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Nutritionist Payal Kothari decodes the microbiome

For nutritionist Payal Kothari, understanding the 100 trillion microbes inside your gut and their connections to good health comes easy.

For nutritionist Payal Kothari, understanding the 100 trillion microbes inside your gut and their connections to good health comes easy.

For Payal Kothari, understanding the 100 trillion microbes inside your gut and their connections to good health comes easy. After all, she is the founder of India’s only holistic health and wellness nutrition school, INUEN, which certifies students to be integrative nutrition health coaches.

“To me, wellness means a balance of mental, physical, and emotional health. Integrative nutrition means a holistic approach towards food, and other aspects of life, including relationships, career, spiritual practice, and exercise — growing parallel in all spheres and creating a happy balance,” says Payal. “Everyone has different priorities at different stages in life, but to be able to strike a healthy chord linking all of these aspects, is essential for holistic living,” she explains.

Her book The Gut, circles the pivotal role of our gut health in leading a happy life. Payal has distilled workable solutions over the years, having successfully grappled with tuberculosis, body shaming, and multiple IVFs in addition to financial upheavals. “Never suppress your emotions, as these affect the gut and emotional wellness, in the long run,” she says, lining her takeaway from her personal challenges. Cut to 2023. In a pandemic-challenged world today when the supply chain stands challenged, means are virtually bare for over fifty per cent of our population, and upscaling food has become a norm, what are the five essentials that she recommends in building upon a sound gut flora?

“My favourite pick: flaxseeds as they reboot the gut lining fast. They come packed with gut microbiota and this helps them multiply. Walnuts have omega-3 fatty acids, and work wonderfully for the gut and brain,” she says.

Shilpi Madan for Deccan Herald

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