Fixing my gut health has made me feel 10 years younger
Moderate, clean eating has transformed Annabel Jones’s skin – and her mood
Last week, Goop’s former chief content officer spoke out on social media denouncing “all cleansing”. For Elise Leohnen, it had become synonymous with dieting and restriction. “I felt like I was not in a healthy relationship with my body… I was always trying to punish it; to bring it under control,” Loehnen explained. She went on to confess that since leaving the wellness brand she had been “eating like a teenager for two years, and enjoying it to be honest”.
Fair enough. Keeping up with Gwyneth Paltrow, 49, the notoriously disciplined, lithe-limbed founder of the lifestyle brand, must have been tough. Not to mention how the pressure to embody the wellness principles that underpin Goop’s brand philosophy would take its toll on any mortal, especially if you haven’t grown up in Hollywood’s glare as Paltrow has.
I can relate to Loehnen’s sentiment. At my core I am a comfort eater, dining like a teenager for bouts of time in a thinly veiled attempt to soothe and distract from the undulating hormones
and responsibilities that plague women in midlife. Though, if I’m honest “comfort eating” is an oxymoron. Like alcohol, it feels good temporarily but the positive effects are fleeting.
When I indulge in salty fried foods, creamy sauces and sugary treats, the end result is far from comfortable. Bloating and pain ensue, my mood dives, energy levels dip and fine lines, dark circles and puffiness appear out of nowhere. Needless to say, this is no advertisement for a beauty editor whose job it is to report on the answers to youthful, healthy-looking skin. In short, when I eat c--- I feel like c---; and my digestive issues testify to this.
Despite Leohnen’s experience, much as I’ve tried to prove otherwise, when I eat like a typical 16-year-old I slip into a vortex of low mood and unwanted weight gain faster than I care to admit. Eating like a teenager can be harmless when you are one, but when you’re over 40, your gut, skin and libido will tank.
In my 20s, my stomach could take anything that was thrown at it. Half a dozen Cosmopolitans and a late-night kebab couldn’t derail my gut’s microbiome. Nor could stress. My stomach lining was ironclad.
Or so I thought. I was in my mid-40s when I noticed the shift – nutritionist Gabriela Peacock told me this is the time when silent gut issues rear their head. By this age, I naturally steered towards healthy-ish food, but at the end of a pressing day I wasn’t immune to the occasional takeaway and glass of wine, which soon began to result in intolerable gut pain and worsening skin.
The obvious thing to do was to stop eating “bad” foods, but a long course of antibiotics for an unrelated condition had unknowingly stripped my gut of its good bacteria (drugs don’t discriminate), which left it in disarray. Even an innocent piece of fruit could trigger a poor digestive episode leaving me feeling helpless. It was time to reach out.
After some initial blood work, which highlighted that my gut was indeed lacking a strain of vital bacteria, I was referred to a consultant at St Mary’s Hospital in London. I was put on what’s known as the low FODMAP diet, a strict protocol for people suffering with IBS that eliminates large parts of the western diet, including nightshades (toxic-skinned vegetables like aubergines and tomatoes, among others), dairy and wheat, beans and certain fruits (like apples). If you stick with it, you’ll soon notice that you are as regular as clockwork and skin and energy resume their status quo. But who wants to live a life without caprese salad dripping in olive oil or a slice of birthday cake? There had to be a more moderate way.
According to Paltrow, she follows the paleo diet and has spoken openly about giving up alcohol following a boozy lockdown-filled 2020. For the uninitiated, the paleo diet harks back to the ancestral way of eating – a grain-free diet of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables, sans dairy. As for abstaining from wine, it sucks – but it works at reducing anxiety and promoting sleep. Not to mention, wine is full of empty calories. Paleo appealed to me. I’ve tried going vegan to no avail. I was constantly hungry and it only made my bloating and discomfort worse. Plus, having been anaemic at various points in my life, a little red meat helps to sustain my energy levels.
Unlike Paltrow, I am on a budget, so I approached Artah (artah.co), an online community of nutrition, hormone and health advice, alongside weekly recipes pictured in a glossy, Goopy way. Its founder, Rhian Stephenson, is an exathlete turned naturopath and qualified nutritionist. She knows it all, from gut health, low mood and menopause, to sleep, mood and digestion. Artah isn’t about getting into a pair of skinny jeans. It’s about optimising your health and vitality – weight loss is a natural side effect.
With the cost of living skyrocketing, £12 a month for a membership of rolling weekly nutritionist-designed meals that pack in as many beauty benefits as possible without sacrificing on taste is right up my alley. As for gut health, there’s no separate protocol as even those without IBS can benefit from gut-friendly ingredients, such as low-sugar fruits and vegetables (prebiotics) and fermented foods (probiotics). “All of our meals are created with optimum gut health in mind,” explains Stephenson. She has even created one-off programmes for more serious cases like mine, including the seven-day or 28-day reset. I did the latter, which for £30 includes over 120 gluten- and dairy-free recipes, which also omit refined sugar, alcohol, dairy
If you eat like a teenager when you’re over 40, your gut, skin and libido will tank
and additives, designed to help you lose weight, improve digestion and increase energy. Call it a cleanse, but I needed it.
Week one and two focus on tasty, healthy meals without the usual culprits to stabilise blood sugar and improve digestion (one of the lesserknown causes of poor skin, mood and sleep). While caffeine is ideally avoided, under Stephenson’s guidance I allowed myself one coffee a morning with the view of giving up caffeine completely in the third week (she deliberately weans you off slowly). “I found as a nutritionist that my clients would go all out at certain times of the year, then dive into a detox head first, which can be too extreme,” she explains.
By the time I reached phase two, which is a seven-day moderate fasting protocol, I was ready to endure the restriction that followed. Apparently the fasting week helps to reset the gut’s microbiome and trigger cellular renewal, which for me equated to more mental clarity, glowing, clear skin and seven pounds weight loss. The final week reintroduces some of the foods that have been eliminated, which eases you back into sustainable healthy-eating habits, including fruits and vegetables with good-quality meats and fats. I mostly avoid higher fat dairy as it’s thought to be inflammatory, and giving it up has been a game-changer for my complexion; though I do indulge in plain yoghurt or kefir with berries and a good burrata now and then.
I’ve continued on Artah’s monthly membership (for £12 a month it’s a nobrainer), largely because there is a new weekly menu of balanced recipes to choose from that keeps my diet from getting stale. I am particularly fond of their home-made granola and grainfree bread recipes that are designed to be made at the start of every week. All in all, giving up drinking for the month made me happier. And, thanks to Artah’s Deep Sleep botanical drops, of which I take three every night, I’m far more rested and dark-circle free.
I’m not puritanical. I have a glass of pinot noir now and again and Friday night takeaway with my kids. But I’ve come to accept that with 50 around the corner, if I want to look and feel great well into my 70s, then Paltrow’s right, as hard as it is to stomach moderate clean eating is the smartest way.