Wow, this 7-week class has turned into a summer-long adventure! 🤣 But that’s totally okay! I knew what I was getting into and that I would need to slow down a bit and take some extra time for certain lessons. After all, healing your gut is a process and it doesn’t take just 7 weeks. There’s no set “time limit” on something like this. It took me 36 years to get to this point, so I should expect that it will take a little time to unwind all the damage I have done!

But, I’m finally wrapping things up. Let me tell you, paying for Gut School was money well spent! When I began, I was skeptical that I would actually turn things around and find some relief. But now, I’m happy to report that most of my symptoms have subsided! I can even eat bread again! 

But that’s a story for another day….

Today, I thought I would give an overall recap of my time spent in Gut School by listing a few things that I wish every human being in the world would know. Seem dramatic? Maybe. But that’s how strongly I believe that gut health is the key to overall human health and may be the key to our survival.

Here we go….

If you have digestive issues, start by eliminating dairy and artificial sweeteners from your diet. Actually, everyone should eliminate these two categories from their diet! Dairy products are not healthy for humans to consume. Baby cows? Yes. Humans? No. In fact, it is estimated that over two-thirds of the world’s population is lactose-intolerant. There’s just no need for dairy. You can get all the calcium you need by eating plants. Don’t believe me? I cut dairy out of my diet over 10 years ago and my calcium levels are great. I’m my own case study. You may need help absorbing calcium properly. That’s an entirely different issue, one that drinking milk won’t solve.

Artificial sweeteners. Since the world went crazy for “sugar-free” everything, the food manufacturers needed a way to sweeten our food to make it more palatable without adding additional calories, since everyone is so focused on calories. Artificial sweeteners (think of Splenda, Sweet & Low, and most of the ingredients you cannot pronounce on food labels) are created in labs. There are over 10,000 artificially created food additives in our food supply, many of which are sweeteners. The harsh reality is that more than 99% of these have not undergone safety testing and for those that have had testing, the testing has usually been done on animals, which does not necessarily translate to humans. We just don’t know the long-term effects on human health and the microbiome. They may cause damage, they may not. But they are chemicals that the body doesn’t know what to do with and, in my opinion, that’s just not okay. Many people who remove artificial sweeteners from their diet can reduce some, if not all of their digestive symptoms. 

Gut health is not an “all or nothing” thing. You don’t have to go all-in, all the time. Instead, you can pick and choose the action steps that resonate with you and that will work in your real life. With that being said, it’s all connected. After you make a few small changes, if you are still not seeing the results you desire, you may need to move on to making more drastic changes. But the good news is that as you heal your gut, it will become more resilient and better able to “cope” when you throw some not-so-great things at it. 

With that being said, if you have been diagnosed with a disease or a condition, you may need to skip right to the more difficult, and therefore more drastic, changes. Of course, you would need to do this under the supervision of a professional. Damage to the gut microbiome has been associated with diseases such as heart disease, some types of cancer, type-2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, and irritable bowel syndrome, just to name a few. Working to improve your gut has no negative side effects. In fact, improving gut health can help your medications work better. 

You cannot transform a C- gut to an A+ gut by using supplements alone. This includes prebiotic supplements, which I am a top fan of and will scream their praises from the rooftops! Most supplements are over-hyped, not rooted in science, have no clinical testing, and are not regulated. That means they could be potentially dangerous. Plus, there is absolutely NO way to know how a handful of supplements will react with each other once in your body. To me, that’s the real concern. Supplements, when used appropriately and correctly, can be a helpful part of your gut healing journey, however, they will not do it alone. 

Diet is the key to a healthy gut. Period. You cannot do all the other things but continue to eat a crappy diet and expect your gut to heal. The food you put into the body has the most dramatic effect on its inner workings. The key to a healthy diet is consuming a wide variety of plants. Your goal: at least 30 different types of plants every week, but the more, the better. This will help ensure you get as many types of fiber into your gut as possible. Research shows that diversity of plants is actually more important to the health of the gut microbiome than counting grams of fiber. Remember, fiber feeds the microbes and the microbes produce short-chain fatty acids which help to promote health and reduce disease. Diet always comes first…..except in one situation…..

Constipation must be addressed first and foremost. If you are constipated, the most perfect diet in the world will not help you to heal your gut. You need to poop regularly! Once that happens, you can move on to making dietary changes. You can be constipated and not know it. You can be constipated and still poop every day. You can be constipated and have diarrhea at the same time. Yep, it’s complicated. That’s why it’s important to work with a professional to address this issue. If you have frequent gas and bloating, you may be constipated since those are the top signs of this issue.

There you go. Seven weeks of Gut School squeezed into two pages! 🤣 Of course, that’s obviously an over-simplification of the material, but it’s a great starting point! 

If you’re overwhelmed with where to start on your journey to optimal gut health, pick one of these points, and go to town. There is so much to unpack in each of these points so don’t get frazzled. That’s where I can help! I would love to map out a plan for you! Send me a message and let’s get started!

Peace, love & kale!

Lindsay