Gut makeover

I stopped smoking in April and had terrible gut problems, pain and bloating I had never experienced before.

Apparently stopping smoking changes the bacteria in your gut, I have taken probiotics in tablet form and live yogurt every day since and it has settled.
It is interesting the things that do effect our digestive system.

The diets are aimed at people who usually eat badly; too much processed carbohydrates, sugar and ready meals and not sufficient fruit and veg.

However odd or quirky they sound and of course the quirkier they are the more people sign up for them. All these diets do is break the cycle of a poor diet to move people to a healthier eating pattern - and of course they feel the benefit. But if they then return to their previous poor eating habits the advantage will have gone in a week.

It is boring but 'Eat well, not too much, most of it plants' - and avoid processed food and you will not need to read these diet of the day articles which are more to titillate the interest of those feeling guilty because they eat badly and get a virtue rush when they try another quirky diet promising health benefits.

Most of us have items of food that do not agree with us and other food items we really dislike. Fresh milk and yoghourt make me nauseous and worse, and I truly loathe goats cheese, while loving cow and sheep's cheese. I doubt any diet whether it 'rests my gut', 'detoxs my digestion' or whatever the current promise is, will alter that.

I usually take gut supplements - like probiotics or gut relief powder. There's this gut health series by Kale Brock, an aussie gut health journalist, he tells you why it's important to take care of your gut and how to do it, highly recommended to wath: www.facebook.com/NutraLifeAustralia/videos/693912320963249/

Like most madcap ideas this one contains a germ of truth ie that our gut bacteria are important to our health, more important that has been realised up until recently. There is research which suggests a link between gut flora and diabetes.

But whether any of this can be altered for our benefit is currently being investigated by scientist. As Alea says, some antibiotics can have a detrimental affect on the gut ecosystem, causing an imbalance. It would seem that our gut bacteria are even affected by whether we were born vaginally or by C-section!! And whether we were breast fed or bottle fed.

Not much we can go about that

Just eat well, not to many sweet things and plenty of veg.
Natural yougurt after having stomach upsets or antibiotics, cut down on alcohol.
Be wary of nutritionists particularly if they then start promoting wonder foods.

"The term ‘nutritionist’ is not currently protected by the Health Professionals Council and so its use is less precise than ‘dietitian’. Indeed, currently, anyone regardless of qualifications, experience and skills can call herself or himself a ‘nutritionist’."

www.nutrition.org.uk/nutritionscience/careers/finding-a-nutritionistdietitian.html

I agree with alea its another mad probably transatlantic regime. If I had been on antibiotics I might have a daily 'active' yogurt but otherwise no I wouldn't try it- its unnecessary.

article about it here

Now toasted brown bread ............. yum yum , with Nuttella

Let's face it aggie, you'd be toast!!

I don't know about "banana bread" , but I would be "brown bread" if I starved for two weeks

Eating and drinking in moderation,enough veg and a bit of fruit, wholemeal bread and live yoghurt is a good recipe for gut health.

"Resting the digestive system for two weeks"???
What do you do, starve?
Our digestive systems do not need detoxing (your liver does that) recharging, or repopulating with friendly bacteria except perhaps after extended antibiotic use when live yogurt does a pretty good job.
All this talk of "detoxing" is without any medical foundation and taken to extremes sounds as if it could actually be harmful.

I havent tried it. Do you have a need for it? Or is it a new idea?