Good Guts

What in the name of the baby cheeses is she doing now? 🧀 🫕
Nut cheese! (For the record, autocorrect nearly got me there by changing nut to but…😬)
Nut cheese is already a pretty dicey description 😅
The politically correct term would be vegan labneh (pronounced “lab-nah”).
Now, if you’ve never heard if labneh, it’s yoghurt with the water drained out. If you set yoghurt up in a strainer like the ones in the picture and leave for 8 hours or so (in the fridge), the water drips off and you get left with this lovely thick, tangy cream cheese-type stuff which is absolutely delicious. On crackers, in salads, on toast. It’s bloody amazing 👌 looks great with roast beets and roast pumpkin, rocket or spinach, topped with pine nuts or pepitas and a balsamic glaze.
But seeing as how more and more evidence is pointing towards plant fibre as the hero for gut health, I’ve been experimenting with making animal products out of plants.
I love finding ways of incorporating extra serves of plants (veggies, beans, lentils, herbs, spices, whole grains and fruit) into traditional recipes that doesn’t compromise the yummy tastes we’re used to. In my mind, the less undetectable a weird plant is in a standard family meal, the more accepted it can be long term. And taste buds change over time and you grow used to new flavours and even begin to enjoy them, but with fussy eaters and in particular, kids, it can be tricky.
I know my kids are now hyper vigilant about the dinners I serve due to repeated attempts to sneak weird things into their food - “Mum, why does the cheese sauce (lasagne) taste weird?” Yeah okay, it was made from cashew nuts, okay? But I flavoured it with nutritional yeast and they didn’t LOVE it but they ate it… okay, there was also lentils in the meat sauce, but they’re used to that trick by now.
Maybe I’ve worn them down? Or maybe they’ve slowly become accustomed to the tastes and their expectations of what a lasagne tastes like is now my version with lots of weird plants in it.
Winning 🙌💚🌻
So we’ll see how this vegan cashew nut cheese goes down with the crew and I will report back.
If you want the recipe, just google ‘vegan labneh’ and take your pick or I can message this recipe if you need.
Stay tuned 🙃

Yum yum! Just made these seedy crackers and they are so delicious 💚 full of fibre and protein and healthy fats, they’d go great with a beetroot hummus or the like. I just like them on their own! Recipe in comments 🌻

🤭

The Heart-Gut Axis

Did you know that your gut microbiome can speed up the progression of heart disease if it becomes out of whack?

A recent review has shown that patients with heart failure have an imbalance in their gut flora or microbiome.
In particular their microbes produce increased amounts of substances called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and indoxyl sulphate.
TMAO is well linked with the progression of chronic heart failure due to its affect on the kidneys.
Indoxyl sulphate is a microbial-dependant toxin known to harm the cardiovascular system.
This imbalance also reduces short-chain fatty acids and other related amino acids that keep inflammation, and therefore heart disease, under control

So what can you do? Keep your gut and all the microbes in it happy and healthy.
And how do you do that? Fibre. We don’t digest it but microbes do! They need it to survive.
Get adequate fibre by eating a wide range of plant foods every week - at least 30 every week.
Hit every group:
Veggies 🥗 🥕🥦 🧄
Fruit 🍉 🍎 🍌 🥑
Whole grains 🌾
Pulses and beans 🫘
Nuts and seeds 🌰🥜
Herbs and spices

The key is diversity. As many different types as you can. Every plant has its own unique profile to support different microbes.
The healthiest people that live the longest have a more diverse microbiome, with more TYPES of bugs.

Provide the food, the microbes will come 💚🌻

https://www.cureus.com/articles/122841-re-defining-the-gut-heart-axis-a-systematic-review-of-the-literature-on-the-role-of-gut-microbial-dysbiosis-in-patients-with-heart-failure #!/

Is anything NOT related to the health of your gut? NO!! 😆👏☺️💚
Let’s talk about hypertension.
High blood pressure.
It affects many people worldwide and is a major risk factor for stroke and heart disease.
Medication is often required but not always effective.
Now they have linked medication-resistant hypertension with poor gut health.
Inflammation and damage to the gut lining means that sometimes things get into our bodies that shouldn’t be there. Sometimes they call this “leaky gut” although it’s not proper science to use that term. Anywho, our bodies respond by sending in the cavalry - our immune cells that cause inflammation. “Bad” things leaking through our gut, into our blood, and getting chased by inflammatory immune cells can cause a cascade of downstream effects. And possibly hypertension…
I find this SO interesting!
And it proves my point - EVERYTHING starts in the gut - illness and disease - starts with what we put in our mouths.
🙌

World Hypertension Day 2023: New research high blood pressure and gut health | Heart Foundation New research funded by the Heart Foundation will investigate whether poor gut health is a cause of high-blood pressure.

Welcome to the next episode of “What weird stuff is she eating now?” 🤤
MILK KEFIR
It’s basically fermented milk, yoghurt-like, but drinkable 👍 full of those good bugs for your gut to aid goood digestion.
I’m not a big dairy person but this stuff 👇 I could get behind.
Drink it in the go or in a smoothie, on your breakfast or as a breakfast with some fresh fruit 👌
It’s becoming more and more available in supermarkets and health food stores and there are quite a few brands and flavours to choose from.
Here’s how I chose:
🦠 Made with fresh whole milk (NOT powders; if you have the choice)
🦠 Biggest variety of culture strains (Rokeby Farms has 15 different strains; Table of Plenty has 10 different strains)
🦠 Australian made, of course 👍

Have you seen this veggie?
This is a fennel bulb. It’s usually on the top shelf up near the parsnips and soup vegetables. It’s lovely and fresh right now.
Fennel is excellent for your digestion. Full of fibre that gives your gut a good brush out. Not to mention the fibre being prebiotic which means food for your microbiome 💚🌻 but fennel goes even further… vitamin C, manganese, potassium, magnesium and calcium AND THEN fennel is rich in polyFENNEL antioxidants (pun intended! Its polyphenol antioxidants ) which are potent anti-inflammatory substances that are anti-cancer, anti-heart disease, anti-viral, anti-microbial, anti-most things actually… just know fennel is good for your whole self. If you’re interested in the polyphenol antioxidants, Google rosmarinic acid, chlorogenic acid, quercetin and apigenin. Fennel is amazing, the next day, your belly will thank you, if you catch my drift? 😉💩 Traditionally, fennel has been paired with blood orange in French cuisine which is so delicious. Basically just two ingredients and viola! Yum. I’m sure Google will find you a recipe. If you’re lazy like me, I slice the bulb (minus the core) as finely as I care to, put it in a bowl, peel and chop two oranges and mix them through with your hands. Really squeeze so the juice of the orange coats the fennel. Then eat it. It’s so yum. I eat the whole bowl but not everyone is crazy like that, so you do you 💚🌻
Find some fennel and eat it 💩

Try this!
Celeriac or celery root.
Have you ever seen it? It’s coming into season now. It looks like a big warty turnip or something that flew in from outer space… with a green bit on top 😱 AND it’s totally edible!
But don’t be put off by it’s initial appearance (like I always have been 🫣). It took a lovely friend at uni to tell me how yummy it is for me to try it.
So tonight I tried it.
I peeled it and tossed it in olive oil with salt and pepper and roasted it like potato chips.
And I ate the whole thing.
These things are packed with fibre which is prebiotic and (yep, here she goes again) REALLY good for your gut. I won’t even get started on all the other nutrients it boasts (potassium, phosphorus, vitamin K, B vitamins, vitamin C).
More to the point, it’s a plant and it’s probably something you don’t usually eat. So in line with my last post about eating 30 plants over the week, varying your diet means you can support more types of bugs in your gut, which is healthier!
These things can be used like potato - boiled, steamed or roasted; put into stews and curries; and even eaten raw with a Dijon mayo and mustard dressing and called a fancy French Celeriac Remoulade (Google 😉).
It tastes a lot like parsnip when it’s roast, with a celery tang. Really good. I’ll be adding it to my shopping list again!

What makes a healthy gut? Science shows it is gut microbe diversity - or as many DIFFERENT bugs as possible!
How do you diversify or expand you gut microbiome???
PLANTS. As many plants as you can. Recommendations now encourage us to eat at LEAST 30 plants per week.
Check out this chart you can use to check how many plants you're eating per week https://dietitianconnection.com/patient-resources/aim-for-30-plants-each-week/
Let me explain...
Microbes in your gut feed off fibre. Fibre comes from plants. They can't survive if they're not being fed. You need to feed them fibre - from plants.
I'm not saying don't eat meat, I'm saying eat as many different plants as you can. Different fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices - they're all plants.
Don't be shy, send me a message if you have any questions, always happy to talk about guts :)

In my previous video, I told you about the benefits of sourdough bread and shared my Sourdough Starter recipe.

Now what? Well, now it's time to get this bread! 💪

I recommend using your starter to create my Whole-Wheatish Sourdough Bread. While the recipe is too long to share on social (I dished out some serious wisdom) you can check it out on page 317 of the Fiber Fueled Cookbook. Try it for yourself and tag me in your results!

Visit the link in my bio to grab the cookbook for yourself - and DON'T FORGET, all my digital courses are on sale for 20% off for Fiber Fueled Week at theplantfedgut.com/fiber

Legumes 💚 Lentils, beans and peas are favourites of mine.
Often vilified for their gaseous effects, a lot of people avoid them. But did you know you can fix this? You've got to condition your microbes.

Let me explain what's happening...

Legumes have types of carbohydrates and fibre in them that we don't absorb, rather they pass through to our colon where it is fermented by the your microbiome. The byproducts of this fermentation are gases - there's your bum trumpet.

These side effects can be uncomfortable and lead to avoidance of foods that cause this effect.

But you can train your gut.
Gradual introduction, in small, regular amounts conditions your gut to digest legumes symptom-free and allows your gut microbiome to adapt to the new food.
You don't yet have all the bacteria in your gut ready to deal with these foods. And so the types of bacteria fermenting these foods aren't doing it very well, because it should be done by a different type of bacteria - one that isn't in your gut, again, because you don't usually eat this food. But if you start, the bugs will come.

You need to train your gut, exactly the way you train your muscles in a gym. You can't expect your bicep to curl 20kg without starting small, using light weight and working your way up to bigger weights over time. It's exactly the same with your gut and all the bugs that live in it.

Anyone can do it. I have. I used to react the same way to lentils. And so I avoided them. Not anymore.
Consistent consumption of chickpeas (in curries), brown lentils (in spag bog sauce - looks just like mince), red lentils (in soups, stews, casseroles to thicken sauces), beans (tacos, salads, spaghetti sauce), basically jamming them in anywhere you can, means you'll adapt and the symptoms will disappear.
And it means you are adding more plants to your diet, which is fibre, which is great news for your gut microbes. You just have to give them time.
Start small, and keep it up.

If you want to chat about it, send me a message. Always happy to talk about guts!

SOAK YOUR NUTS

I LOVE almonds. Raw, dry roasted, flavoured, almond meal, almond flour (pretty much almond meal I spose)- although I detest that almond essence stuff? That they put in some baking? Yuk 🤮

I take almonds to uni and have a nibble if I get the mid-class munchies. They’re a great convenient snack - full of good fats, fibre for your gut and micro flora, protein and magnesium for your muscles, calcium and phosphorous for your bones, and vitamin E for your skin and heart ❤️ and they fill you up for AGES!

Anywho, I’ve recently discovered SOAKED RAW ALMONDS. Yep, raw almonds soaked overnight.
Holy Dooly Batman! They just about explode in your mouth! 🤯

Soaking the nuts fills them full of water, which helps to draw water through your bowel, supporting healthy gut movements. You could even argue that they’re easier to digest, as the water has softened the bulk so that digestive juices can get in there and break them down easier.
I love them because they are packed with prebiotic soluble fibre which is excellent food for your microbiome and that is what I’m all about.

So try it! I think I’ve found my new super snack 💚🌻

Things I learned on my recent stickybeak into Aryuvedic eating:
💚 COOK with lots of spices - cumin seed, turmeric, coriander seed, fennel seed, cardamon, cinnamon, mustard seed, ajwan seed, paprika, black pepper and the list goes on.
Spices add flavour and are packed with minerals and nutrients that are used as medicine in some therapies. Research is underway on their role in boosting gut health, so exciting.
💚GARNISH with chopped fresh herbs - coriander, parsley, chives, basil, rosemary, whatever you can get or grow.
Fresh herbs make your cooking look great, and contain polyphenols and vitamins A, C and K.
💚 SERVE your food with fresh squeezed lemon or lime.
The citric acid in these citrus stimulates the release of your stomach acid to digest food. It’s not surprising that this increases your absorption of nutrients such as iron.

Continuing on my writer’s block and period of contemplation… I’m trying to mesh the two together: the modern medical world in which I am studying and the alternative medicine I seem to find so logical and commonsense.
I’ve been studying a long time. Probably too long. I feel like it’s too long. I’d like to be earning a proper wage by now but hey, it is what it is.
So, being so drawn to the eastern/alternative medicine practices but studying and finding my understanding via western/modern medicine, I have been toying with a conglomerative-type setting where we can all find relevance and proof and credit and esteem in a common universe.
Blah blah blah.
But what I have really narrowed it all down to is digestion. That’s where it starts. And it’s relieving, as I’ve studied so long to understand the intricacies of this physiological process, I’d hate to have being barking up the wrong tree my whole life!
Western/modern medicine = poor digestion results in inadequate nutrient intake, which then pass through the digestive tract unabsorbed; so nutritional status is reduced.
Eastern/alternative medicine = poor digestion results in exposure to toxins or foods in a way that is incompatible with our digestive tract, resulting in toxin absorption or digestive malfunction.

It all begins with digestion. You need to get it right.
You can fix peripheral digestive symptoms like heart burn with antacids, or constipation with laxatives, but if you get the digestion right, these issues never occur. The imbalance never happens. Ignoring these issues early on, means they worsen into disease.
It’s the importance of balance.
Parenting duties call, so apologies for the quick ending.
I hope everyone had a good Christmas break and are ready for the New year 💚🌻

I’ve had a bit or writer’s block recently. There’s the usual busy life and end of semester exams and what not, but also my youngest boy hasn’t been well. Constant viruses, tummy bugs, sick days away from school, losing weight, tired all the time, aching legs. Blood tests showed nothing abnormal, his doctor (who is a very wonderful lady) could find no reason for further investigation. Just rest.
But I could see the difference in his face, he was looking gaunt with black circles under his eyes, his bones were more pronounced, losing his healthy glow. I knew something wasn’t right. Something was out of balance.
I happened upon an Ayurvedic (ancient Indian medicine) practitioner in one of my uni classes and we had a great chat about the differences in treatment of Eastern vs Western medicine. I have a lot of respect for doctors and nurses and our modern medical capabilities. Without them I would be dead at least 3 times over. I know a lot of people in the same boat.
But if the ancient Chinese and Indian medicine practices have been around for so long, they must work, right? From what I can see, the lack of scientific evidence is what stands in the way of the two worlds working together to complement each other. Western medicine has only just, in the last 10-20 years realised the gut-brain axis. Pretty much everyone knows what probiotics are these days. But like my Ayurvedic friend said, you can put all the bacteria in there that you want but if the environment isn’t good, they’ll die; if the blood is not supporting the bacteria in there, they’ll die. You’ve got to get the blood healthy first.
And that seems to be a pattern. It’s ALL connected. You can’t just treat one area. You have to treat the whole body. Holistic medicine, right?
But you have Western medicine with powerful investigative technology and life saving diagnosis abilities. It really is amazing what they can do. And the drug therapies to pull people back from the brink and keep them alive. And don’t get me started on painkillers. I’ve had enough operations not to knock modern medicine.
But wouldn’t it be good if these two medical worlds could talk to each other?
It seems Eastern medicine knows things Western medicine is only just starting to touch on. Essentially Eastern medicine could stop people getting to the point where they need Western treatments. What if high blood pressure starts when you’re a kid and the lifetime of the wrong kind of food for your particular body? Then it culminates in high blood pressure when you’re 40. What if coeliac disease (later diagnosis’) is a genetic predisposition and only develops if the wrong diet is consumed for that body type? And autoimmune diseases, what if they result from the wrong food and manifest in the body attacking itself because the food is inflammatory? Are family dispositions due to similar genetics and the same diet? Could the outcome of that family member change if they follow a diet more suited to their body?
These alternative practices can fix the electrical fault before it causes a fire and needs the ED. And ease the burden on the health care system too, quite frankly.
It comes down to individual responsibility. Every symptom is an indicator that something is out of balance. Indigestion? Find out what is causing it and fix it, rather than downing the gaviscon. It takes the individual to be responsible for themselves. You gotta fix yourself.
Try an alternative therapy. Doctors are so busy trying to keep people 10 times worse than you alive, they really have enough in their plate (DISCLAIMER: don’t be an idiot, if you’re really sick, go to your doctor).
Coming back to my son, I took him to this Ayurvedic fella and we’re doing the changes and incorporating the dietary changes and today is the first day I’ve looked at him and seen that healthy glow. He even ate alll his breakfast this morning 😍 Change is hard though. It’s not easy to change the way you eat. Especially with kids. But like I say to my son, there’s no picky eaters in Africa!

Spices (and herbs)
For thousands of years, herbs and spices have been a foundation of ancient Chinese and Indian medicine. One of the key ways these plants interact with our bodies is via the microbiome, particularly in the large intestine. Recent studies have found spices nourish the good bacteria such as lactobacillus and bifidobacteria, while inhibiting the growth of bad bacteria such as clostridium difficile and ruminococcus (related to Crohn’s Disease). These are spices such as turmeric, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and more. Spices such as cardamon, fennel and cinnamon are great for digestion; turmeric is known for its anti inflammatory properties but it is also very handy in the large intestine; ginger is a prebiotic (food for bacteria) as is oregano. The list goes on.
On a broader level, there is very little bowel cancer incidence in countries where spices are used in everyday cooking (think India).
So have a go at adding spices and herbs to your cooking: cumin and turmeric on roasted cauliflower; cinnamon and cardamon in porridge and even pancake batter; rosemary and thyme on you roasted veggies; finely chopped parsley in your mash; garlic chives in your scrambled eggs.
There are endless possibilities.
Every meal you make is an opportunity to add these beauties to your diet 💚🌻

Not just for humans 🦠
Meet Ringo. He’s a dude. I’ve thrown him on the gravy train and started feeding him fermented carrot sticks (and my sauerkraut too). As you can see he is absolutely thrilled!
He was very smelly and got the name Stinko because his breath was horrendous and he had a terrible “doggy” smell. I subjected him to teeth cleaning and lavender scented baths. It only helped for a day or two but didn’t fix it.
I found this on tik tok. And it works 😌 no more smells. Fresh breath. He gave me a look that said “pure bonkers” at first but he’s adjusting 😆

Why does this work? Probiotics. Beneficial bacteria for your gut. Dogs are just the same and have a complex microbiome that can be thrown out of wack with the processed foods we feed them.
This is so easy! Carrot sticks in salty water, cupboard for 2 days, then keep in the fridge.
Click this link for instructions:
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSRnPdwtK/

I reallly have to stop myself rolling my eyes when I hear the word keto. I don’t have much time for it.
Keto is essentially cutting out a huge proportion of foods from the diet that our gut microbiome relies on for diversity and function. You’re starving your gut flora. And a diet that encourages high fat (sometimes processed) meats is simply ridiculous.
Any diet can work short term just by cutting out processed ”treat” foods that we kid ourselves with.
But long term? You’re dreaming.
Plant fibre is essential to our diet and the health of our gut. There’s no other way around it.

What to eat to keep your gut healthy:
FIBRE.
Where do we get fibre from? PLANTS
There are lots of different types of fibre:
Soluble
Insoluble
Resistant starch
Complex carbohydrates (FODMAP)
FIBRE is essentially what our body can’t break down.
And FIBRE is what the microbes in our gut need to survive.

So what is the human microbiome?
The human microbiome is a number of microbial communities that live on and in us. They populate all of our external surfaces (skin, hair, mouth) including our gut. If you think about it, our gastrointestinal tract is like a big tube through our body and is also in contact with our environment so it’s technically classed as an external surface. Like our skin, it is essentially outward facing. Our microbiome has evolved with us symbiotically. It performs functions that we are unable to do ourselves. It makes many of the B vitamins and produces waste products that are anti inflammatory and help stave off cancer. It primes out immune system and outcompetes bad bacteria, protecting us from pathogens (baddies).
We have 10x more microbe cells in our body that human cells. 100x more microbe genes than human genes. We are essentially 99% microbe. To think they don’t matter is absurd.
And we still don’t know what most of them are. It’s better than aliens 👽

Hi, my name is Bree and I'm passionate about foods that promote a happy, healthy gut. I have a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science, a Masters in Nutrition and I'm half way through my Dietetics degree. I have two gorgeous kids who suffer my obsession with a good diet with great magnanimity. I enjoy gardening, particularly veggies and herbs, soil improvement and just all plants in general - in doors and out. It is possible I have too many indoor plants...yep, I'm one of those.
Ancient Chinese Medicine practitioners will tell you that all illness starts in the gut. I have always inherently thought the same way. And you don't become ancient by being wrong.
While I know nothing of Chinese medicine, I am convinced the bugs in your belly are sacred and in need of nurturing every opportunity you get. You do this through your diet. Your diet depicts the types bugs you breed. And there is so much to know about all of them. So lets get into it.

It’s an exciting time for food science and microbiology as we start to realise just how important our gut microbiome is to our health. Not only are thousands more gut bacteria being identified with huge advances in technology, but the connection of the biota in our gut is being linked to diseases such as cancer and diabetes. The gut-brain axis and the huge effect our gut has on our mood and mental functioning is becoming more understood.
Looking to the future, treatments for diseases such as cancer and diabetes, metabolic syndrome (eg obesity and heart disease) could start by treating the microbiome first.
Immunity from disease, both contagious (colds, virus’ and yes, Covid) and non-communicable starts in the gut.
On an individual level; a family level; a personal level, there are changes we can make and things we can do to ensure our body has a healthy, well-functioning gut as primary protection from disease.
This means feeding the “bugs” in your belly.
And that where Good Guts comes in. What foods do you need to eat to encourage your bugs?
I intend to cover these topics in upcoming posts.
I hope you can join me 💚🌱🌻

Start 🌻

What do you do with your pumpkin seeds?
Instead of throwing them in the compost bin, save them and roast them in the oven sprinkled lightly with salt. They take around 15 mins, don’t burn them.
They make a yummy crunchy snack, are high in fibre and the pumpkin juice residue from around them caramelises nicely. It’s essentially pepitas with the fibrous outer coating that gives your insides a lovely, cleansing brush out.
I give them to the kids before dinner when they’re ravenous but I don’t want them to spoil their appetite. Usually on a night when I’m already roasting pumpkin so I have the oven on and cook them at the same time as the dinner.
Give it a go 🌻

One of my favourite snacks - wholegrain rice crackers with some hommus and pickled red cabbage on top.
The cabbage gives a lovely tang and is also a good probiotic.
The more we vary our diets, the better the diversity of our gut biome.
You can find it in supermarkets or maybe you know how to make it yourself. It’s often sighted at this time of year with Oktoberfest, so keep an eye out.
And with colour like that it looks spectacular on any plate 🌻