What is Leaky Gut?
If you’re here chances are you are on some kind of gut healing journey and have heard the term “leaky gut” before. Maybe you’ve heard it from your doctor or health practitioner and you wondered what that meant, what causes it, and how you fix it. In this article I’ll go over very simplified answers to these questions! As always, feel free to ask questions at the bottom of the page.
What is Leaky Gut?
The walls of your intestines absorb most of the nutrients from our food. A healthy intestinal wall has a tight cell lining, allowing few things to pass through it. When your gut becomes “leaky” what we are really saying is that you gut wall has become hyper permeable or, easily penetrated. Bacteria, proteins, and other particles pass through the leaky lining and your body senses a foreign invader (as these things do not pass through a healthy strong lining), which triggers an inflammatory response in the body.
Symptoms of Leaky Gut can look like cramping, gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, food intolerances and auto immune diseases like Celiac or Hashimoto’s disease. Even things that you wouldn’t necessarily relate to your gut can be triggered or exacerbated by leaky gut like acne, eczema, brain fog, chronic fatigue, hormonal imbalances, and stubborn weight loss.
What causes leaky gut?
The main culprit of leaky gut is inflammatory foods. Think artificial sweeteners, inflammatory oils, processed foods, preservatives, dyes, fried foods, fast foods, gluten, dairy, and soy. Pesticides and Herbicides can also play a huge role in damaging your gut. Once you have leaky gut there are lots of foods that might trigger an inflammatory response because your gut lining is so permeable and sensitive. The good news is, once your gut has healed you might be able to re introduce gluten and dairy products back into your diet or other foods you thought you were intolerant to.
What can you do to fix leaky gut?
Your gut can be healed! Remember those inflammatory foods? To fix your leaky gut you have to remove what is causing the inflammation. I recommend also eliminating gluten and dairy for 30 days (or longer depending on how severe your leaky gut was) and then reintroducing them back into your diet to see if you have a true intolerance. In addition to removing the triggering foods, add in the healing foods! Bone broth has amino acids that help rebuild the leaky lining of your gut, organic fruits and vegetables give your gut fiber which feeds your good bacteria, garlic, ginger, and turmeric have amazing anti-inflammatory properties. Here is another post with 8 healing swaps to switch out in your diet!
My personal favorite for fixing leaky gut is to hire a nutritionist or healthy coach (I am both!) to guide, support, and teach you through your healing journey. If I’d had someone to help me navigate all there is to know about gut health and help me build the habits I needed for success, I would have healed and been in less chronic pain so MUCH sooner. To schedule a completely free 15 minute consultation click here!
Hopefully you learned some new information to help you on your healing journey! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list below!
