Whether you’re a health professional, a home based bio-hacker or just a mum dying for a good night’s sleep, too much sugar in your diet can can turn your dreamy eyed love affair of the sweet crystals into a nightmare.
Studies show that too much sugar can release free radicals and cause chronic low-grade inflammation.*
To combat these symptoms, apart from reducing your sugar intake (which is highly recommended BTW), an increase in foods that are high in anti-oxidants, to combat free radicals, and rich in anti-inflammatory factors is a good idea. One really healthy way to do both naturally is to eat more polyphenol rich pre-biotic foods.
While pro-biotics refer to good gut bacteria, pre-biotics are foods that feed our good gut bacteria. Some pre-biotics, like dietary polyphenols, also provide our good gut bacteria with a happy environment to flourish.
Old pre-biotic thinking was to just feed our good gut bacteria with dietary fibre, but recent studies have revealed a new generation of pre-biotic that turbo-charge our good gut bacteria.
These are micronutrients found in some plant-based foods and known as dietary polyphenols**. Dietary polyphenols not only feed our good bacteria but are high in anti-oxidants and rich in soothing anti-inflammatories.
Good examples of polyphenol pre-biotic foods are: cocoa (yes, dark chocolate!), green tea, cinnamon bark, red grapes (yes, red wine!) and blackcurrants.
With all changes in diet, be mindful of potential side-effects. Too much dark chocolate could result in weight gain and sleeplessness due to the caffeine. Red wine for obvious reasons should be consumed in moderation.
Try alcohol-free red grape juice, but again be weary of the sugar content as consuming too much highly refined sugar can release free radicals and cause chronic low-grade inflammation – the very things we are trying to avoid.*
If you feel you may have low-grade inflammation and associated stomach problems maybe a new polyphenol based supplement could work for you^.
*Want the ‘bad sugar’ report? Read the full study here
**Want the polyphenol report? Read the full study here
^Want to learn more about the BioActive polyphenol supplement? Read about ‘khapregesic’ here
