I was 50lbs overweight with a saggy gut hanging over my belly. It was sobering. This was not the person I remembered from years past. I’d always thought of myself as an athlete, but the blood pressure pills sitting on the sink were a harsh reminder of how much had changed. I was anxious and depressed. I had low self-esteem and low energy. I was addicted to unhealthy food and the fleeting joy it brought me. The body is extremely intelligent in its ability to learn and adapt to our eating habits. For example, if you are eating too much of one food, your body can eventually reject it and develop an allergy. This is why our body, and especially the gut microbiome, thrive on diversity. To help cut down on cooking days, it can be very helpful to find a day of the week that works for you to prep some goodness. It does not have to be a Sunday as it depends on your schedule. You’ve probably heard that consuming enough fiber is important for your health. But what’s all the fuss? And how do you get more fiber? Health Benefits of Fiber The benefits of restrictive diets like paleo and keto have been touted for more than a decade, but as award-winning gastroenterologist Dr Will Bulsiewicz, or 'Dr B', illuminates in this groundbreaking book, the explosion of studies on the microbiome show that elimination diets are in fact hazardous to our health. What research clearly indicates is that gut health is the key to boosting our metabolism, balancing our hormones and taming the inflammation that causes a host of diseases. And the scientifically proven way to fuel our guts is with dietary fibre from an abundant variety of colourful plants.

Foods devoid of fiber and stripped away from their fiber matrix will feed dysbiotic bacteria and it's as simple as that. Your Most Important Bacteria

Breakfasts

All of the following plant-based recipes contain at least 6 grams of fiber per serving. Breakfast, lunch or dinner, and desserts included (yes, dessert can have fiber, too). VARIETY. Bulsiewicz says you can eat kale and blueberries every day and still be unhealthy because you need a variety--so switch it up with collards, swiss chard, turnip greens, etc. Pushing yourself to achieve greatness! Feel amazing and witness the healing power of plants and their fiber. Let this blog serve as a mere introduction into the vast realm of plant-based eating and its healing abilities. Preface Our gut lining can either be strengthened or weakened depending on the amount of mucins available. The higher the amount of mucins, the stronger the gut lining.

Before we dive deeper into the Fiber Fueled plan, we must first understand the true importance of dietary fiber. Most people have heard over and over again how loads of fiber in our diet comes with a plethora of health benefits. Fiber is vital when it comes to preventing heart disease, Irritable Bowel Disease, Colorectal Cancer, Type 2 Diabetes or even neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Dementia. Figure 3:The left of the image highlights a fiber rich diet reflecting a healthy microbiome, mucus layer and epithelial lining. As we begin to travel down the road of a fiber deficient diet, we see the mucus strength degrade. As this prolongs, we create more severe issues causing bacteria to break through the epithelial lining producing the endotoxin LPS (lipopolysaccharide).Here is one example of how I design our meal plan for the week for 2 adults. It is good to make some extra so it lasts for next day lunch or dinner also. This saves some cooking time. There are many side effects of having poor gut health. A relatively common condition is "leaky gut." This is a condition where small pieces of food penetrate the intestinal wall, and enter the bloodstream. They certainly don't belong there. This infiltration triggers a cascade of events - all of which are bad news for us. For this reason, HMOs are known as “strengtheners” of the gut lining. They will turn on the genes necessary to create more mucins.

Changes in your gut are underway. Your gut microbiome is shifting for the better. Here, we will notice healthier bowel movements and overall better digestion. UPDATE: after mystery distension snd constipation for 2 years despite eating 100g of fiber from whole plants, I learned from my GI (and experimentation) fiber supplements recommended here and fermented things exacerbate the issue; avoid until you’re “cleared out”

Fiber fueled meal plan

Pumpkin soup with roasted pumpkin seeds or nuts and topped with sprouts. Serve a slice of sourdough bread with the soup or toasted bread cubes.