3 Ways To Support A Healthier Gut (Without Going To The Grocery Store)
(Note: this article was originally published in May 2020.)
How are you?
These weeks have felt so long, and so strange.
Perhaps for you too?
I’m hearing such a mix of feelings and thoughts as we tentatively dip a toe into a post sheltering in place world.
Wild Lemon Health is a virtual online naturopathic clinic, so the day to day clinic wise has been pretty seamless.
I know many others have had a tricky time pivoting to providing online healthcare, but here at Wild Lemon Health, nothing much has changed.
However, the shift in our daily life as we work to protect ourselves and each other has imposed certain limitations.
And some of them have actually been good, at least from a practice perspective.
For example, it’s much easier to reset diet wise and move towards a simple, whole foods based pattern when you have the flexibility to take a break for lunch working from home.
Or have a little extra time in the morning because your commute has been eliminated.
On the other hand, there’s been extra consideration around labs and testing.
Many of these have been done at home and preventative biomarkers postponed slightly for better timing.
All to say that, that even in practice, I’ve been thinking about what it means to get back to the basics.
What are the essential core changes we’re working with when the fancy testing is not as easy?
This is most apparent to me when we talk about diet.
What foods should you include in your diet?
Which ones should you avoid?
Should you eat more probiotics?
How do you best support digestive function?
Should you avoid nightshades or brassicas, or should you go dairy-free?
And what about the specific diet pattern you should follow?
Should you follow the keto, paleo, AIP, or Mediterranean diet?
These aren’t bad questions to ask.
But I’m going to argue that, while those questions are important, it might be a cart before the horse situation.
Let’s take a closer look.
What Is Your Gut?
Today, it’s all about the basics. When talking about your gut, we’re referring to your gastrointestinal system.
That includes your:
Mouth
Salivary glands
Esophagus
Stomach
Liver
Gallbladder
Pancreas
Large intestine
Small intestine
Appendix
Rectum
Anus
And if you’ve spent any time in the world of holistic health, you’ve certainly heard a lot about how important it is to keep your gut healthy.
But why is it so important? Great question.
Why Is Your Gut Health So Important?
In a previous article, we talked about the 4 major pillars of a healthy immune system.
Number one, of course, was gut health.
In fact, most of your immune system is in your gut.
Your stomach acid can kill harmful bacteria as soon as they enter your body, for example.
The microbiome of beneficial bacteria in your intestines can also do this.
Even your tonsils can trap and kill bacteria or viruses.
80% of your immune system is in your gut – so keeping your gut healthy is important.
But let’s take a look at the other three pillars. They are:
Managing inflammation
Managing stress
A diet high in micronutrients
Each of these can be linked with gut health too.
The last one should be fairly intuitive.
Most of us know that it’s important to eat a healthy diet full of nutrients like calcium, vitamin C, vitamin D, folate, and many others.
But if you have an unhealthy gut, it won’t be able to digest and make use of the nutritious food you eat as effectively.
Also, inflammation can be linked with gut health.
It can be both a symptom and a cause.
That is, chronic inflammation can cause poor gut health, and poor gut health can cause chronic inflammation.
Stress as well is hard on your gut.
Because your brain and your gut are so intimately connected, chronic emotional distress can affect your gut’s ability to properly digest the food you eat.
But it’s not just a one way street.
Poor gut health can trigger symptoms of both anxiety and depression.
That’s why we look so much at gut health here at Wild Lemon Health.
Our focus may be on using naturopathic medicine to improve mental health, but the health of your gut and of your mind are closely connected.
So much so, in fact, that there’s now the classification of IBS as a disorder of gut-brain interaction.
These are, of course, just some of the important ways your gut contributes to your overall health.
There’s much more to it than that. But like we said – this article is about the basics.
So let’s stick with that.
How To Improve Your Gut Health
There’s a lot you can do to keep your gut healthy.
But today, let’s take a look at three different ways you can start working toward a healthier gut even before you think about creating a shopping list.
In many ways, the suggestions below focus on the “brain” part of eating, driving home the point that it’s not always about the food.
1. Consistent Meal Timing
Meal timing is the idea of creating a specific time each day, and doing your best to stick to it.
Perhaps you’ve been working from home with kids schooling remotely.
That can be a big disruption in your family’s routine.
Getting into a new routine doesn’t happen overnight, but one of the best ways to mark a routine during the day is with meal times.
We often forget that our nervous system and blood sugar crave this regularity.
And it might actually be a tad easier to be consistent with mealtimes while at home.
Eating at around the same time everyday signals safety and nourishment to the system.
One approach that seems to be helpful for many of my patients is to doing some meal prep in advance.
This can make it easier to start eating at the time you’ve scheduled.
A sample meal timing schedule might look something like:
Many of the recipes on this blog are fairly easy to prepare ahead of time and eat later.
For breakfast, for example, you could try:
Spiced squash muffins + with a veggie scramble
For lunch, consider:
And for dinner, you might enjoy:
2. Pause While You Eat
If you’re anything like me, your sense of self worth is tied to your productivity.
The more I rest, the more my mind tells me I’m being lazy.
So in a hectic work day, it’s tempting to scarf down a meal in front of the computer, in the car, or in a rush.
But in order to properly digest food, we need to be in “rest and digest” mode.
The more you take a moment to rest, the better your body will be at absorbing the nutrients in your food.
Even three deep breaths before eating and taking a moment to trigger a more restful state can help digestive enzymes function better.
This can support a happier tummy.
RELATED: Are you doing more than being? + an adrenal intro
3. Take Longer To Eat
This may not be feasible to do at every meal, but taking longer to eat also helps digestion.
It helps reset the hunger satiation communication, but also helps us taste and enjoy our food.
It also means we’re likely chewing a little bit more, which gives the process a little space to work more efficiently.
If lunch is done in 5 minutes, maybe shoot for a 10 minute lunch and see how it affects how your food sits?
Or if you’re really ambitious, settle into a 20 or 25 minute meal and see how that changes the experience.
Book Your Appointment With Wild Lemon Health Today
I know, for me, these points are sometimes easily glossed over.
However, I’ve found that in these strange times, the basics are grounding, simple and doable.
I hope you’ll find them helpful too.
If you’re looking for ways to help support a healthier gut beyond what you see above, Wild Lemon Health is here to help.
