One of our own, Ashley, made a healthier gut her new year's resolution and shares her journey and exactly what happened after eight weeks.
Let’s set the scene and explore why gut health is so important? Research relating to gut health has exploded recently, with the quality of your gut microbes playing an important role in digestion and nutrient absorption, immune support, mental health, weight management and inflammatory response. There are a number of ways that you can support a healthy gut microbiome, here’s how I started:
- Remove problem foods: An obvious first step in a healthier gut is to remove foods that may be causing inflammation or irritation. Our modern diet often includes a lot of processed foods and refined sugars, so limiting those is a great place to start.
- Eat a diverse range of foods: It’s been recommended that you should aim for around 30 different types of plants each week, to maximise the diversity of species in your gut. I make sure that each meal has a range of colours and snack on fruits throughout the day.
- Throw in some fermented foods: Foods such as yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut can support gut health. If you’re not already consuming fermented foods, it’s recommended to slowly introduce them to your diet - try just a tablespoon of sauerkraut on the side of a meal to start!
- Incorporate probiotics: Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that can help to improve gut health. You can get probiotics from fermented foods or by taking a supplement. I've made Imbibe Beauty Renewal part of my morning routine.
- Take digestive enzymes: If you have trouble digesting certain foods, taking digestive enzymes can help. These enzymes can help to break down food and improve the absorption of nutrients. You can pick them up at your local chemist!
- Manage stress: Surprisingly, stress can have a negative impact on gut health, so it's important to find ways to manage stress. I’ve started meditating each morning to balance my mood and focus throughout the day.
- Get enough sleep: Adequate sleep is essential for gut healing, as well as overall health. Sometimes it isn’t always easy, especially with a two year old, but I aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night.
As you can see, gut health is an extremely complex topic and something that I’ve only just started to do my own research on. It’s important to remind yourself that healing your gut is a very gradual process and can take time, be gentle on yourself and start small. Over the past couple of months by making a few small changes, my skin has cleared and bloating that would sometimes occur later in the day has gone completely.
If you want to learn more about gut health, I’d highly recommend this podcast on Diary of a CEO where the host speaks to Tim Spector, an epidemiologist, medical doctor and author.
That's all for from me - here's to a healthier gut in 2024.