OK – so most of us are well aware that our gut is part of of our
digestive system. As such it’s job is obviously to help in the digestion
of food and extraction of nutrients from it.
A lot of us also know the old adage – “You are what you eat.”
Why do we then choose to stop just short of giving our gut the full credit it deserves?
Why do we fail to see that just like with an awesome car – if we want
awesome engine performance, we must put in the best quality gas we can
find…
I think I have the answer!
It’s because we don’t fully understand the reach of our gut’s control.
So to help the ’cause’ here are 5 quick and critical reasons why you should consider respecting your gut more 
1. It Controls Your Moods
Your body needs the nutrients it extracts from the food you eat, in
order to produce the energy it needs to sustain life, and to do the
things you do every day. That you know.
But the other reason it needs those nutrients is to be able to
produce the right type and amount of hormones it needs to ensure your
quality of life.
THAT you may not have heard about.
Your hormones control EVERYTHING in your body. They are a finely tuned orchestra playing the “Four Seasons” by Vivaldi.
If one flute goes out of tune – you’d know all about it. The whole
symphony sounds different… next, the base gets out of timing, because
the flute confused it. Before you know it, the whole thing sounds like a
choir of cats…
You get my point!
The poorer your food is nutritionally, the poorer the hormonal
balance of your body. The poorer the quality of your life. And the more
unstable and unpleasant your moods.
You feel your memory is going? It’s likely you don’t have enough dopamine.
You’re not in the mood for some lovin’? Your testosterone levels may be shot.
You feel snappy and unsafe? Your serotonin levels need toping up.
You feel ‘ugly’ and unworthy as a woman? Could be your estrogen and progesterone levels are not balanced.
The list can go on and on. Bottom line – if you eat poor nutrition foods – you get poor quality moods (that actually rhymes…).
2. It Controls Your Immune System
Over 60% of your immune system is contained in your gut. Remember
those ads about topping up your ‘good bacteria’ – well they have the
right idea.
You see – your good and bad bacteria play a huge role in the balance
of your gut flora. What that means is if there isn’t enough good
bacteria, you’re not likely to get the most out of the food you eat.
That has knock-on effect on everything in your body, because everything
is fueled by what you eat.
To put this in perspective – you may be eating relatively healthy
foods – but you’re still not feeling on top of the world. Worse yet –
you’re not losing weight either.
But the more scary part is that if that ratio – good to bad bacteria –
is out of whack (and most of western society has that problem) then
your immune system goes down. You start to get sick often. And no amount
of vitamin C or Echinacea is able to fight that ‘flu’ feeling that
never seems to go away.
The solution?
Find pro-biotic (ideally pre-biotic) supplements or even those Dannone drinks will do.
3. It Controls Your Aches & Pains
Yes – what you eat affects how your body feels. Food allergies and
intolerances, although being two different things, are both created by
poor gut flora. They both manifest themselves in various aches and pains
throughout your body.
Joint pains. Bloating. Headaches. Gas (both ends of the body). Muscle aches. Foggy thought process. Rubbish memory.
Any of those can be caused by an intolerance to a food.
The solution?
Be aware that if you feel any of the above – they could be associated
to a food type. Then try and pinpoint which food can be causing you a
pain.
The most common culprits are gluten, lactose, and nuts – i.e dairy,
wheat/bread items, nuts. But some food intolerances range as far into
the bizarre as asparagus for example.
If you have suspicions of food intolerances or allergies – try
isolate the offending food, then back it up with a medical test. Speak
to your family doctor to see what tests are available in your area.
The bottom line is that by understanding that this is what’s causing
your aches and pains – you can take measures to avoid/reduce/substitute
that food in your diet – hence taking back control of your wellbeing.
The viscous cycle you should be aware of, is that an allergy or
intolerance, when chronic can lower your immune system. Which causes
stress to your physiology. Which lowers gut efficiency. Which
exasperates the allergy or intolerance and so on…
4. It Controls Your Sleep
What food you eat, when you eat it, and how well it is digested by your gut will all affect the quality of your sleep.
If you eat late at night (read less than 30 minutes before you go to
sleep), you’re loading your body with the extra task of digestion. So
now on top of all the repair work it has to do to all other cells in
your body, your gut has to take energy to do digestion too.
The result is that you wake up not as invigorated as you should.
What food you eat and how well it is digested will obviously affect
your sleep too. Anything that requires extraneous effort by your gut –
will create the usual problems and often it will cause insomnia or
irregular sleep.
5. It Controls Your Focus
This one really stems from point 1 above. But I felt it needed it’s
own mention because so many of us struggle with poor attention and
focus.
And it could be such an easy battle to win. Just by creating a better
gut environment – you can get so much more done. How’s that for a
productivity tip 
This really works in two main ways. One – if you eat too much, your
body has to divert energy to the digestive process – which means taking
energy from everything else – including your focus.
The second way? If you eat the wrong stuff nutritionally, i.e.
<strong>your food either gives you or it takes from
you</strong>. You will either have more of the right kind of
energy to help your focus, or you’ll need to work extra hard just to
keep awake.
The rules are simple (providing you have no food intolerances or allergies):
Foods that GIVE – pretty much anything you can
imagine got from it’s origin to your mouth in 3 or less steps.
Unprocessed veg, fruit, meat, fish, nuts.
Foods that TAKE – everything else, but especially sugar, alcohol, vinegar, refined white products (bread, rice, pastas).
The solution? I think you can figure this one out
OK, but what’s the point of this post Anita?
The major point I’d like you to walk away with is that NOTHING in your body happens in isolation.
I.e. you don’t just have a headache. You likely have an underlying digestive problem that is causing your head to hurt.
This implies a whole new way of looking at how you treat anything
that may be wrong with you. Treat the cause, not the symptom… but that
leads into a whole new conversation
So I only mentioned 5 quick and critical reasons why you should consider respecting your gut more, but I know that’s not all.
Do you have a tip/point you want to share? Something you’ve
found/read/tested that you can add? I’d love to hear what your
experience has been. Please share below.
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