Last night my friend’s 40th birthday party marked the end of a chocolate and alcohol abundant, sleep and exercise poor summer. I’m feeling sluggish, heavier and getting out of bed for a morning ride has turned into pulling up the doona. But from this morning and for the entire month of February I am embarking on a journey back to health using Gut Goddess – Dr Grace’s7 Steps to cure SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) as my template.
I’ve been following Grace Liu’s chaotic but fascinating gut blog animalpharm for a few years now. Grace is a pharmacologist and is one of those rare people who enjoy reading scientific papers in their spare time. With geek-grade enthusiasm Grace shares her discoveries; everything from the great potato starch debate to the beneficial effects of chitin fibre found in cricket flour. Grace advocates what she calls microbiome-hacking – using the information she finds in scientific studies as a guide to self-experimentation. She encourages others to share their gut journeys along the way.
It’s been empowering to apply Grace’s hacking approach to our own health – for the pastyear Grace’s blog has helped our family heal a can’t-leave-the-house level eczema problem that mainstream and alternative therapies failed to treat for many miserable and itchy years. Here I’m going to be a bit more systematic and follow Grace’s 7 step protocol which goes like this:
Step One – Eat Fermented Foods
Step Two – Eat Resistant-Starch-Rich Tubers, Grains, Legumes and Pulses
Step Three – Eat Soil-Based Probiotics
Step Four – Eat Diverse Fibre
Step Five – Exercise low-moderate intensity one hour daily continuously (10,000 steps)
Step Six – Avoid allergenic foods (corn, soy, gluten/wheat, dairy, nuts, egg whites, etc), GMO products and livestock/poultry fed GMO crops
Step Seven – Heal hormones and immunity — take adrenal support, liver support, antioxidants etc
It all seems simple enough though I’m not sure what I’d eat if I had to go without dairy, eggs and corn (ours is almost ready to harvest). But first, before I head up Grace’s steps, I have bought a uBiome 5 site test to find out what’s happening in my gut after the recent Summer assault.
