The lovely Lee Holmes over at Supercharged Food has released a new book, Heal Your Gut, and I think everyone should have a copy simply because I suspect most people will have an unhealthy gut and not realise it.
The human body is an amazing, intricate and fabulously intelligent system, and modern lifestyles bugger it up. The way we live may be normal, but it’s not natural and as a result our bodies suffer on a daily basis. The symptoms of that suffering though have also been normalised because they’re so widespread.
It’s not natural to be lethargic and fatigued, to have brain fog and attention disorders, to have IBS and other digestive pain like bloating and cramping. It’s not natural to have skin sensitivities and allergies, constant joint and muscle pain, recurring UTIs and thrush. All of these have become ‘normal’ though – many, many people have these issues all the time and simply put up with them because they think it’s normal.
These are all symptoms that something isn’t right and they are all linked to an unhealthy gut – the beautiful balance of good and bad bacteria that naturally live in your gut and digestive tract. These guys and the balance they need to live in (about 85 per cent good versus the 15 per cent bad) are vital to health and wellbeing. I believe it’s one the single most important facets of being healthy and having vitality, alongside looking after your liver and managing stress. More and more researchers are finding the links between a compromised gut and many illness, including links to debilitating autoimmune disorders.
Lee’s Supergreen Soup, from the book Heal Your Gut
A healthy gut flora is needed by your body for so many varying and important jobs – for getting rid of toxins and carcinogens, to nutrient absorption to maintaining your immune system and protecting you from harmful bacteria.
When it’s out of balance – the good guys are out-numbered by bad guys – so many parts of the system start to malfunction or operate at below par, and we find ourselves in discomfort and/or sick.
Diets high in sugar, processed foods, and refined carbs and gluten, and an over-use of antibitoics, give the bad guys an advantage, and that’s why I think most people have a gut issue – because most people in our society have had or still do have, that combination of diet and antibiotics.
In Heal Your Gut, Lee details all the cause and effect of gut health, before outlining a protocol for healing, including recipes.
Cauli mash, from the book.
She wrote the book after healing her own gut when she was diagnosed with the debilitating fibromyalgia, which is one of several autoimmune diseases linked to compromised gut health.
“I looked at natural ways to heal my autoimmune disease, and found that once I had healed my gut, my symptoms started disappearing,” she said.
“It was a real revelation.
“I think (having gut issues) is very common and more than people might suspect. Because of the over consumption of highly processed food and environmental toxins and over-use of antibiotics, our guts are not as healthy as they could be.”
Inside Heal Your Gut: a review
Heal Your Gut is very comprehensive but easy to understand and follow. Lee joins the dots beautifully in terms of why your gut health is important and what happens when it’s compromised.
She lists the main culprits that damage our gut health: gluten, antibiotics, infection, stress, external toxins, and then moves into explaining the four phase healing and treatment protocol.
Phases one and two are about healing the intestinal wall and detoxifying your system, before moving on to phases three and four – a rebuilding period of whole foods and detoxing other areas of your life.
Turnip and Cauliflower soup
She provides meal plans and shopping lists as well as recipes. This is not the usual type of recipe book. While there are more than 50 recipes in the booklet, they focus on easy-to-digest food – so juices and smoothies, broths, soups and mashes. There are desserts too, which is always a crowd-pleaser.
“It is not like a juice cleanse or a fad diet,” said Lee.
“It involves having nutrient-rich, easy-to-digest meals which help to heal the gut lining in the first phase of the protocol. There are yummy soups, mashes, breakfast and desserts so people don’t feel as though they are missing out.”
You can find more about Lee on her website, and buy the book there too.
{Edited and update} Lee has since released a hard copy of this book, (this is an affiliate link, so I’ll earn a few cents if you click and purchase the book) which includes even more recipes and it is fabulous! I purchased it after Christmas 2015 and even though I don’t need it for a strict healing regime, I will be using many of the recipes as we have been dealing with a gut issue within our household.
