Mental Health Starts in the Gut

Have you heard the gut being referred to as the ‘second brain’?

In part, that’s because 80% of the body’s serotonin, the happy, calm, content hormone, starts here.

It’s also the centre for metabolism – meaning if you have a nutrient deficiency, if you improve your gut health it should right itself.

On top of this it holds the power to your immune system with most of it’s function starting here, therefore an unhealthy gut = higher chance of being sick, and being sick often (I can personally vouch for this one).

A robust gut is also linked with lower inflammation (the root of all disease and pain), high energy, better sleep and balanced weight and hormones. In short, the gut is #kindofabigdeal

But all of this can only happen when the gut is functioning as it should. Which means eating the foods that support this:

• Plenty of nourishing foods like dark leafy greens and other colourful veggies, unprocessed proteins including organ meats, eggs, broth and a variety of probiotic rich foods like sauerkraut and kefir.

• Reducing (or removing entirely) inflammatory foods like processed oils (canola and ‘vegetable’ oils), sugar, refined grains, food flavours, additives and preservatives as well as conventional dairy.

It also means supporting your gut through your lifestyle choices:

• NO SANITISER OR ANTIBACTERIALS ANYWHERE, EVER. Hot soapy water, used properly, is adequate.

• Ditching anything in your home that uses synthetic fragrance. Yes, that means everything that has ‘fragrance’ or ‘parfum’ listed as an ingredient.

• Spending time outside, barefoot, to build your microbiome

• Reducing stress and managing your mental load in a way that works for you

• Making sleep a priority, follow the sun as your rhythm, into bed early, up early

Rather than looking at this list and putting gut health in the too hard basket remember that we’re all learning. No one is perfect and can do all the things, all the time.

So, just choose one thing to work on and when you’ve got that down, choose another. Your health will thank you for it.