Breastfeeding mamas come to me often with food sensitive babies. They would like for me to build them a meal plan free of all of the things baby appears to be sensitive to, starting with dairy, soy, wheat, eggs and so on. Many of them already come with seemingly endless lists of foods they diligently recorded which they want to eliminate from their diet. Others want to take a food sensitivity test to see if it can detect the culprit. ... Imagine being a postpartum mama who's body is trying to recover from childbirth but who also isn't getting a lot of sleep, time to herself or time to cook and plan meals, for that matter. Now throw a super restrictive diet and treatment plan into the mix....
If it isn't a severe case, you know where I usually start? Mom's gut health. How's your own gut health, mama? Yeah, let's start there. Because, guess what? Studies have shown, while pregnant and breastfeeding, you actually share your own gut flora with your baby! The most effective way to help baby build a healthy gut flora for lifelong health benefits and allergy prevention is to have a healthy gut flora yourself, while pregnant and breastfeeding. Hence, why I believe including gut healthy foods is especially important for my clients.
This smoothie bowl comes with several gut healthy foods:
Semi-green Bananas: Semi-green Bananas contain less sugar than yellow bananas. What makes them especially gut friendly, however, is their resistant starch and pectin content. Those are types of fibers which are especially effective in forming a healthy gut flora.
Berries: Berries such as blueberries, raspberries and strawberries are not only rich in vitamins and antioxidants, but they are also great for gut health. Their high content in phenolic compounds can significantly improve gut health.
Kefir: Yogurt is good, but kefir is better when it comes to gut health. It contains more and a more diverse set of gut healthy probiotics.
Flax Seeds, Cacao Nibs and Coconut Flakes: all of the toppings contain fiber which promotes healthy digestion.
In addition to these benefits to your gut, the smoothie bowl also contains protein from the cottage cheese (or greek yogurt if you don't care for it) and kefir, along with lactation-friendly oat milk.
The recipe, you ask? Well, let's get to it:
Gut Friendly Smoothie Bowl
Ingredients
1 cup Mixed Frozen Berries
1 semi-green Banana (peeled)
1/4 cup Cottage Cheese (or Greek Yogurt)
1/4 cup Plain Kefir
1/2 cup Oat Milk (or other milk of choice)
1/2 cup Ice Chips
1 tbsp Flax Seeds
1 tbsp unsweetened Coconut Flakes
1 tbsp Cacao Nibs
Directions:
Add frozen berries, banana, cottage cheese, kefir, oat milk and ice chips to a blender. Blend until smooth. Decorate with flax seeds, coconut flakes, cacao nibs and fruit. Enjoy!