Welcome back to inspired to be for the week. I have recently been doing a module in my functional nutrition course about the immune system, and specifically this week we were focusing on leaky Gut, which I found so interesting that I went on over to Insta and I asked you guys if you would be interested in hearing an episode about leaky Gut. The consensus was yes. A lot of you feel like you are suffering with symptoms of bad gut health or leaky gut, but don't really know where to start, Don't really know what it's about.
So I thought I would bring you today an episode about the condition that has been becoming increasingly more common, but it definitely is misunderstood. I wanted to share with you my top three tips in healing leaky gut that you could potentially implement into your life without feeling overwhelmed or like you're making this huge, big change. If you have been experiencing digestive issues, chronic fatigue, or unexplained health problems, then today's episode is 100% for you. You are going to love it. I'm going share my top three tips to help you heal your leaky gut. Please share this with friends and family who you think it could potentially help. I, as always, will stick to about a half an hour episode, so it's really accessible and easy for you to listen to on a half an hour walk while you're cooking dinner, while you're throwing the washing on on the way to work in the car. It's easy, you guys. It's easy. And I hope that you're really enjoying hanging out with me and that I'm making it just an environment that's really easy going and fun and upbeat.
I just love this. I love this topic because it's probably still quite fresh. I feel like back in, like, 2015, it wasn't that well known, but now in the research is becoming stronger. There's more case studies coming out to prove that leaky gut is a thing and that we actually can heal. It affects our immune system and our overall health and wellbeing really positively.
Before I dive into my top tips, I really want to help you understand what leaky gut is. So essentially, leaky gut syndrome, or increased intestinal permeability, is what it's called, occurs when the lining of your small intestine becomes damaged. So basically, think of the lining of your gut or your intestine as like all these little square dominoes. Square dominoes, rectangle dominoes, whatever you want, sitting really tightly next to each other in a super long line, because it's huge, your gut is huge, and that's basically on each side. Now, what happens with leaky gut is these dominoes aren't tightly pushed together. They start to have little gaps in them. And then what happens is the damage. The gaps allows undigested food particles, toxins and bacteria to leak. That's where the name comes from, through your intestines and into your bloodstream. So you can imagine that then that triggers inflammation, immune responses, changes in our gut microbiome, because things are getting out, things aren't being digested properly, and it actually causes other problems, like liver problems, you know, fat digestion, all these things. You're not absorbing the nutrients that you should be. So it really does throw everything off. You can't digest toxins because they're not being removed from your body, they're going back out into your bloodstream. So you can imagine your body's response to that. So it is quite serious, and it probably is the main cause of some other bigger health problems. That's why I love this so much, because the research is coming out and there's journal articles and case studies coming out to show how we can actually heal it and the amazing impact it has. And it's actually quite easy to heal. Like, you can do it. If you put your mind to it, you can do it and you don't have to take medication, you know what I mean? So it's a lifestyle change and you can do it. So, first of all, there have been an increasing number of studies in humans that have shown, through testing different biomarkers, such as antibody levels and different bacteria strains, that in only four weeks of making some of these changes, you can better your gut health and set yourself on the right path for overall wellness, a stronger immune system, and just feeling that, like, inner glow, you know what I mean? So four weeks. Four weeks is not very long. You will start to see improvements if you focus on a few little changes for four weeks. And I love, love, love that you can then realize this and go on to add more changes and strengthen your gut health even more. Because trust me, after doing it for a few weeks, even like a few days, which I'm going to talk about further down in the podcast, when you see the good results, you will be on the train. You will just want to do it even more.
Tip number one, I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm just such a big believer. And it is always the fuel that you give your body. So basically, the food, the water, anything that you consume, it has such an impact, especially on your gut health. I am a huge believer in making small changes that are achievable, rather than taking everything on at once or taking everything out at once of your diet, and then you feel deprived and overwhelmed. So a really good place to start would be biggest one, removing refined sugars from your diet. You really can do that for four weeks. I think that's really achievable and realistic refined sugars. So I'm not talking about maple syrup, honey, those things. You can definitely make some sweet treats at home that can replace those sugar cravings and fulfill that need. But really removing refined sugars and alcohol, because alcohol is another sugar that you can remove and it's really inflammatory. So why don't we start there, remove sugars and alcohol and see how you go. My favorite sweet treat that I love, that always helps with those cravings, is medjool dates. So I just get a date and I halve it, and I put either almond butter or peanut butter on the inside, and then I freeze it. So then when you get it out of the freezer, it's like chewy, you might have to let it thaw for a little bit. It's like this chewy, sweet, nutty little treat. And that really helps me with my sweet cravings. In terms of removing other things from your diet to help heal your gut, gluten is a really interesting one that I thought I'd share with you specifically, because what's been found is that if you have celiac disease or non celiac gluten or wheat sensitivity, removing gluten from your diet can positively impact your gut health. So by different case studies testing people with celiac or gluten sensitivity, their gut health has actually improved after removing it for a few weeks. However, if you are someone who doesn't have either of those, what they saw was that it actually didn't necessarily improve the gut health and that the microbiome in the gut actually got put off by removing the gluten. So I would say that if you are sensitive to gluten and you are having problems with your gut health, then definitely remove it for a small amount of time. Obviously, if you're celiac, you're already on that train, you know not to have it because of the impacts that it can have to your immune system inflammation. If you don't have a sensitivity, I would say, rather than focusing on removing gluten, that you focus on the types of gluten that you're having. So do you really need to have bread with every meal? No. What type of bread are you having? Is it a sourdough bread or is it like a white, refined bread? Same goes for pasta. Can you get the really unrefined or fresh pasta and bread rather than the refined and highly processed versions? And think about how much you're having. Definitely trying to switch your thinking to not having heaps of cakes and things like that. And if you are a cake person, can you make like a healthy banana bread? I've got the recipe on my Instagram profile. Things like that. Like where can you take out the gluten or reduce the gluten, or just make sure you're having the more whole food unprocessed version. But how cool is that, though, that they did a study of those three groups, celiac gluten sensitivity and neither. And they actually found that by going on a gluten free diet. The first two, their gut microbiome was better after removing it, but the third group, after removing it, it wasn't better. It actually got worse. And I think that just says that it's such a personal journey and it's you. Like, if you can notice how you feel after eating certain things, if you're feeling bloated or the next day, maybe you're feeling really tired or exhausted, that is a sign of inflammation that's happening in your gut. So maybe trying to reduce or cut that out specifically. Now let's focus on the things that we can have rather than what we can't have, because you really can still have some awesome things and it doesn't have to be expensive. Side note, we love going off on a tangent. This week. I did my whole grocery shop at Aldi and you guys, I normally spend about $400 on a grocery shop at Woolies. This week I went to Aldi and I said to myself before I went in, I'm going to let go of the buying the organic produce. I'm going to see if they have, like, grass fed options in proteins, meats, eggs. And if they do, I'll buy that. Otherwise, I'll go and get my meats from woolworths. But you guys, they had grass fed beef mince. So I got that. They had free range chicken, so I got that. Free range eggs. Got those. I was amazed, actually. The produce is really nice. And my grocery bill was $260. Can you believe it? That is a huge saving. Now, keep in mind, I didn't have to buy this time any cleaning products. So that was, you know, normally that would add a lot onto it. But yeah, I just wanted to mention that, that eating whole foods, nutrient dense foods, incorporating heaps of vegetables, fruits, lean proteins and healthy fats into your diet, it doesn't have to be expensive. If you look at what's in your trolley and you try and buy whole foods, try to not get packaged foods, your grocery bill is not going to suffer. Where your grocery bill suffers is where you're adding in all of these processed options that you really don't need. And your gut and your health is going to thank you. The way I like to look at it is that maybe you're choosing to buy more fresh produce now, and it might be a little bit more expensive than saying, going and grabbing like a microwave dinner or something. But in five years from now, your health bill will not be as big because you've been focusing on your health from the inside out. Some foods that you might like to add in that have an anti inflammatory effect are broccoli, which I really love broccoli for the fiber. You would have heard me say that before. Fiber is a great one because it is also going to help create that like, really cool ecosystem of microbiome in your gut and help move, digest out those toxins. So broccoli, blueberries and red raspberries have a really great anti inflammatory effect. And the other one that's interesting is greek yogurt. Greek yogurt has been shown up to help restore the tight junction proteins. So you know how I was saying, it's like little dominoes sitting next to each other. And when you've got leaky gut there moving apart to allow things to pass through. So by having greek yogurt specifically, it has helped restore the proteins to pull those tight junctions together in your gut. So the goal is to reduce inflammation, to reduce anything being allowed to flow through those junctions to give you a chance to heal. If you're someone who has a sensitivity to dairy. I definitely am. My husband is, and actually one of my kids does as well from our personal experience. And again, please try what works for you. Maybe just try slowly and see, really notice how you feel. Greek yogurt is okay. If I have greek yogurt once a day a serving, I actually am fine. It doesn't affect me. If I start having heaps of dairy, like if I bring back in cows milk, cheese, like an abundance of dairy, then I will start to feel a little bit of inflammation, but for us, greek yogurt seems to be okay. So that could potentially be a great one for you.
Tip number two is taking gut healing supplements. Let's consider incorporating gut healing supplements into your routine. I, of course, always stand by my view that you can actually heal without supplementation, but sometimes you do need that boost and if you do and you really want to try, then these are a great place to start. L glutamine is an amino acid and it's known for its ability to repair and regenerate the gut lining. So this is a great one. You can get it in powder form. I have one that I got through a brand called Happy mammoth that you order online. And you can also get the l glutamine powders from your health food shops. So you can start there if you want to boost. It really does help restore that gut lining. As always, it's not something that you're going to take forever. It's just something that you might like to take. Now in the beginning, just to help get things going, you are best to drink it on an empty stomach. I like to drink mine first thing in the morning mixed in with water. It doesn't taste amazing, but you know, you just skull it and you're done. So that's a great one. The next one that I've spoken about before and I highly encourage is probiotics. So probiotics are essential because they help restore the healthy balance of gut bacteria. So all the microbiomes, so they basically flood your gut with all good bacteria. And this helps build up the health of your gut, a healthy lining and it helps fight off the bad guys. Right. Different strains of probiotics, though, are suited to different situations. So I would suggest going to your local health food store or chemist and asking for which one would suit your situation. At my local health food store, it's called nourish organic marketplace. There is quite often a naturopath there and she's amazing. She will help you. So you can go and ask her maybe like, I've just been on a long course of antibiotics and I'd love to take a probiotic to help restore or my gut health after that. Which one would you suggest? Or maybe it's that you're having like chronic diarrhea or constipation. Which one would she suggest? Or just google it, which strain of probiotic is best for blah and you will find out and then you can go and look on the label and make sure that that one is suited to you with probiotics, make sure it's a high dose. So on the jar, you want it to say at least 1 billion CFU. And CFU stands for colony forming units. So the higher the colony forming units, the more probiotics you're getting, which is obviously a beneficial thing. And it has been researched to show that unless you're having at least 1 billion, it's not going to have an effect on you. And lastly, make sure that you get one that is kept in the fridge, because it signals that all those little colonies are active strains and they are ready to work their magic in your gut. And the last little supplement that I wanted to mention, because I found this really interesting, is some studies recently that supported incorporation of medicinal mushrooms to heal the gut. So these are the ones that are, they're not the bad ones. They're available for you in your health food store. I am going to bring my friend Leah on the podcast because she is such a wealth of knowledge on biohacking, and she has had such a positive experience with incorporating medicinal mushrooms into her diet, especially with gut health. And I have as well. So I loved reading all of this information about medicinal mushrooms. So specifically, chaga, turkey tail, shiitake and lion's mane have all found to suppress inflammation and increase the good bacteria to bad bacteria ratio in studies. Now, these studies have only been done on mice or the ones that I read about anyway, but I love that we're getting there. I love that studies are starting to be done. So another thing, take with it what you will, you know, if you want to try it, see how you feel. But I love that the studies are starting to come out because it shows that these things are actually impacting us for the better. There are some brands that have a mixture of all the ones, all the different mushrooms, which is maybe a good place to start. I like to mix it in with my coffee, just like a quarter of a teaspoon to start with. Or sometimes if I'm having like a raw hot chocolate at night, I'll mix it in with that. It's just so easy. If you have smoothies, you can put it in there. And they are starting to be proven to support gut health. So that's a really interesting one.
The third tip I wanted to share with you is probably the hardest one for me, and it's managing stress. I don't know why this is such a tricky one. I think because it's almost an unseen. It's like not something that necessarily presents itself, obviously, because I think you can definitely hide your stress until something like horrible gut health or a really dampened immune system or other diseases or, you know, health problems pop up. But what we're finding is that stress is linked to gut health. So by managing your stress, it really is a key to overall digestive health. Everyone is so busy these days. I feel like you kind of have to be, like, to keep up with mum life and work and sports and all the things that, you know, come with. I feel like ever since COVID really, it's just been this crazy. Like, everyone just jumped back in, which is awesome, and I love it and never want to go back there. Although there were some beautiful things about that time of just being with your family and taking it slow. I definitely feel. I don't know if you feel the same way, that life has just sometimes become quite overwhelming. So really focusing on how you can reduce your stress is really important. Chronic stress can weaken your immune system and definitely impair your gut's ability to heal. So things like mindfulness meditation, yoga, breathing exercises are definitely practices that can reduce your stress levels. And taking time for your hobbies, spending time in nature, and just making sure you get enough sleep are also important for maintaining a healthy gut. Some of my favorite ways to reduce stress at the moment is I've talked about this before, the infrared sauna, and I think it's because you go in the sauna and it's so hot and you sweat so much, you literally can't do anything else but listen to music or listen to a meditation. Like, I try journaling, even sometimes, but I just get so sweaty I can't keep journaling. So that's a great one. Another thing that I haven't done in a while, actually, is I'll do, like a ten minute meditation before I go to school. Pickup. Now, let me find it. It's this one that I love following on Spotify. I haven't done it in a while, so it'll probably take me a minute to find it. She is called purely being meditation, purely being guided meditation. And she does, like, ten minute, sometimes five minute. You can scroll through and pick one that's suited for you, and it's just a nice one. I feel like you need to find one that connects with you. It's probably a great beginner's place to start. I listen to a lot of other health and wellness podcasts, and sometimes they talk about meditation teachers who are just too intense for me. Like, I'm not there yet. Hopefully one day I will be. But if you're like me and you're kind of at a beginner's place then. I really love that one that I just mentioned. So that's a great thing. And then my favourite thing that I've been doing lately is reading. I feel like I haven't been into reading for such a long time, like maybe in my early twenties. And recently I've started getting into romance novels and it's like the type of book where you get all consumed in it and you have no concept of time and you just want to keep reading because you want to know what happens. The book that I'm reading at the moment is called I think the things we left behind and it's just so awesome, I can't put it down. So I've been going to bed at eight or 830 and I'll read for half an hour to an hour and I swear I sleep so well, it helps get my mind off anything that is just making my mind go crazy. You know, sometimes if I've had a particularly hard day or working through some thoughts that are all consuming, I will start journaling. The thing I love about journaling is that if you've got some great prompts, it just gets you going and then before you know it, you're just like, well, you're letting it all out. So sometimes that is a great mindful practice that will also help reduce your stress. And it's almost like therapy because you can literally write whatever you want. You know, sometimes when you're talking to someone you might not be saying everything because you're a bit nervous, whereas in the journal you can just, blah, write it all out. So anyways, I. I wonder if you're reading anything. I'd love to know if you have any book recommendations because I'm definitely there. Again, I notice if I don't read before bed, I cannot sleep as well and it really bums me out. I actually look forward to going to bed and reading but it does make me tired so I have to wait till at least 08:00 otherwise I swear I'll be falling asleep at 830 and I'll be waking up at like 04:00 a.m. remember that your gut and brain are so closely connected and hopefully that little sentence will make you remember how important it is to manage stress because it actually does impact your digestive health. Health. Healing a leaky gut really does take time and commitment. So you have to be in the right place if it feels right for you. If it's something you want to focus on, then go for it. I'm all for taking small steps, but you might feel like just jumping in and going hell for leather and just reducing all these things in your diet, taking all the supplements, and good on you. Do that if that's you. But also, if you just want to start doing one little thing at a time, then do that. On that note, I have a little story to tell you. My husband Simon and I just went away. Oh, my gosh. We have not been away for, like, more than a night since Zara was probably three years old. So that was like, eight years ago. We needed it. We so needed it. How much do you just get lost from each other? It's crazy. Anyway, we feel so much more connected after that. But basically, we had time to talk finally. And Simon's been struggling with, like, he's always had a super sensitive gut, and I'm always on at him, like, let me help you. We can fix this. Like, it's not good for you. It's not a good place to be. Like, this is what you're experiencing on the outside. Imagine what your body's like on the inside. So while we're talking about it. And I said to him, I think the biggest place that you need to start is removing protein powders because they're processed, right? And he'll say to me that he'll literally drink the protein powder and then he'll be on the bathroom. So. So I said to him, okay, when we get home, we're removing all protein powders. So he normally has a protein bar a day, and then he'll have protein powder also at some point, whether it's a smoothie, a shake, or mixing it into oats, or making, like, a protein dessert or something like that, he'll have it so twice a day. So we went away on the Saturday, and we came home on the Monday, and it is now Thursday. So he probably, the last time he had protein powder was Friday, so six days ago. And he messaged me today, and he was like, oh, my gosh, babe. I just realized how much better my stomach feels. And that's the only thing he's changed. Like, even while we were away, we had a bit of alcohol, we had sugar. So it just proves that by taking one small step and that potentially could be a good thing, because you're noticing what really works. If you're doing one thing at a time, just one small change can have a huge impact.
So I'm here to tell you, this is your sign. If you're feeling, like, a little bit off, whether you're feeling like your immune system is low, whether you feel like you've got digestive issues, you're really tired, you don't have energy. Potentially you've got symptoms of leaky gut. You could be having a leaky gut, and I would say that you definitely have a chance to heal it. You can do it. It's no huge, big medical intervention. It's just little changes within your day to day life. As always, share this with anyone you think it could help. Come on over and voicie me on Instagram. I would love to hear from you and have a little chit chat, and I hope that this episode has you thinking and gets you started on your healing journey.