Good ol' Gut Health

This topic is peppered thorough everything I write and say so I figured the time had come to get some things down in writing! Gut health. It's a term that is incredible popular right now. It's a buzz word and I know why!

What's the first thing you think of with gut health? The first thing? Is it poo? I think of poo! I"m sure i"m not the only one (please don't let me be the only one). Well here's the interesting thing. It's only partly about poo. We can tell heaps by noting our bowel habits, timing, frequency, consistency, difficulty, smell, colour texture...but who honestly looks? I ask ALL my clients and consistently get "Great! Fine! All good! No problem!" but they are complaining of symptoms of a poor immune system, skin conditions, allergies, and a low mood or difficulty sleeping. Mix and match as you wish. Each and every one of those symptoms can be impacted by gut health. 
Here's couple of quick facts:

• 90% of seratonin (feel good hormone) is made in the bowel. It's not well understood but the gut-brain axis is a real thing and the bowel microbes play a role in all of this. One of the theories is the the microbes interact with the host (being us) to produce seratonin. Bottom line (pun intended) is that our gut health can directly effect our mood. Cool huh?
• About 80% of your immune system lives in your gut. I know! Who'd of thought! But it makes perfect sense when you think about it. The bowel comes into contact with tonnes of bacteria every day. There is a heap of gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) down there. This type of tissue helps stop pathogens in their tracks. But it can also get too excited and an excited immune system can result in all kids of allergies. If the mucosal lining becomes inflamed thanks to inappropriate bacteria we get a leaky gut thing going on and the bowel lining can't stop things passing through that really shouldn't pass back into the blood stream. This creates problems right through the body. 

           Not only that but histamine is degraded in the gut. Histamine is part of our immune response
           but if we get too much histamine it produces all sorts of allergic issues.

• We need lots of diverse healthy, good bacteria for digestion! That's simple.

Now we know why we need good gut health the bigger question is how do we keep it healthy? This is easier than you think!

• First we need to feed the good bacteria. Bad bacteria is just misplaced bacteria but can reek havoc. By eating a fibre rich diet we can keep the right bacteria happy.
• Eat onions and garlic as they are excellent prebiotics. These everyday foods feed the good bacteria.
• Stewed apples are another great prebiotic. Leave the skin on for maximum pectin action which is also soothing for the bowel walls limiting the chance for leaky gut.
• Glutamine rich foods like bone broth cooked for 24hours is utterly perfect for soothing the bowel walls and keeping them strong.
• Gelatin also has some bowel soothing and wall building components in it like collagen. 
• Naturally fermented foods are brilliant as they are a combination of pre and probiotics and yummy as well!

Totally easy to do! No excuses to give your gut some TLC to boost your immune system, mood mood and digestion! 
​Enjoy!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4393509/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6047317/
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/microbes-help-produce-serotonin-gut-46495
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