What changes have you made to support your gut health? - £200 voucher to be won

[CeriMumsnet]

Created for Culturelle

We know that our lifestyle and diet have an impact on our overall health and digestion, with energy levels, bloating and even skin irritation all connected to gut health. With this in mind we’d like to know what changes, big or small you’ve made to your overall health, to support your gut health?

• Post your experiences in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw.
• One lucky winner will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice.

Here’s what Culturelle has to say:
‘At Culturelle we believe that talking about the gut is still a stigmatized health issue around the world, and by opening up new conversations we can help people understand more about their bodies, the science and what we can all do to support the core of our health’

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!
MNHQ

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DP makes us kefir 5 days out of 7. We have this with blueberries and banana whizzed up in the nutri bullet or maybe mango and melon.

The intention is to make our own kombucha this year.

I have been making my own milk-based kefir for about 2 years now.

I'm about to switch to plant-based as I'm doing Veganuary.

I have started eating bio yogurts ,kimchi sauerkraut and more pulses nuts seeds and veggies and a salad with every meal,and eat only in a 8hr window so i am fasting for the rest of the time.
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I aim for a 90% vegan diet, oat milk is a swap, tried vegan cheese - it's a no from me, smoothies with ginger help my digestion, and making my own sourdough bread - keeping the yeast alive is a trial

I have incorporated kefir into my regular diet which has made a huge difference to me

I made changes 5 ish years ago - stopped drinking - just the odd G&T - but the acid reflux the day after was not worth it, flavoured kefir drinks, and 5 a day - small changes with big health results

Coffee is really bad for my gut - irritates it and takes weeks to recover. I eat a lot of yogurt and choose the ones with live cultures but I'm not sure it works.
Other than that I try to avoid acidic things. Champagne is the worst for me.

70-80% of immune cells are present in the gut - I learned this during Covid - and then decided to make changes. Live yoghurt, greek yogurt, a banana a day, I cook using olive oil, drink water - lots of it, and avoid alcohol and caffeine

Since Dame Debra James was diagnosed - I listened to her and changed how I looked after insides gut and bowel health is so important - after years of eating 'easy food' I made conscious decision to make some swaps - no more processed foods, (microwave burgers were something I used to eat - the shame) I am kind to my gut with overnight oats make with yoghurt, superfoods - blueberries, and seasonal fruit - no alcohol, smoothies to fill me up, supermarket own brand probiotic shakes - I am going to attempt Veganuary this year

I’ve started to eat fermented vegetables. I mentioned this to my mum and she gave me a jar of limes which my grandma fermented on one of her visits 10 years ago, they are delicious!

I want to ferment my own veg but am not sure where to start and am slightly nervous about getting it wrong.

I try to eat a range of veg, avoid ultra processed foods and I avoid sugary foods.

I thought Deborah James had zero risk factors. She was literally a very fit non-smoking non-drinking healthy-weight vegetarian who ate an exemplary (high fibre, high vegetables, low junk food) diet. There were no modifiable risk factors she could do to improve her gut health & prevent her cancer.

Which was part of the sadness of her situation.

Drinking kefir and taking probiotics! Taking high strength curcumin as an anti inflammatory.

Have recently bought sauerkraut and kefir. Trying to folllow Tim Spector's advice on gut health including eating a rainbow of different coloured fruit and veg.

Probiotic yoghurts, fruit and vegetables. Replacing acidic fruit with less acidic ones, eg peppers in place of tomatoes.

Sauerkraut and Bioglan
Changed my unhappy ibs life!

After having Covid I suffered from issues with gut health so start to take a probiotic tablet everyday and I have continued with this for over a year now. I also aim to eat healthy, although not in the last week!

Trying for 30+ fruit/veg/seeds/nuts a week and eating more fermented foods like kimchi.

When I eat sauerkraut regularly my gut health definitely improves. I also try to eat live full fat yogurt daily, green leafy veg as often as I can and beans and pulses. Tried kefir, which I liked a lot, very expensive though.

Probiotic drinks
Spray vitamins
Researching anti inflammatory foods
Herbal tea

I have heard mixed reviews about probiotic drinks - can they do more harm than good if your body does not need them - or does your body flush them out naturally if you don't - making them a waste of money ???

I think you should have a natural balanced diet, and if you have IBS - take a food allergy test - I did this a couple of years ago - and cut out onions, and celery - more difficult with the onions - so just avoid the uncooked ones. It has made a difference, I have 5,6,or 7 a day portions, avoid processed and red meat, and avoid alcohol.

Is gut health connected to bowel health ? My DF died of bowel cancer aged 52 - I will do what I can to keep my gut and bowel healthy ??? I feel like I should be better educated on these matters

Is there a test you can carry out to see how healthy your gut is - in terms of 'friendly bacteria' to know if you NEED pro-biotics.

Since covid I researched gut health - as it is the backbone of out immune systems - greek yoghurt was always top of the list - so I have a bowl of that, either on it's own, or as an overnight oats breakfast with a sprinkle of cinnamon, or a grated apple, and that is a ritual for me, I avoid fried food, red meat, and alcohol - I used to have really painful heartburn and acid reflux before I took these harmful foods out of my diet - I saw this as my gut reacting to poor food choices.

I drink home-made kefir every day and have live yoghurt for breakfast.

Try to eat at least 30 different types of plants each week.

I add kimchi to salads several times a week.

I've been trying to eat kimchi regularly and plan to get back to brewing kombucha.