Believe it or not, gut health plays an incredibly important role in your overall sense of wellbeing. Over 2,000 year ago the Father of medicine Hippocrates, highlighted this fact with his famous quote ‘All Disease begins in the gut’. Your gut is much more than just the home of digestion; it is the dwelling of approximately 100 trillion microorganisms.

This unique bacterial population, often referred to as our ‘microbe’, helps form a protective barrier, which defends us from the vast array of foreign substances we are exposed to daily. When we consider that our gut is responsible for 80% of our immune function, it is easy to understand why an unhealthy gut has been linked to a wider-range of chronic conditions Extensive research also shows that an unhealthy gut largely contributes to depression, as 90% of the body’s serotonin and 50% of its dopamine (the happy and pleasure chemicals) is produced there.

We all have a unique microbial population specifically tailored to our lifestyle and our environment, and although modern living is incredibly detrimental to our gut health, we do have the power to alter and replenish our gut flora. The gut is dynamic and living, so it pays to consider our gut health much like a garden!

To start restoring your gut-flora-garden, start reducing the weeds, mainly:

  • Grains
  • Sugar
  • Dairy
  • Diet soda
  • Processed foods
  • Alcohol
Once you slowly start to reduce these major offenders, you can start creating an environment for a healthy gut to flourish. Start including:
  • Fermented foods – recolonize the gut with sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, kefir, kombucha and miso
  • Prebiotic foods – feed the healthy bacteria with artichoke, onions, garlic, asparagus and leeks
  • Supplement with a good quality probiotic (although priorities fermented foods)
  • Herbal remedies – modern living wreaks havoc on out gut, and so we need to completely heal them the same way we would with an open wound. Herbal remedies such as aloe, licorice root, and glutamine will support new growth of the intestinal lining
  • L-glutamine – you can also supplement with this amino acid that helps to rejuvenate the gut wall lining.