Please remember that every person living with environmental sensitives has their own journey. There are many paths up the same mountain. Please take what resonates with you, listen to your own body, and please don’t do anything that doesn’t feel right for you in the present moment.
Why is healing your gut important?
Your gut is the foundation of health for your body. Healing your gut allows you to absorb nutrients, prevents toxins from entering your bloodstream, impacts your mood and immune system, and regulates your metabolism. Taking care of your gut can improve your skin and mental health, increase your energy levels, reduce your stress levels and food cravings, and you will have fewer digestive issues and more predictable bowel movements.
Ways You Can Heal Your Gut
- Eat warm foods and drink room temperature or warm beverages
- Drink 8-10 glasses of filtered water per day
- Walk for 10 minutes after eating meals, or more if you are able
- Chew your food well before swallowing
- Eat a well balanced diet and make sure that there is a fat, protein and carbohydrate in each meal (e.g., olive oil, chicken breast, and steamed broccoli and bok choy)
- Eat organic foods as much as you are able to
- Eat a variety of whole foods, including lots of vegetables and fruits
- Aim to eat at least 20-30 grams of protein per meal to ensure that you have adequate protein throughout the day
- Wash and peel your vegetables and fruits
- Steam your vegetables rather than fry them
- Drizzle olive oil on all of your meals for healthy fat and anti-inflammatory properties
- Experiment to find out what foods work for you and which foods don’t work for you
- Store your food and drinks in glass or stainless steel containers
- Ensure that you eat enough high quality foods and calories each day
- Consider trying gentle intermittent fasting (e.g., eating your meals between 8am and 6pm each day and not eating between 6pm and 8am) to see if giving your digestive system a break would be helpful for you
- Consider working with a health practitioner to find a probiotic that would work well for you
Things to Avoid/Limit
- Limit cold foods and beverages, as they are hard on the digestive system and body
- Avoid drinking liquids 30 minutes before and after eating meals
- Limit high carbohydrate meals, as this causes blood sugars to rise and fall which make you feel more hungry and more stressed out
- Avoid eating non-organic meat and dairy, nuts, seeds, and soy
- Avoid caffeine, alcohol, food additives (e.g, MSG), preservatives, food colouring, artificial flavours, GMOs, and any other ingredient that is hard to pronounce
- Avoid fried and deep fried foods, or foods containing vegetable and seed oils (e.g., canola, rapeseed, sunflower, and vegetable oils)
- Avoid inflammatory foods such as sugar, refined carbohydrates, dairy, and gluten
- Avoid highly processed foods
- Avoid being hungry, as this causes stress
- Avoid medications which contain talc, as it it very hard on the gut
- Avoid storing or heating your food and drinks in plastic containers