Healthy, Happy Gut
Oh boy, don’t I know about this.
I have been on a real rollercoaster of a journey with my gut over the years and I want to share with you some tips to improve your gut health.
It is so important to look after your gut, as we now know that your head and gut are connected. A happy tummy = a happy clear head.
For a long time I have struggled with my gut health. I found out that I had a leaky gut, which if you don't know, means that the gut lining basically has little, tiny holes in it. Nutrients then escapes into the bloodstream, resulting in the body not absorbing all the nutritional goodness as it should. It also causes inflammation in the gut lining, which makes you bloated. Not cool man!!!
I hated being bloated so much. I would look 6 months pregnant, be in pain, have brain-fog and feel super uncomfortable. If you have these symptoms I strongly suggest you read on!
For a long time I was on a plant based diet, hoping that this would make my gut better. Even though this gave me a lot of energy, my IBS and leaky gut did not seem to get much better. I just got used to the daily pain and bloat.
Two years ago I decided that I’d had enough. I went to see a nutritionist who did a food intolerance test and further gut testing as well.
I found out that I was intolerant to eggs, wheat, dairy and oddly, shark!?
My gut test came back and I found out that I had a parasite in my gut and my gut lining was completely inflamed.
So, I took some herbs to get rid of the parasite, which went within a few months and I took a really close look at my diet to reduce the inflammation.
I completely changed my diet, from being a hardcore vegan for a few years, I felt it was time to reintroduce animal-based products back into my diet. It just felt right.
The real game changers were collagen powder and bone broth (I know it sounds a bit witch-like, but trust me, it's amazing). I use the Hunter & Gather collagen and make bone broth from grass fed animal bones. If I really don’t have the time, I love to use the Planet Paleo bone broth powder (the banana one is unreal blended with MCT oil).
So why are collagen and bone broth so great?! They’re full of essential amino acids and proteins to help repair the gut lining. OMG, so it will basically knit together the lining of the gut! Hell yeah! They help take down any inflammation in the gut and also the rest of the body. Have joint pain? Take some collagen and it will sort you out! When taking both of these products I also noticed my hair got thicker and grew like crazy and my skin glowed. It is really magic stuff…
Adding these two things into my daily lifestyle has really helped my gut.
I have also been careful to avoid inflammatory foods. I just want to say, we definitely do not get told enough about this. It is so important to start to read the labels folks, as inflammatory foods are in a lot of processed food and even in what you would consider “health foods”. A lot of plant-based milks have inflammatory oils in them! Shocker!
Ok, so inflammatory foods literally do what they say. They inflame the body. They can affect the gut, joints, skin and so on.
What foods are inflammatory? Here is a list of some?
seed oils:
rapeseed oil
palm oil
soya oil
sunflower oil
foods:
soya
corn syrups
sugar
gluten
If you are struggling with your gut health, I would recommend you give this a try. I have made some simple changes over the last few years, from changing the oils I cook with, eg. coconut oil and avocado oil, to using olive oil to dress salads. I’ve also been eating lots of collagen-rich broths and soups and trying to reduce my sugar intake. I have to say, I am definitely feeling much better, but still feel like i have a long way to go.
Alex.
