Every health condition can be alleviated by a multi-dimensional approach. There’s more than one way to tackle your condition. Medication, stress-relief, supplements, self-care, mindfulness, nutrition, Eastern medicine practices, natural health, proper hydration and, of course, gut health. There’s a good chance that whatever health condition you may have will be helped if you target your gut health. After all, if ‘food is medicine’ then the place where all food goes in, is a good place to start.

But first…
For your gut to help you, you must first help it. There are many environmental, emotional and nutritional stresses on your gut. It’s both a robust and mechanical organ and a highly sensitive, finely tuned organ.

The key is to take the time to slowly but surely turn towards loving your gut. A quick fix rarely works and often makes things worse in the long run.

An important first step is to clean your gut environment. We carry 500g to 3 kilos of undiscarded waste and bad bacteria in our digestive tract. This inhibits the gut lining and microbiome from breaking down, processing and dispersing nutrients.

Increasing the fibre in your diet is a good place to start. Wholegrains, fruit and vegetables are the best source. According to ‘Better Health Victoria’ most Australians don't eat enough fibre [1].

Our Love Your Gut diatomaceous earth powder and capsules are famous for their gentle gut cleansing. Take them daily to clean your gut and keep it clean.

On a ‘deeper’ clean level, our Fulvic Humic Concentrate comes into its own. Fulvic Humic is renowned for its heavy metal chelating properties.

Detox response
At first when targeting your gut, people can experience a ‘detox response’, especially in the early stages. This is due in large part to the accumulated waste being disturbed, processed and eventually disposed of naturally.

The actual response differs with every person but most feel a similar feeling to when they’ve previously abstained from alcohol or caffeine.

Lee Holmes, Clinical Nutritionist from Supercharged Food says “I see cases of people who begin a gut detox or a change in diet and complain of feeling nauseous, a little light-headed and fatigued. In most cases, upping their daily hydration levels and some time will see these effects dissipate. In all cases though if the symptoms persist they should see a doctor for a full diagnosis.”

Recipe

Prebiotic Rich Savoury Smashed Root Vegetables

 A flourishing microbiome

Now that the gut is on its way to being cleaner and more toned, it’s ripe for repopulation. This is where prebiotics and probiotics come into their own. They help populate the gut with good bacteria and then help them proliferate in a virtuous cycle.

The bullseye! is a flourishing microbiome.

Fermented foods are a great source of probiotics. Olives in brine. Kombucha tea. Soft cheese. Natural yoghurt. Not a bad list of yummy food that feeds you and your gut.

Love Your Gut Synbiotic (arriving soon in NZ) is a formula developed by Lee Holmes in her Northern Beaches Nutrition Clinic. It contains probiotics (20+ billion of them in every daily serve!), prebiotics, dietary fibre and digestive enzymes. Your gut will looooooove Synbiotic.

 
Lee Holmes, Clinical Nutritionist and Love Your Gut Synbiotic
Targeting your gut health is a brilliantly effective way to overall health and to help with whatever health condition you may experience.

Sources and resources
[1] Better Health Victoria