4 mins read
An article by Gut Experts Professor Barbara Ryan and Elaine McGowan shows that gut experts are seeing more cases than ever of poor gut health. They have categorised a new category of digestive sufferes called ‘the healthy eating fanatics’. Although usually Gut problems are found in those who don’t eat enough fibre, drink a lot of carbonated drinks and are generally unhealthy. We now have the other extreme where health conscious individuals have added so many food rules in place with their desire to eat healthily they have actually created a gut health problem as it is so restrictive and it includes too much fibre, which is actually a thing! Although you may think that your body will be screaming yes with an overload of fruit and vegetables, the majority of our bodies are screaming no at the thought of having to break it all down again and it will cause you to bloat.
Typical dietary changes in the last couple of years have included wheat free, lactose free, drastically increasing fibre intake and following Vegan diets. If you suddenly follow a Vegan diet with little research and consequently add an extreme amount of fibre into your diet compared to before where you may have had more of a balance between fibre and protein, your body will be struggling to break it down and bloat, instead Professor Barbara Ryan recommends to go low and slow and aim for an intake of 20g a day. Also we recommend mixing it up, try new proteins and a variety of different products, these are great ways of helping your Gut health.
Statistics show that 43% of adults now suffer from digestive problems, which is probably due to listening to all the loud “healthy advice” which is out there on social media and listening to it like it is biblical, when actually everyone is different and has different needs and tolerances and it is your job to do your research into what works for you and your body.
It is now estimated that 10% of the UK population are following a Gluten Free diet when only 1% of the population are actually gluten free, but the other 9% are doing so because it is "healthier".
However a study which surveys 1,700 supermarket products in the free from aisle found that the gluten free products actually contained more fat, salt and sugar and their gluten counterpart. This goes back to research and filtering out the loud “healthy” noise we hear on social media, just because it is free from something, it doesn’t mean that it is necessarily healthy or right for you.
The overall message to this blog is that people are continously adding good and bad food rules into their diet, when there aren’t good and bad rules, balance is best and that’s balance for you not for your friend, family or peer.
Want to know more? I recommend this book
What Every Woman Needs To Know About Her Gut: The Flat Gut Diet Plan by Barbara Ryan and Elaine McGowan