 Hello, my name is Harshad Rajakar. I am the Gastro-Intestinal Surgeon at Manipal Hospital, Kharadipur. We at Manipal Hospital are promoting a health awareness this month. And I would like to put ahead some facts regarding gut health that could be beneficial to everybody. Gut health is something that affects everybody. We all get affected by abdominal symptoms and discomfort and things like that. We tend to affect all our functioning every day. A common misconception that most people have is constipation. Constipation is not having stools every day. Having stools every day is not required. It is difficult to pass stools. Stools that are very hard to pass that need to be pushed is a symptom of constipation. Having motions every day is not required. It is just a matter of convenience that we have developed a style of passing motions every day. If there is no urge and we try to push our intestines to passing motions, we may in fact end up damaging the rectum and causing piles and things like that. Apart from that symptoms like bloating, loose motions, constipation, all of this is related to our lifestyles, the kind of food that we eat when we eat what we eat. Generally speaking diet that is rich in processed food, rich in carbohydrates tend to affect the gut health in a significant way. So we should always promote food that involves less processed food, less carbohydrates, less refined flour. Packaged food is always refined. Packaged food especially things like biscuits, bakeries, sweets, etc. have a lot of carbohydrates and that can be decremented to gut health. The things that are beneficial to gut health is a high fiber diet, a fiber that is rich in fruits and vegetables. Fruits contain fiber that absorbs toxins and promotes gut motility and probiotics are always important. A healthy diet containing probiotics including curds and yogurt, etc. will help maintain the gut flora and that will affect the gut health positively. Besides regular meal times, our bodies make hormones in the morning. So we have what is called as a circadian rhythm. So having food in the morning around sunrise is an important aspect of life. Food that we eat in the morning is food that the body can utilize. As the day progresses, our diet should reduce. Our last meal should not be later than sunset or around 7 o'clock. Leave a lot of time, leave around I would say 2 and a half to 3 hours between dinner and bedtime. That will help the body utilize the food that is consumed. Reduce your dinner times, reduce your dinner quantity, reduce the calorie intake at any given time. Reducing the portion size and chewing your food well is always helpful. Here is wishing all of you a good gut health.