In this final post of my series on gut health, I will give you 6 nutritional strategies to heal your gut. Because it’s all good and well to understand what might be wrong with your gut and what’s causing all the symptoms, but then what?
But before I do so I need you to realise something: there’s no point in trying to heal the gut when certain foods are still part of your diet. Certain foods actively contribute to leaky gut, so unless they are removed from your diet, you won’t see much improvement.
So let’s start there. What should you stop eating?
- Wheat products. Wheat contains gluten, a protein that makes dough stretchy. Although it is a protein, it’s not a protein our body does anything with or needs. And if you have/your child has leaky gut, it causes lots of problems. Most women with endometriosis have an intolerance to gluten. It irritates the gut lining and creates inflammation which causes or worsens leaky gut. So going off anything that contains gluten can bring enormous relief and improvement (in one of my clients after just 2 days!), especially if you have symptoms like bloating, diarrhoea/constipation, flatulence, etc.
- Dairy products. Dairy contains a protein as well, called casein. Some women with endometriosis (did you have lots of ear infections as a child? Then you’re likely to be intolerant to casein) are intolerant to it, so eating dairy foods creates the same inflammatory response as gluten.
- Processed foods – anything that comes in a packet, basically – contain not only lots of sugar and salt, but many additives that our digestive systems simply can’t process. They cause irritation, inflammation and worsen a leaky gut.
And now for some strategies to heal your gut with healing foods. These foods contain key nutrients that help to repair the gut lining and reduce inflammation.
- Bone broth – making your own bone broth is easy, and it will be a powerful tool in your gut healing. The collagen from the bones helps rebuild the lining of your gut. Drink it as you would tea or coffee and add it to your stews and sauces. You can get the recipe for bone broth here.
- Fatty fish – the omega 3 fatty acids in fatty fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel are known anti-inflammatories, so eating these types of fish 2 or 3 times a week will support the gut healing process.
- Probiotic foods – probiotic foods (foods that are fermented) contain good bacteria. and eating these will help address the bacterial balance in your gut. Increasing the colonies of good bacteria will help reduce the impact of bad bacteria. Foods to consider are yoghurt (Activia contains the highest numbers of probiotics), kefir, cheese, and fermented vegetables (make sure they have been pickled in salt, not in vinegar).
A question I get asked regularly is: “How long does it take to repair my gut?”. And the answer is “It depends”.
Not helpful, I know! But the recovery time depends on so many individual factors, that all I can say is that it can take anywhere from 3 months to 2 years. But you will start to notice improvements during the first month though if you apply these 6 nutritional strategies for healing your gut.
If you want support for your gut healing journey, a great place to start is with a diet review. And I do those for free!
Go to this link to enter your typical meals, and I will get back to you via email with some of my observations and recommendations.
