Let’s Talk About Gut Health First

Every once in a while something keeps popping up in front of me from every angle, leaving me unable to ignore it. Of late it has been gut health. Stewart and I discuss his health, and it comes back to the gut. We discuss our children’s health, and it comes back to the gut. I open an email and someone has found that food allergies, not surprisingly, come back to gut health. I read headlines and a study is released on… gut health.

Last week I sat down to pen a book review. As often happens, things got a little out of hand and I ended up with way more to say about the issue than a simple “I liked this book”. (Which I did… and I’ll try to get back to that eventually.)

But first, let me ask you this: Do you believe that all disease begins in the gut?

It’s a bit contrary to prevalent medical thinking, but it makes sense to me. Not only that, there are many, many scientific studies now that point to the gut’s role in childhood and adult illnesses, such as:

• asthma
• brain functioning
• food allergies
• autism, as one mother has found

I can’t imagine what else we’d need to see in order to finally accept that if something is wrong, maybe we should check gut health first. This has become my practice whenever someone has a chronic health issue in our family. How’s your gut health?

Our Story

We have our own history of gut challenges in our family. Stewart and I went through years of antibiotic use, a SAD diet, exposure to anti-bacterial everything, and for some of us, not nearly enough contact with the soil and animals.

Three days after our eldest son was born I spiked a fever of 104 and ended up on a course of antibiotics. We are still working on his gut health.

When Stewart went down with adrenal fatigue last year one of his biggest struggles was digestion. In order to absorb nutrients during this time of healing, we’ve had him on a regimen of apple cider vinegar, enzymes, probiotics, and, of course, fermented foods.

We’re also considering embarking on another round of a GAPS-like diet, if we can source some good bones from a local farmer. (The two roosters we need to butcher just aren’t going to cut it).

Other Resources from Our Earlier GAPS Journey

This isn’t the first time we’ve hit pause and worked on rebooting our guts. Here’s a few resources from those times…

• Digestion and Elimination: Diagnosing the Health of Your Gut
• How We are Surviving GAPS Intro
• Mexican Chicken & Cauliflower Soup
• Rhubarb Clafoutis
• Favorite Resources for Gut Health & Healing
• Do Food Allergies Cause Gut Problems or Do Gut Problems Cause Food Allergies?

I’ve got a few more ideas to add to this discussion, but now I’d love to hear from you!

What are your thoughts on gut health? Do you start their first? How have you healed?