As a Holistic Nutritionist with a specialism in gut health, the 5 R’s for gut healing feel like old friends. Not only have I used them to successfully treat a wide range of GI issues with hundreds of my clients, but this framework helped me go from hospitalization to optimum health via my 28 Day Guided Gut Healing Program.
A healthy gut isn’t just a trend in social media – it has been the cornerstone of functional medicine for years. It truly is the foundation of optimum health and by healing your gut you can improve your metabolism, mental health, hormone balance, energy levels, skin, hair, and nails and reduce your risk of chronic disease.
- Remove: the first step to digestive health is to remove the foods that are causing an inflammatory response in the gut. I’ve reviewed hundreds of food sensitivity tests and the foods that I see most often that trigger inflammation and contribute to leaky gut are gluten, dairy, and eggs. Eliminating these foods for even just a few days can make a huge difference in your digestion (as in my new 3 Day Gut Reset Guide).
- Replace: a deficiency in levels of enzymes, stomach acid, or bile can mean that you are not breaking down the proteins or fats in your diet properly, which can lead to gas, bloating, and even nutrient deficiencies. Eating a nutrient-dense diet is essential for this (think great quality proteins, low FODMAP rainbow-colored vegetables, and mineral-rich shellfish, nuts, and seeds), and adding in a digestive enzyme can be helpful too.
- Reinoculate: a healthy, balanced microbiome (the population of good and bad bacteria throughout our digestive tract) is important for so much more than just digestion – our microbiome affects how many calories we absorb from our food, the types of food we crave, our immune system, our hormones, and even our mental health. When undertaking a targeted gut healing protocol I recommend eating fermented foods daily and including a great probiotic such as New Chapter’s All-Flora Probiotic.
- Repair: I created my upcoming 28 Day Guided Gut Healing Program as I saw so many health coaches and nutritionists underestimating (or even completely ignoring) this essential step of the gut-healing process! To achieve a truly healthy gut we must repair the damage to the intestinal lining (aka leaky gut) through the use of clinically proved amino acids that can be found in L-Glutamine, collagen, and bone broth.
- Rebalance: gut healing is not just about diet and supplements, your lifestyle plays a huge role in digestive health with high-stress levels and inadequate sleep affecting both your intestinal lining and your microbiome. Consider working out at different intensities, starting a regular meditation practice, and getting 6-8 hours of restful sleep a night.
My FREE 3 Day Gut Reset Guide is available now – click here to get the guide.