Your Free Check List for Optimal Gut Health

Number One: Change your diet

The number one tool in the box is to change your diet. This one action has a massive impact on your gut flora and on your health and longevity as a consequence. In essence the objective is to do 3 things.

1. Stop eating the wrong foods that promote an out of balance profile of microbiota, and kill beneficial bacteria.
2. Avoid poisoning ourselves with various additives and harmful ‘foods’ that cause leaky gut syndrome.
3. Start eating different foods that promote a healthy balanced microbiota.

Step 1

• Reduce (ideally eliminate) sugar consumption – it feeds the wrong bacteria. Remember that pasta, rice, potatoes, spaghetti, noodles and grains are all sugar!
• Avoid processed foods – crisps, chocolates, pastries, pizza, fizzy drinks, sweets, etc. In fact almost anything factory made with a bar-code on it.
• Avoid wheat and gluten grains – These compromise the gut lining due to the gluten content as well as the glyphosate routinely sprayed on wheat by farmers.
• To keep your calorie intake constant it is crucial to increase the amount of healthy fats you eat [olives and olive oil, butter, raw cheeses, fatty fish such as sardines and anchovies, avocados, pecan and macadamia nuts, etc,].

Step 2

• Eat exclusively ‘ORGANIC’ or homegrown. This is essential in order to minimise the amount of glyphosate and other toxins ingested. Glyphosate causes leaky gut and is routinely used as a widespread antibiotic herbicide. Eating organic doesn’t guarantee toxic free but it certainly reduces the toxicity content by definition.
• Eat grass fed meats and animal products.
• Avoid eating preservatives, emulsifiers, binding agents, flavour enhancers, etc,.

Step 3

• Eat wild fermented foods – feed the gut with beneficial bacteria. Wild or home fermented foods are superior to a factory produced equivalent.
• Consume home made bone broth from organically raised grass fed animals.
• Eat plenty of Fibre – Non starchy vegetables (and fruits such as cucumbers, tomatoes and avocados) are good

Number Two: Get outside into the natural environment and breathe

What ever your lifestyle the health and diversity of your gut flora benefits from exposure to the natural environment. After all that is where all the bacteria live. If we are to introduce them to our gut then we must get outside. A walk in the woods, a trip to the beach or just pulling weeds in the garden, all help to get us breathing in the airborne bacteria that subsequently move into the gut.

Number Three: Be friends with the dirt in the garden

Getting outside into the garden and maybe even growing your own organic veggies is a great way of breathing in soil borne bacteria. Digging over the ground and pulling weeds releases millions of bacteria into the air. Breathing them in inoculates the gut and increases species diversity

Number Four: Avoid using antibiotics

The use of antibiotics should be reserved for when it is absolutely necessary. There are instances where their use can be life saving, but indiscriminate use for all conditions including viral infections is needlessly detrimental to the gut flora. Antibiotics wipe out large numbers of your gut bacteria. If they have to be taken it is recommended to take a probiotic for a short period only in the immediate aftermath.

Number Five: Avoid drinking tap water

Tap water contains many harmful chemicals and should NOT be regularly consumed by anyone interested in maintaining their health. Oestrogen mimicking compounds, chlorine, fluoride, glyphosate and other antibiotic residues are but some of the things that should not be ingested. Either filter your water, use a borehole, well or spring, or use a reliable glass bottled water supply. Securing a pure water supply is very important.

Number six: Avoid over cleanliness in the home and immediate environment

Contrary to the popular belief it is counter productive to keep the home disinfected or germ free. A sterile environment robs us of the bacteria we need to inoculate the gut and increase the ‘all important’ diversity of species.

Number Seven: Avoid toxicity in the immediate environment

Over zealous personal hygiene can be similarly counter productive, especially with regular use of toxic personal care products, anti bacterial soaps, shampoos and fragrances. Household building materials, furniture, paints, carpets all have a negative impact on the gut as the toxins inhaled and filtered in the nose end up being swallowed.

Number Eight: Get adequate sleep

Although sleep is something of a mystery and we still have lot to learn about it, we know that we need sufficient hours asleep and that we must respect our circadian rhythm. It is not good to shift work of be chronically sleep deprived.

Number Nine: Manage your stress levels

Have a stress reduction strategy. Whether it is Yoga or painting, going for a walk or stting quietly, some means of unwinding and relaxing is essential. Reflective time, taking stock, zooming out or even just deep breathing and thinking nothing at all, there are many different ways we can address our need to step outside of the daily pattern.

Number Ten: Avoid the use of dishwashers

Dishwashing machines use water at a high temperature that kills beneficial bacteria from plates and utensils. Studies have shown that beneficial bacteria remain on dishes washed by hand at hot water temperatures that hands can bare.

Number Eleven: Consider a colonic irrigation

Colonic irrigation is when the colon is gently rinsed with purified water. The process removes digestive debris and fully re-exposes the gut lining to increase water reabsorption and toxin release. This increases the functionality of the large intestine and the increased ability to detoxify significantly enhances health and longevity.

 Number Twelve: Vaginal home births and breast feeding

For potential mothers to be, perhaps the most crucial of lifestyle choice that supports gut health for the next generation is natural vaginal childbirth. During delivery the baby ingests mums bacterial flora during the passage down the birth canal and this is it’s most precious inheritance. It is the seeding of the infant’s microbiota [the sum of microbes in the gut] and the basis of the fledgling immune system. Too many infants are born C-section these days into the sterile hospital environment. This can lead to health problems and allergies later in life. Breast feeding also helps inoculate the infants gut.

Number Thirteen: Minimise EMF exposure

Electromagnetic Fields (EMF’s) have a damaging effect upon our gut microbiome. Consequently exposure to pulsed microwave radiation from our phones and computers with Bluetooth and wi-fi must be minimised if we are to preserve our gut health. There are many reasons to avoid EMF exposure. Gut health is one of these.

_________________________________ 

A Note about Probiotics

Probiotics have their place but they are not a long-term means to increasing the diversity of your microbiome. After a course of antibiotics a probiotic is a good idea in the short term. Also after a colonic irrigation the same applies. However, as a long term strategy they are of little use. The healthy human gut should contain roughly 25,000 – 30,000 species of bacteria. A probiotic with maybe 7 or 10 species is more likely to promote a monoculture if taken for a long time.

A note about Supplements

Gut health and it’s consequence of bodily health is accessible to all of us by making appropriate lifestyle choices. If the above steps are taken then only a few supplement products are necessary to support gut health. One is RESTORE, made by an American company called Biomic Sciences LLC. Restore has been scientifically shown to enhance tight junction integrity of the gut lining. It is a means of preventing and healing leaky gut syndrome

Keep it up

It is important to understand that maintaining a healthy gut is an on-going process and requires that we be continually exposed to the beneficial bacteria and also that we constantly replenish them. All the lifestyle choices listed above are best integrated into a way of living that mutually supports and sustains them all. For more information on this check out the individual health strategies outlined on this site.

Join the conversation and leave a comment below.

Nigel Howitt

Treehouse Farm

October 2018