Sep 10, 20209 min read

Trust Your Gut

All disease begins in the gut

Hippocrates of Kos

When was the last time you really thought about your gut? I mean before I asked you that question. Was it after a bout of food poisoning or a tummy bug, or perhaps when your innards were making an embarrassing noise in a quiet place because you were hungry? Or maybe like me, you roll your eyes when you see your belly in the mirror. The thing is, we focus very much on our exterior and there are endless products, potions, books, magazines, blogs and 'How to...' videos and articles out there that help us look our best externally, but very few articles actually deal with our insides – the messy, noisy, gurgling bits that maybe are just a bit embarrassing and certainly not to be talked about in polite company. But here's the thing – we will have a much harder battle getting the outside looking good if we don't take care of the inside. Hippocrates, known as the father of modern medicine and for whom the 'Hippocratic Oath' is named, knew what he was about – if our gut isn't healthy, then we won't be either. In this week's blog I'm taking a look at how the gut plays a major part in our overall health and how it can affect obesity, weight-loss, the immune system and can even impact our mental health. I promise you that you will never treat your innards lightly again and you may even forgive them when they let you down in public...

Gut Science

Until fairly recently, scientists didn't really understand quite how big a part the gut plays in our health (although as Hippocrates had got this sussed nearly 2500 years ago I'm not sure why) and studies into the effects of the gut on the rest of our body are still being done.

It was generally thought that the gut, or large intestine to give it its proper name, digested food, made a few vitamins, disposed of fibre, helped fight off 'bad' bacteria and very little else, but some of the new studies have shown that not only does the gut do these things, it also converts food into a wide range of hormones and chemicals which in turn can affect our appetite, moods and cravings. It also quite literally has a brain; deep inside, our intestines are lined with a very thin layer of brain tissue, the enteric system or 'second brain', which is directly linked to our main brain and this is why we quite naturally talk about 'gut instinct' or 'feeling it in our gut' - the gut and the brain constantly communicate with each other.

The other very important part of our gut isn't really us at all – our gut is home to about 1000 different species of organisms – up to 50 trillion of them - which are now known to play an incredibly important part in our health. These are affectionately called our 'Old Friends' and they form what is known as our gut biome – a whole ecosystem as complex as a rainforest which affects just about every other system in our body.

Old Friends

The Old Friends theory suggests that these organisms have evolved and developed with us over thousands of years and that a symbiotic relationship has gradually formed which is essential to our health and well-being. Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles have decimated many of these old friends and our systems are paying the price with increasing numbers of inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's and colitis, and auto-immune diseases such as arthritis, asthma, eczema, migraine and even T1 diabetes. Having a good, healthy gut biome really can strengthen your immune system, help with allergies and autoimmune diseases and even help you lose weight.

Research carried out at the Arizona State University Department of Psychology suggests that our gut bacteria can actually influence our cravings for certain foods.

So where did our old friends go?

Our modern lifestyles have played havoc with our gut biome. Poor diet, stress, lack of sleep and too much sedentary living all impact negatively on our old friends. The over-use of antibiotics has also played a part – antibiotics can be life-saving of course, but they're indiscriminate and wipe out our good bacteria with the bad.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have a mighty strong gut biome – their whole lifestyle would have allowed them to be exposed to a wide range of bacteria and micro-organisms which strengthened the diversity of their biome. The Hadza tribe of modern-day hunter-gatherers in Tanzania have a gut biome at least twice as diverse as those of us in modern western societies. The key elements of their lifestyle which seem to contribute to this are:

• Being outdoors a lot of the time

• Eating a wide range of different foods

• Less 'lifestyle' stress

• Not being exposed to junk food, sugar and antibiotics

• Fasting

The bad news...

Having a poor gut biome can have a significant impact on your health and well-being.

Rates of auto-immune diseases, allergies and food intolerances have grown exponentially as have rates of diabetes, Types 1 and 2, obesity and metabolic syndrome. Many more people report having gluten intolerance or 'leaky gut' syndrome and all of these can be affected, for good or bad, by our gut biome.

Gluten

Coeliac disease is an auto-immune disease where the body's own immune system attacks the walls of the intestines causing pain, diarrhoea, bloating, wind and indigestion. Long-term effects can be fatigue, anaemia, loss of bone density and even nerve damage. Amazingly, Coeliac UK estimate that as many as 1 in 100 people have coeliac without knowing and may have been fighting symptoms for years without knowing the cause, and many more may have gluten intolerance. Our modern diet is so dependent on grains that they are really difficult to avoid, but many people have found that by cutting out grains, their health improves enormously. Grains have also been linked to 'leaky gut syndrome' which can also cause diarrhoea and abdominal distress.

Sugar

Sugar and refined carbohydrates such as white flour, pasta and bread can seriously affect our gut biome and our weight. Dr Aktipis from Arizona State University has carried our research that suggests that microbes in our gut that thrive on these simple sugars can literally 'hack' into our '2nd brain' and cause cravings for them. The more of these you eat, the more powerful these particular microbes become and the more you crave.

Processed food

The problem with most processed food is that it is full of both sugar and grains, but it also contains emulsifiers to extend shelf life. These appear to encourage bacteria which attack the lining of the intestines and cause inflammation which in turn can lead to obesity and diabetes. In a brief experiment, Dr Michael Mosley had poo samples tested then went on a four-week 'junk food' diet to test it out. After just four weeks, not only had he gained 3kgs, but he had decimated his gut biome – something to consider next time you're tempted by a MacDonald's....

Artificial sweeteners

Drs Eran Elinav and Eran Segal found that artificial sweeteners reduced one of the main good bacteria, Akkermansia, and significantly raised the levels of bacteria that are linked to obesity and diabetes. A good reason to just go cold turkey on sweet stuff.

Too much sitting

We all know that exercise is good for us but the latest research has labelled sitting as 'the new smoking' in terms of its affect on our health. It also seems to affect our gut biome negatively as well which of course compounds the problem. It's not known yet quite why and how exercise affects the gut biome, but evidence suggests that people who are active on a daily basis have a healthier biome than those who don't.

The Good News – Yey!

You can improve your gut biome. You could, for example, go and live with the Hadza for a few months... only kidding. Seriously though, it takes a few simple steps to really impact your gut biome and start seeing improvements in weight-loss and overall health.

Eat a wide range of fruit and veggies (Prebiotics) – I think most of us tend to eat quite a narrow range of fruit and veg, maybe we just always pick up the same things in the supermarket each time we go but the evidence is that the wider range of plants that we eat, the better for our biome which feeds on the fibre and the bits we can't digest. If you can eat a rainbow of colours, even better, as the different coloured plants each contribute different things including vitamins and antioxidants. Make an effort to be more adventurous and try something you haven't tried before, and eat the whole thing – your mum was right, the skins are the best bit

Cut out sugar, grains and processed food – this is very much a Primal stance anyway, but for good reason – these foods, or non-foods as I prefer to call them, really are seriously bad news for both your gut biome and your health. Even fruit juices are way too high in sugar because the fibre and good stuff has been removed. Eat the whole fruit and you'll be much better off and you'll be getting the prebiotics to feed you friends as well

Eat fermented foods (Probiotics)– the fermentation process naturally introduces a range of good bacteria into our gut and has been shown to be extremely beneficial. I will admit that some can take some getting used to – my husband makes kefir, a fermented milk drink; he loves it and has some every morning, but I can't get used to it. But other fermented foods include:

Yoghurt – just make sure it's live, full-fat and without sugars or sweeteners – a bit of chopped apple added to it is fabulous and apples are a good prebiotic. See my recipe for home-made live yoghurt here
Good quality mature cheese – cheddar, Roquefort, feta and cottage cheese are all good
Sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha – with these again, you need to check that they don't contain added sugar and artificial ingredients
Apple cider vinegar – this one is quite amazing – volunteers who tried taking this over four weeks had a big improvement in both gut biome and post-meal blood sugar spikes. It was also recommended by our friend Hippocrates of Kos. Use a couple of tablespoons in salad dressings or take it diluted with water, but get the cloudy one as this shows it hasn't been pasteurised
Red wine – oh yes! - Wine is a fermented drink and studies indicate that people who have a moderate amount of red wine have a better biome than those who don't. That's not a green card to go crazy with the Merlot though – high levels of alcohol are bad for lots of reasons; one glass of red wine a night is plenty.
As the fashion for gut health has taken off, so have the number of supplements and drinks on the market. Many of the popular ones in the supermarket such as Yakult and Actimel have few active bacteria and some have added sugar to make them palatable, so they're best avoided – good quality live yoghurt is a much better option

Fast – Fasting has a surprisingly positive effect on our gut biome. Some of the really 'good guys' thrive best when the gut is empty so regular fasting is beneficial. See my blog on how to do fasting here

Exercise – Not just a weekly gym or aerobics session – regular movement throughout the day is far more beneficial. Walking is one of the best exercises – EVER, but you can swim, jog, play a game with the children, play a sport with friends – it doesn't matter as long as you're moving. But beware of extreme exercise such as marathon running – very strenuous exercise can cause the lining of the gut to temporarily breakdown causing leaky gut and diarrhoea. See my blog on exercise here

Get outside or at least open the windows – it figures that the more we are in the outside elements, the more bacteria we will be exposed to. Get out for a walk, open the windows in your house or better still, take up gardening – children growing up on farms have a much more diverse gut biome than those from urban areas. Exposing your skin to the soil has been shown to be very good for the gut biome and gardening is a super stress-reliever – I used to go and talk to my courgettes after a stressful day at work...

Avoid antibiotics if you can – there is definitely a place for antibiotics but their overuse has been a disaster for our gut biome. If you need to take them, up your intake of pre- and probiotic foods

Sleep – you knew I'd get to that didn't you? Poor sleep causes stress, inflammation and cravings for high-carb, high-sugar foods and those in turn affect our biome. I think we're really only just beginning to realise how important sleep is to our whole well-being so try to prioritise sleep

So if you treat your Old Friends well, they will look after you for years to come. Try at least some of the tips in this blog and you should see an improvement in your health. You may even find that you hadn't realised how some foods were affecting you. Let me know how you get on.

And now I'm off to make some yoghurt and drink some wine.....