So How Do We Do This Gut Reboot, Exactly?

• Some of the baddies responsible for bad gut health include all processed food, alcohol, gluten, dairy, eggs, soy and refined sugars (natural sugars found in berries are fine).

• Simply changing your diet to include fresh, healthy protein, whole grains and plenty of greens is a good way to start your journey to good gut health. In fact, if you want to kick-start the process, only eat greens (plenty of them!) for a week to give your body a chance to do the healing work itself.

Stop That Leaky Gut

Where to Start with Your Gut Cleanse?

• In addition, taking some sort of probiotic (preferably live – you’ll find them in the fridge at your pharmacy or wellness shop) - and adding fermented foods (like kombucha, sauerkraut, miso and kimchi) to your diet will help to promote a good relationship with the bacteria that already live in your gut.
  
  Choose a broad-spectrum, high-potency probiotic. ‘Broad spectrum’ means that it contains more than one strain of probiotics. You might try different formulations to find the one that works best for you. We recommend Solal Probiotic Maximum Potency and Biogen Pre & Pro-Biotic 9 Strain.


• Sadly, foods that generally cause inflammation include caffeine and alcohol (insert sad face here), but also meat (except grass-fed meats) and seed oils, so choose the best quality ingredients and be moderate about how much you consume – 2 cups of good quality coffee, 1 glass of red wine a day and 100g of grass-fed meat a day.
   
• Definitely add fermented foods and some sort of probiotic, but other great gut-healers include Vitamins A, C and E, aloe vera, L-glutamine (an essential amino acid) and omega-3 fatty acids, so add all, or at least some of these to the mix. Supplements like Solal 3 Per Day Multivitamins and Solal Omega-All Capsules can help.
   
• If you find that switching from a meat-heavy diet to a largely plant-based one causes lots of gas and bloating, try adding digestive enzymes (like the ones from Biogen) which help your system digest fibre.

Best Foods for Gut Cleansing

• If it’s colourful - go for it! Polyphenols (phytochemicals that have antioxidant properties) are found in the bright colours of certain fruits and vegetables, so strong-coloured fruits like berries and tomatoes are great, as well as dark, leafy greens like spinach and kale. Tip: Choose fruits and veggies that have the same dark colour throughout (like tomatoes and berries), making them highest in polyphenols, rather than aubergine, which has dark skin but white flesh.

• Some good news here is that polyphenols are also found in pecans, cinnamon, dark chocolate, coffee and red wine (obviously consumed in moderation!)

• Omega-3 fatty acids need to be eaten because our bodies can’t produce them. Find them in grass-fed beef, oil, cold-water fish like wild salmon and tuna, linseeds, walnuts, pecans, pine nuts and chia seeds.

• Eat healthy fats (also in moderation). Grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, avocado, nuts and nut butter, coconut oil, Greek yoghurt (with live cultures), fish, olive oil, cheese and – Yay! – dark chocolate, are just some foods that contain healthy fats, which are easy on the gut and also promote healing.

• Ever tried bone broth? Thanks to glutamine, glycosaminoglycans and glycine, bone broth not only helps to keep your digestive system working well, but also has fantastic healing power. It’s worth sipping a cup every day!

• Popping probiotics from a bottle will help, but just one - yes, one forkful - of any of the fermented foods mentioned above every day will make a greater difference. Fermented foods grow good bacteria which are capable of removing toxins and provide a wider range of good bacteria than over-the-counter probiotics. Your one forkful of fermented food will give you as much good bacteria as an entire bottle of probiotics!

• Love carbohydrates? Make sure you choose the right ones. Processed carbohydrates (which unfortunately means things like crackers, chips, white bread and rice, desserts and sugars) feed bad bacteria and can increase the risk of developing intestinal permeability (leaky gut).
  
  Good carbohydrates, on the other hand, help to increase the good bacteria. Rather choose vegetables and fruit, nut and legumes, whole grains and seeds to not only increase good bacteria, but also reduce obesity. 

• Don’t forget the prebiotics. They may sound similar, but probiotics and prebiotics are not the same thing. Prebiotics are indigestible plant fibres that make their way into your gut and essentially provide food for probiotics, ensuring that the good bacteria in your gut work efficiently.
  
  One of the problems with a gluten-free diet is that these prebiotics are no longer present, effectively starving the good bacteria. Good sources of prebiotics include quinoa, green tea, chicory root, Jerusalem artichoke, oatmeal, honey, garlic, onions and leeks, dandelion greens, asparagus and bananas.