YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT GUT HEALTH?

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Few weeks ago I attended the RP Nutrition and Training to Optimise your Physique and Performance Seminar. The area I found most interesting was the gut health section by Dr. Gabrielle Fundaro. At the moment on social media there so many “self qualified” gurus, influencers, nutritionists and even personal trainers (if they are even PTs) talking about how gut health is the pinnacle of weight loss and selling supplements to “heal” your gut.

What experts know about gut health now

              Research on humans started around 2010 (which is very new)

• Not 100% sure on what an actual “healthy” gut is but for now it can mean resistance to perturbations (less sickness and good adaptation to new environments) and having diversity which can be done through eating huge variety of foods.
• 65% of the human gut microbiome is determined by genetics, sex, ethnicity, environment and other things we can’t control. 20% or more is determined by physical activity and diet and this what we can control (very small portion). Little to no evidence suggest that any gut health supplements and superfoods aid in the health of the gut.
• Eating a variety of foods, 5 serves of veggies, 2 serves of fruits, lean meats, minimising processed foods and getting in plenty of physical activity is again one of the best recommendations of having a “healthy” gut.

These are some of the main things that experts know which is fuck all compared to what we know about other parts of the body.

What we need to avoid…

• Diagnosing or curing “dysbiosis” (a shit gut, pun intended). This is because we are not 100% sure what a “healthy” or “unhealthy” gut is.
• “Rebuilding the microbiome” like I said we cannot control 65% of this shit. This stuff is already determined by sex, genetics, ethnicity and the environment.
• Healing the gut…
• Diagnosing or curing leaky gut – this is not a disease.
• Dysbiosis as a cause for weight gain – this will most likely cause failure to gain weight.

Avoid “superfoods” not because they’re bad but they just have little to no evidence of aiding gut health.

• Fermented and cultured milk products (potential is there but the evidence is very, very tiny)
• Fermented grains, fruits, veggies and meats
• Digestive enzymes – these are largely denatured in stomach acid before it takes effect
• Collagen and bone broth
• Glutamine
• Celery juice, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice ‘detoxes” lol

The message here is that there are sooo much that experts in the field don’t know so that ‘nutrition guru’ you follow definitely does not know about the gut. Stick to the things you can control, diet, physical activity and eating a wide variety of foods.

RE-POST FROM
Physique Lab - Kia Moini
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Physique Lab