gut health talk

The gut is the second brain.

Or rather, our enteric nervous system– the nerve cells regulating our gastrointestinal landscape is increasingly referred to as a second brain. You may have heard of the gut-brain axis, or gut-brain connection.

It has been established that bidirectional communication between our gut and brain is far more essential to our physical and mental health than we understand.

As a self proclaimed neuroscience geek and a recovering impulse buyer of any and every supplement under the sun that was marketed to heal my skin troubles or diminish anxiety by targeting the gut… this statement both excites and overwhelms me. 

Gut health is a buzz-phrase in popular culture these days, climbing its way up the ranks to secure a spot on the level of ‘mindfulness’ and ‘intuitive eating’.

But like most health trends the science behind why these practices work and the nuances of how they might not work for every person in every context often get lost in translation or left out entirely.

—

What it means to have a ‘healthy gut’, the ability to generalize gut healing products to larger populations, and the connection between the gut to the brain are newborn in the science world, we have a long way to go, yet claims that something is “gut healing” are seemingly everywhere. 

Even with growing interest in and effort from scientific research, with any topic that finds itself trending in the health world, it is hard to know where to begin.

Maybe you’re trying to heal your gut in the context of an umbrella diagnosis— take acne or anxiety,

Maybe you want to be able to tolerate foods that you were previously sensitive to— take leaky gut, aiming to restore that singular cell lining in order to digest and absorb your food better,

Maybe you’re just wanting to target the gut as part of larger health support…

For each and every query there are an abundance of not just diets and supplements and lifestyle changes and OPINIONS.

—

My personal history of some disordered eating and an impressionability when encountering this product can solve this for you and we have the reviews to prove it— set me up as an easy target for the marketing campaigns of many gut-focused products as well as the herds of ‘gut influencers’ on social media.

From a birds eye view, I think this still reflects the tendencies of our ‘quick fix’ culture. Rather than changing our habits, we want a pill, a product, any instant gratification we can get our hands on to solve our problems without having to commit to long term strategy. 

I’m not blaming or criticizing, I am the first to admit my tendency towards throwing my money at products that proclaim undeniable results. However in my own experience I’ve found we can be eating ALL the health foods and taking all the supplements and buying all the essential wellness tools that are marketed to us but if we aren’t really in tune with what our body is asking for— ignoring intuition and abandoning ourselves for what we believe we should be doing —our dollars are lost to our loss of senses.

We are stuck running on a hamster wheel of consumerism through the hype of health culture. 

—

In bouts of borderline obsessive health routines, I’ve come to realize again and again that less is more.

With my skin care, with my morning routines, with exercise regimens.

Even as I’ve cultivated this awareness I can still find myself gripped by frenzied energy, overwhelmed by the abundance of self care and health care options that I should be engaging in. Browser windows of tabs so small you cannot count them, with shopping carts full of products litter my overworked computer screen. I convince myself I need this for the next iteration of my ‘health journey’. 

My marker of progress is that instead of mindlessly clicking ‘Place My Order’ I’ve begun to pause myself and ask

Do I really want this? Better yet, Do I really need this?

I find that even when first answer is yes, the second is usually no. 

—

So circling back to simplification, I’ve recently been recognizing this insatiable need to do with MORE in the context of taking care of my gut. I’ve found myself ‘slipping’ — in between probiotics, not as consistent with my meals as I used to be, perhaps being a liiiiittle hard on myself.

Here is how I’m coming back to myself, reminded once again that less is more, that without a strong foundation all the money in the world to spend on the fancy supplements is a waste of resources.

Sleep. For me this is always the first thing to go when I’m busy, overworked or overwhelmed. Getting 8 hours of sleep makes me a better person, a more intentional person, a more tuned in person. My mom has always told me to sleep on it, everything is worse when you’re tired. 

Consistent meals focused on protein, diversity, and whole food ingredients. In terms of gut health, hormone health, mindset and mood this is another I forget the importance of until I am slipping. With disordered eating the rear-view mirror but certainly not out of sight, this is one I know I personally have to be extra cognizant of. It’s so easy to convince myself that skipping breakfast or eating two big meals a day is ‘easier’. When I really sit with my energy levels I can recognize that consistency is king and sticking to simple and satisfying in the realm of food is what works for me. Everyone is different, find what FEELS (not what the tik tok algorithm says is) best for you. 

Checking in with myself: my hunger cues, my voice of gut intuition, and acting in alignment. Going off of the above, it’s easy for me to load up my day with what I should be doing, leaving no room to actually listen to what my body or my spirit is needing. When I tune into and listen to my gut, I’ve found only recently that it will tell me what excites me and what does not. Sometimes even when I can get quiet enough to hear that voice I still don’t act in accordance. It’s a two parter: getting quiet enough to listen AND enacting the trust and respect for what you’ve heard. Awareness and action operating hand in hand. Some days are busier and harder than others, but that voice is always there, sometimes a mere whisper. Silence, stillness and slowing down. 

Gratitude- for the wellness practices I do maintain and engage in regularly. This includes the ability to move my body, the foods I have available to me that feel good right now and might not feel good next month or next year and that is okay. Rather than focusing on what I don’t have, I’m shifting back towards focusing on what already exists and how far I’ve come. It’s nearly impossible for gratitude and anxiety to coexist, loading up on the former almost inherently drowns out the latter. 

Let your gut feelings guide you, they’re far more intelligent than we give them credit for.