Give your gut a health CHECK
MANY people will be doing the Clever Guts and 5:2 diet to lose weight before the party season, and to benefit from the general health improvements it brings.
These include a happier, healthier gut; a reduction in blood sugars and an overall sense of greater well-being.
But what if you have specific gut and related problems that might be due to a food sensitivity or intolerance? If, in other words, you are suffering from one of the relatively common gut ailments such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, bloating or abdominal cramps? Well, a variation of the diet we’ve been talking about all week could be exactly what you’re looking for.
Changing your diet, and so your microbiome, to help sort out specific gut issues is a longer-term strategy — but chances are you have been struggling with these for a long time already. A little more time spent changing your diet is a small price to pay to lessen, or even eradicate, symptoms that can make life a misery.
What we’re talking about is essentially rebooting your microbiome. Think of it like restarting your computer; it means taking your gut back to basics, trying to correct any problems with your microbiome. Unfortunately, though, when it comes to the gut, it’s not quite as straightforward as switching it off and on again.
The process usually takes about four weeks and involves removing specific foods from your diet, then reintroducing them, along with prebiotics and probiotics, to boost good gut bacteria.
Do note that this isn’t an alternative to seeking medical help. Talk to a health professional if you are underweight, have significant medical problems, are suffering from unexplained weight loss or change in your bowel habit, bleeding, are frail or unwell, or suspect you have a food allergy.
Remember, food allergy symptoms occur within minutes of being in contact with the food and may include a rash, breathing difficulties, itching or swelling. They are rare and very different from food intolerances, symptoms of which occur hours after eating.
One of the best things you can do for yourself before making any drastic changes is to keep a detailed food diary, where you write down every single thing you eat, and the time and nature of any symptoms that you might have afterwards.
YOU should be able to work out if your symptoms are of dietary origin, and what foods (if any) are upsetting your gut. Your diary can be as simple as a grid in a notebook divided into five columns, headed: Time; Food and Drink Consumed (for noting exactly what and how much you eat); Symptoms (such as bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, sickness, diarrhoea, brain fog, irritability, headache); Symptom Time & Duration (when you got the symptoms and how long for); and Other Factors (Stress, lack of sleep, exercise, illness, medicines etc).
Go to cleverguts.com/rebootyour-biome to print out this diary. Or you could try an app which helps you log your food and symptoms and then tries to link the two by identifying which foods might be causing which symptoms, such as Cara for iPhone and Android.
Try to keep your food diary for at least three days before you start the diet. It could be helpful to keep it up throughout.
The reboot is meant to help gently repair and nourish the gut. That means avoiding some of the foods most frequently associated with digestive discomfort — dairy, gluten and some high-fibre pulses and vegetables that are not digested well by some people and
end up fermenting further down the bowel, causing wind, pain and bloating. During this process, you’ll also be avoiding most fermented foods, too. So, you could try cutting out: Gluten and refined grains. Dairy products, particularly milk. Pulses — beans, lentils, chickpeas — as the lectin in these can cause bloating (though these can be reintroduced after two weeks in vegetarians to maintain protein intake).
Very fibrous vegetables containing lots of insoluble fibre, such as kale stalks or stringy beans. Alcohol and puddings (sorry!) Instead, you should include plenty of: Non-fibrous, plant-based foods, enough to fill more than half your plate, aiming for at least seven portions of veg and fruit a day, mainly made up of veg. Make them colourful, too — beetroot, carrots, broccoli, butternut squash, courgettes and aubergines.
Good-quality proteins, to aid repair of the gut lining — aim for at least 45-60g a day of free-range chicken, salmon, eggs or pulses, such as lentils. (There’s about 30g of protein in a single chicken breast, 20g in a salmon steak, 13g in an egg, and 9g in a 100g serving of lentils.)
Bitter leaf and citrus salads to boost digestion before a meal.
Non-dairy fats such as olive oil or coconut oil, as well as avocados, nuts and seeds.
After four weeks of this relatively restricted diet, you can start to reintroduce the foods that you have been excluding. Try one food at a time, over three days. Eat a normal portion of the suspected food and if symptoms return over the next few days, withdraw that food. Allow a few days’ recovery before reintroducing another food. Use your food diary to monitor your response.
In the case of dairy products, you should try full-fat live yoghurt first, as this is usually best tolerated, then cheese and butter and milk last of all. If you have excluded all gluten, start with grains that contain relatively little gluten, such as rye or spelt. Sourdough breads are easier to digest, as the fermentation process breaks down much of the gluten. Then you can move on to a small amount of wheat, again over a few days.
ALTHOUGH the foods we suggest you exclude are the most common culprits, it’s possible that your digestive issues might be a result of other sensitivities or intolerances. A couple of other groups of foods that some people have issue with include FODMAPs and nightshade vegetables, so here’s a quick explanation of both . . .
FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols. It’s the acronym for a group of poorly absorbed carbohydrates found in certain fruits and vegetables including garlic, onions, broad beans and bananas.
In some people with gut problems such as IBS, these foods get fermented in the bowel, causing wind, bloating and distension. They can also draw extra fluid into the bowel causing diarrhoea. Although many FODMAP foods are good for a healthy bowel and help feed the microbiome, they may need to be reduced or avoided in IBS and if you’re trying to reboot your biome.
Nightshade vegetables include tomatoes, bell peppers, aubergines and potatoes — they are all the edible parts of flowering plants that belong to the Solanaceae family, and are technically classified as fruit. Some people have found they feel better when they reduce their consumption of these foods or remove them completely on the basis that they may contribute to inflammation and leaky gut.
If excluding gluten, dairy, pulses and fibrous vegetables hasn’t helped your gut issues, it’s possible that excluding either FODMAPs or nightshade vegetables might. Do it in the same way, excluding either one group or the other for a few weeks, and keeping a food diary as you gradually reintroduce them.
However, don’t avoid either FODMAPs or nightshade vegetables unless you have reason to believe they are at fault. And if you are systematically removing them, it is best to get professional support. These foods are an excellent source of nutrients and fibre, and are staple foods that have been eaten around the world for millennia.