So let’s bring it back to basics so we can actually fully understand what the Microbiome is and what it actually does for us.

What is the Gut Microbiome?

The post 101 Gut Microbiome – A Beginners Guide To Understanding Your Gut. appeared first on Anna Høgh Groth.

This is also GUT-LOVING if you want to invest in Medicinal Mushrooms and a few other additions like Collagen & Maca, because it helps your digestive system and the rebuild-up of your gut-lining, but by no means is it necessary to make the hot chocolate as it doesn’t add any flavour to it (besides from the Maca).

It’s super duper simple, and you can really do it with any type of milk, but I really like to make mine with Soy-Milk just because it froths up a lot when you give it a spin in the blender. I know there are loads of different opinions on Soy Milk, but it works for me to have a little of it each week. If you do suffer from excess oestrogen, I’d probably recommend to keep soy-milk at a minimum, but a little is okay.

See below for the recipe:

Healthy Hot Chocolate:

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of hot soy milk (or any other milk)
• 1/2 cup of boiled water
• 2 tsp unsweetened raw Cacao Powder
• 1 tsp of unsweetened Carob Powder
• 1 tsp Maca Powder
• Few drops of Vanilla Stevia
• Dash of Cinnamon
• 1 full dropper of Turkey Tail (medicinal Mushroom)
• 1 tsp Hydrolysed Collagen
• 1 tsp Almond Butter (or any nut butter of your choice)
• 1 tsp coconut flakes

Directions:

• Add all ingredients to a blender and whizz on high for 10 seconds
• Serve in a mug and sprinkle with coconut flakes & raw cacao
• FULLY ENJOY!

FIND MORE RECIPES HERE

The post Gut Loving Healthy Hot Chocolate appeared first on Anna Høgh Groth.

Everything in your body is linked, and your gut has a huge influence on your health. I think we’ve established this already?

If you are new to following me, then you might not know that I’ve been dealing with poor health and, gut-health in particular, for about 14 years. I’m now on the road to recovery and continuing to unveil & discover more as to why I’ve been feeling & acting a certain way for years, due to the destroyed natural flora in my microbiome by doing much more testing and working together with dedicated gut-health specialists.

You can read more about that here..

The Brain-Gut Connection:

Your gut is not only responsible for the breakdown and absorption of food, but everything, really. Incredibly, your gut has neural tissue and neurotransmitters in the gut-lining-walls, that make and release hormones such as serotonin (happy hormone). Your gut microbiome is just as fascinating: the colony of bacteria cells that live in your colon actually outnumber the entirety of your human cells by 10 times.

Your gut and brain communicate in two main ways:

• Through the vagus nerve – it’s the longest nerve in your body, extending from skull to your stomach. The vagus nerve is communicates both sensory information and movement commands. As it lines such a large section of your body, the vagus nerve has many functions, including the stimulation of the muscles in your heart to make it beat. But the vagus nerve also stimulates the movement of your gut in order to digest food.
  Your gut also uses the vagus nerve to send information up to your brain. The brainstem of the vagus nerve interacts with your hypothalamus and limbic system which then controls the regulation of your emotions. This is why there are studies done on anxiety & depression being higher in people with gut-health issues.

• Through hormones. Your gut microbiome also has a say in triggering the release of hormones or producing them. The bacteria can communicate with your nervous system, and certain types affect your production of serotonin. By reducing your serotonin levels, the gut bacteria can interfere with your sleep. Your brain and your guts can enter a vicious circle when it comes to sleep, as poor sleep can have a bad effect on your gut health.

As you can see, the gut-brain-sleep connection goes both ways. If you have a few days of bad sleep it will ultimately start to impact your gut-health and, if continuous, spread to your overall health. Likewise, if you’re dealing with poor gut-health you might find that your sleep is lacking as well. This can be the start of a never-ending cycle that will only continue to worsen unless you become aware of it and take action.

How to improve your gut-health & sleep:

1. Eat foods that support a healthy microbiome & aids in the production of melatonin (the hormone that helps us fall asleep:

What to eat: Walnuts & almonds, green leafy vegetables, fish & seafood, variety of good fats, bone broth, Vitamin D supplement
What to avoid: refined sugars, caffeine, dark chocolate (because of the caffeine), heavy & greasy food, alcohol.

In order for us to produce melatonin, we have to produce serotonin which is an important building-block in melatonin itself. And as we’ve learnt, serotonin is the ‘feel-good’ hormone that is also produced in the gut. It’s all linked.

2. Regulate your circadian rhythm:

As humans, we work on an internal body-clock. This clock or righteously, Circadian Rhythm, is what determines our sleep, wake-up times, when we eat and even our cognitive skills (memory, orientation, attention etc.).

Interestingly, research is now beginning to show that our microbiome has a cycle of its own, which is generally synced up with our circadian rhythms. Disruptions in our own rhythm, in turn, affect the rhythm of our microbiome. This can impact the balance of our microbial friends and cause gut disturbances.

What to do:

– Shut off your TV & Phone at least an hour before bed. The light from the screen of your computer, tablet or phone is blue spectrum light, and it’s particularly dangerous because it tells the brain to stop producing melatonin.

– Create a peaceful bedroom where you can relax and rewind. Keep phones out of the bedroom if you’re one of those who have a hard time letting it go, and sleep with only light blinds so that the sun can naturally wake you up as it rises.

– Use the help of lavender – either fresh or as an aromatic oil – to make you feel relaxed. Or have a warm tonic of some relaxing Ashwaghanda or Holy Basil (adaptogens) to help you de-stress before bedtime. Chamomile-tea will do the trick too.

3. Relax your stressed brain & gut:

Chances are you’re a bit of a stress-head, but then again, who isn’t in this day & age we live in? It’s sometimes hard to get it all done, and as emotional beings, we take a lot of stresses home with us.

What to do:

– Have a magnesium bath & use magnesium gel to help you relax. Magnesium is absorbed much more efficiently through the skin than taking it orally, so combining a magnesium bath + a magnesium spray afterward on your gut can really do wonders for a good sleep.

– Write down your worries & concerns and then leave them in your diary. Ask yourself; will this really matter if I don’t deal with it right now? Alternatively ask yourself; will this really matter or have an impact on me in 1, 3, 5 years time? We tend to get too caught up in the moment, so take a breath and realise that (most) things aren’t as important as we make them out to be in our heads.

– Go for a light walk around the block after dinner. It can really help your mind to connect with nature but it will also help your digestion to move a bit around before bed-time. If we eat too much and our digestion is a bit sluggish, sleeping with an overfull tummy won’t help our sleep. So, if you can, walk barefoot around the block, and give yourself time to breathe.

– Have an evening-meditation, breathing exercise or stretch. Sitting in stillness and/or stretching your body lightly before bedtime can help reduce stress and bring your heart-rate down enormously. Incorporating a few yin-poses before bedtime can even help signal to your brain that it’s time to hit the ZzZz-button.

Happy Snoozing xx

The post Why Sleep & Gut-Health Impacts Each Other + Tips To Improve Both. appeared first on Anna Høgh Groth.

A lot of you have frequently asked me what I’m eating on this Gut-Health Diet I’ve been on for 2,5 weeks now, so I thought I’d share a collective look into my ‘Day On A Plate‘, but just the Gut-Health Version.

Remember that I’m working together with a qualified Clinical Nutritionist & Gut-Health Specialist on this, so if you are experiencing gut-health issues or other health issues, then I suggest you liaise with a professional first and draw inspiration from this.

Morning:

As I wake up I start my day with Raw Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar + 1/2 Fresh Lemon + Water & drink that before heading off to training. With me I bring a 500ml water bottle with 15ml Chlorophyll.

Breakfast is by far my favourite meal of the day, and I enjoy cooking it at home.

For breakfast I have:

• 2 free-range eggs fried in coconut oil. (If your stomach is really sensitive try to cook the white completely)
• Steamed veggies seasoned w/ salt&pepper, turmeric, flaxseed oil & pepitas/hemp seeds (zucchini, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, brussels sprouts, green beans)
• 1/2 avocado
• 3 roasted cherry tomatoes
• Small pieces of smoked salmon-fillet
• 1 tsp Hummus (some tummies might not like this, so be careful)

This breakfast will keep me full for about 3-4 hours, but we’re all different, so please eat when you’re hungry. Some days I’ll eat more, some days less. My aim is to eat mindfully and intuitively.

After my breakfast I have my Calcium-D-glucarate + Glutagenics + Enzymes.

Lunch:

For lunch I like to keep the majority of my plate full of vegetables and normally without animal-protein, however sometimes I do have some tinned salmon if I feel like it.

Again, I’ll try to focus on the good vegetables that I can have – I cannot have starchy vegetables or grains at the moment, so I fill up on cruciferous veggies a lot which I adore.

I like to make a stirfry of:

• 1/2 zucchini, sliced
• 3 florets of broccoli
• 3 florets of cauliflower
• 2 mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 red capsicum, sliced
• 1/4 cup of red cabbage, sliced
• 1/4 cup of white cabbage, sliced
• 3 stalks of kale, torn
• 5 snowpeas, sliced
• Homemade Guacamole or Avocado
• Sesame Oil & Sesame Seeds
• Spices of choice
• Salt & Pepper
• Coconut Oil
• Lemon

Just add coconut-oil to a hot pan and stirfry it all until soft, but with a bite to it. Add your preferred herbs; I like turmeric for anti-inflammatory properties & fennel-seeds. Add to a bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds, sesame oil, add avocado & lemon.

After this I’ll have another round of Calcium-D-glucarate + Enzymes.

Afternoon:

This is normally when my cravings set-in for something sweet or hearty. As I am also trying my best to cut out sugar & fructose I’m a little bit limited, however that said, if I really crave it, I’ll have something like Pineapple, an apple or a piece of 100% raw Cacao which you can get from a good health-food shop (make sure they don’t add fruit-sweetener or anything artificial)

I also like to take myself up to Orchard Street and treat myself for a cup of Raw Cacao + Espresso tonic with some herbs that’ll be made on homemade cashew & coconut milk (without any sweetener).

Sometimes I’ll make a raw cacao at home, myself. All you need is 1/2 cup of nutmilk, 1/2 cup of boiling water, 1 tbsp raw cacao, liquid stevia & 1/2 tsp maca. Heat the milk and add to a blender along with the rest of the ingredients and blend on high for 5 seconds. It’ll be nice, creamy & thick. Perfect treat to enjoy.

Night:

For dinner I keep it simple again. This diet is really about dialling it back to basics. It’s about cutting out processed & shelf-stable items that just aren’t fresh and in a whole-foods format.

I normally cook up a stirfry again or make a green salad with a piece of crispy-skin salmon or crispy-skin barramundi. I always buy fresh fish from the fish-butcher and I always buy it on the day I’ll eat it. I can also have something like tempeh, tofu, chicken or meat, but I don’t really like meat & chicken much, so I stick to fish or plant-based meals all together.

That said, I do like a bolognese sometimes, so the other night I cooked Pash and I a bolognese and made zucchini noodles instead of spaghetti as I can’t have gluten, starches or grain as I mentioned before. I am also completely dairy-free.

I always make sure I have good fats for dinner as well as I find myself being more satisfied and I sleep better without feeling heavy.

Notes:

• I add ACV to most of my meals and splash it on top of food as it helps to my digestive system break down the fibre easier.
• For snacks I also have lots of nut-butters, nuts and tahini.
• I completely avoid eating raw vegetables as its too harsh for my digestion.
• I drink chlorophyll throughout the day
• I enjoy teas like Earl Grey, Peppermint, Chamomile, Licorice etc.
• I’ve started having a tiny bit of starches like 1/4 cup of sweet potato or cooked quinoa if I really crave it.
• I incorporate lots of bitter vegetables to encourage hydrochloric acid production (stomach acid) to help breakdown the food I’m are eating for proper digestion and absorption.

You can read more about my Gut-Health Supplements here & about my ACV Ritual here.

Love, Anna xx

The post My Day On A Plate – Gut-Health Reset Version. appeared first on Anna Høgh Groth.

Thanks for tuning in once again to keep me company on my – what seems – never-ending journey to restoring my gut back to a healthy, functioning and pain-free state. Something that I’ve been chasing for many, many years and many, many moons, but now, it seems we might have a breakthrough.

About 1,5 months ago I was led to a beautiful woman called Katherine Hay. She was recommended to me through a dear friend of mine, but naturally, I was hesitant because I’ve been through the mill of medical professionals and natural therapists through the years and my hope was swindling by the day.

However, I was still determined to give it another go, to try and speak with Katherine to see if she could help me figure out why I’m lethargic, fatigued, hormonal, anxious, depressed, bloated, in pain and so much more.

From the instant I met Katherine – on FaceTime because she’s in Byron and I’m in Sydney #YayTechnology – I felt at ease, safe and very connected with her energy and beliefs.

After our consult I felt like I potentially could figure out what was wrong with me, and for the first time – maybe ever – I had a person who believed in my symptoms, who believed my pain and wanted to help me.

The Test:

Fast forward a few weeks, and I did a stool-test. It’s very easy and I did it in the comfort of my own home. Basically the lab, in which Katherine had booked in my stool test at, sent me a home-kit and it all goes through the mail (don’t worry, it’s not that gross) – 3 weeks later you have your test-results back.

Now, I’m not at the liberty to be able to do extended blood-tests and more tests purely because I just can’t afford the money-aspect of it. The stool-test itself was already $390AUD, however, truly all the money worth (and more!).

I received a comprehensive analysis from the stool-test that showed a multitude of things like; whether I had parasites, candida or yeast (negative), overgrowth of certain bacterias (positive), remnants of food in my stool (positive), poor digestion (positive), not producing stomach-acid (positive), re-cycling of hormones (massively positive!) and much more.

By looking at these results, we could now actually target the problems within my gut and body.

For the first time in 14 years, I felt relieved. Relieved that it wasn’t only on my head that I was “sick”. Relieved that someone believed in me (Katherine), relieved that I potentially could be pain-free and live a free life. I balled my eyes out most of that day. It was tears of happiness though.

So, how do I heal my body?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

Katherine and myself both wholeheartedly believe in ‘Food is Medicine’ and want to treat my body that way. Antibiotics, and conventional medicine played a large role as to why I’m even like this in the first place, so the thought of having to go back to that isn’t appealing to me what.so.ever.

Because of the different overgrowth of bacteria in my gut and how they literally feed of certain types of foods – even healthy foods – I’m having to be on a bit of a restricted diet for the next 6-8 weeks.

The restricted diet means:

• No Starchy Vegetables (carrot, sweet potato, potato, peas, corn, beetroot, pumpkin, parsnip etc.)
• No Grains (bread, rice, barley, oatmeal, millet, pasta, crackers etc.)
• No Fructose (basically all fruits, honey, cane sugar, pastries, lollies etc.)
• No Dairy
• No Gluten

What CAN I eat:

• Loads of vegetables, especially those that are bitter as they’ll help produce more stomach acid for me (radish, endive, rocket, watercress, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale etc.)
• Protein (fish, seafood, lamb, chicken, red meat, eggs – although I’ll mainly keep it at fish, seafood & eggs as I’m not a fan of red meat & chicken much)
• Extremely limited Fruits (I can have a handful of berries here and there but very limited – blueberries, blackberries, raspberries)
• Sweets (chia seed pudding with nut-milks)
• Extremely limited grains (I can have about 1/2 cup of quinoa every 2nd day if I really need to)

Supplements I’m on:

• Probiotics
• Glutagenics (heal, seal & repair the gut)
• Enzymes (tablet after every meal to help with digestion)
• Calcium-D-Glucarate (to decrease the enzyme beta glucaronidase from my gut that re-activates oestrogen.)
• Collagen, Ashwagandha & Mucuna Pruriens (I’ve added these myself)

I’ve slowly eased into this diet last week, and I had my 1st day yesterday on this diet fully & wholeheartedly committed and last night; well, I had so much energy I couldn’t sleep (mindblown)

Katherine has mentioned that my tummy might get really bloated or it might not, but it’s a potential as the good and bad bacteria have a bit of a fight in my stomach whilst we basically starve out the bad bacteria that was previously being fed by the starch, grains, fructose etc.

***DISCLAIMER: I wan’t to reassure you that there is nothing wrong with grains, fructose and starchy vegetables if your body is thriving on them. I would like to re-introduce some of these items once my gut is hopefully healed and back to normal. That is my hope and wish for myself, to live a life fully free from being ruled by food, but I also want to feel the very best me and heal, hence why this diet is currently necessary for me.

Thank you for following my journey. I’ll continue to share my learnings & how I’m feeling,
what progress or set-backs I might have, as I go along the way.

Also, you can see more about Katherine here.

Love your GUTS, Anna xx 

The post My New Gut Health Journey – Part 1. appeared first on Anna Høgh Groth.