below in the description box to make an appointment.
We do take insurance and you can find more information about that on our website.
Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time.
If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic. We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.
Or you can just start by downloading our FREE GUIDE: 5 WAYS TO IMPROVE GUT HEALTH
