Leaky gut develops when your “good” or healthy gut bacteria and your “bad” or toxic gut bacteria get out of balance, due to things like excessive sugar in the diet, overuse of antibiotics, use of immune-suppressants such as steroids, birth control pills, alcohol, and stress.
To begin restoring your gut health, dispose of anything in your pantry or fridge with sugar and white flour in it. This includes crackers, bread products, pasta, cakes and pastries. Read food and drink labels, looking for sugar content.
Keep a week-long journal of your food and drink intake. You’ll be shocked at how much sugar you’re consuming in your drinks (yes, even tonic water has sugar added!). Just eliminating sugar-based drinks will make a huge difference. Don’t be tempted to switch to artificially-sweetened products. You don’t need any more toxins in the mix.
Cook with fresh unprocessed, spray-free, grass-fed or organic whole foods. If you can’t source fresh vegetables, snap-frozen are the next best thing. Search online for simple whole food recipes.
Make and eat bone-broth-based soups regularly — the nutrients from fish and animal bones will help heal the lining of your gut, and warm, delicious soups packed with vegetables will fill you up.
Make green smoothies daily — include dark green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach, rocket and broccoli, boost with nutritious chia seeds, nuts, coconut water and anti-oxidant-rich blueberries — one of these will set you up for the day, and suppress the sugar cravings.
Substitute those milky, sugary coffees and hot chocolates with delicious herbal teas, such as chai and licorice, which have lovely chocolate notes.
Use coconut sugar or Stevia in place of sugar, only where needed.
You may experience a reaction when you eliminate sugar employing the above leaky gut diet tips: you may feel nauseous, distracted, tired, lethargic, irritable, even moody. Your bowel habits may change. This is elimination at work. Make sure you drink plenty of water, to aid elimination, and ensure you have plenty of healthy options in your fridge and pantry, such as nutritious soups, fresh vegetables and quality meats such as fish, chicken and grass-fed lamb and beef, and nuts and seeds for snacks. This way, you won’t be tempted to revert to processed snack foods.
