Ways to improve your gut health

Written by Ingrid Laurence for Australian Seniors

Australian celebrity chef, and close friend of Jamie Oliver, Tobie Puttock believes that healthy eating is all about balance. As he tells host James Valentine on the fifth season of the award-winning podcast from Australian Seniors, Life’s Booming: Is This Normal?, one of his key missions is to get the balance right between great tasting food and healthy eating – benefiting the gut at the same time. 

“Being in food for my career, with my whole life revolving around food, I see things jumping in and out of fashion and gut health has been a huge, fashionable topic for a long time,” says Tobie. But now he’s seen it move beyond fashion or fad into the realm of fact. “People accept that your gut is super important and eating the right foods and gut health really can make a huge difference to your life.”

His interest in gut health is personal, dating back to when he first got together with his wife, Georgia. “My wife, when we first met, was very controlled by her stomach issues, all tied in with the gut. She had food poisoning when she was younger so badly she was hospitalised for a few days (not from my cooking – I didn’t know her at this stage!) and it really screwed her gut up. 

“So, I remember for the first about three or four years of our relationship, everything was dictated by her IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). I didn’t really understand, I’d never met anyone with such an issue before. And we’d have dinner plans, we’d be all ready to go and suddenly her stomach would start to feel uncomfortable, and we’d have to cancel dinner.”

Happily, when the couple moved back to Australia from the UK, they sought professional help, adjusted Georgia’s diet, and she no longer suffers from IBS. Tobie has also transformed their cooking at home, focusing on fermented foods and leafy greens and foods that help improve the health of your skin and hair. “Fermented foods are fantastic, I do a lot of fermenting. We have a lot of robust greens, lots of cavolo nero, Tuscan kale, brussels sprouts and all the good stuff there.”

How to improve your gut health – Tobie’s way 

Creating a sustainable diet

He has one irrefutable rule. “My main thing is making things taste good. Which is what I wanted to do with my book, The Chef Gets Healthy, which was about making everyday food. Because I think as a society, we tend to look for easy answers to big problems. I remember at one stage, the fried southern chicken burgers were trendy. And then on the other end of the scale, you had these really super hardcore diets like the paleo diets. And I always think that the answers lie somewhere in the middle. You don’t need to go to these extremes.”

Instead, the couple devised their own gut health diet. “My wife gave me this amazing list of all the things we can have as much as we want of, things we should never have, and things we can have in moderation. And we started cooking from that list. 

“We had a total diet overhaul cutting out all processed foods. And I don’t want to say that kale saved our life, but it kind of did a little bit. I lost probably 6kg of body fat, my wife lost 10kg, and she wasn’t big to begin with.”

Another of Tobie’s good-eating tips is to buy the best-quality ingredients that you can afford. “It’s about balance for me. I still have Cadbury chocolate in the fridge. I love that stuff, but it’s about the majority of the time, eating as well as you can. If you look at all the oldest living people in the world, without gut issues, they’re eating very natural foods. They’re in the Mediterranean, they’re in Japan and they’re just eating a lot of good produce.” 

Understanding gut health in your older years

How does your gut health change as you age?

Sarah Di Lorenzo, a clinical nutritionist, TV presenter and author of The Gut Repair Plan, explains what is going on with our gut as we hit our 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. “A lot is happening. Our gut ages,” she says. “We don’t produce as much saliva as we used to. In your 50s, you go and eat a big, processed meal and you really do feel it.

“People don’t produce as much of the digestive enzymes, like lactase,” she continues. “So, people notice things like, ‘I just don’t really seem to process dairy like I did when I was young’. There are also swallowing issues, chewing. People tend to change their diet as they’re older. If they’ve got things like dentures or dental issues, it can start right from there.”

Sarah adds that the gut microbiome – the collection of bacteria, fungi and viruses in the intestine – also changes as we age. Many of the bacteria plays a vital role in digestion and health. “I’m just in awe of our gut, I’m so impressed by it. Our gut bacteria weigh two kilos. But we do need to take care of them.” 

Diversity in your diet

Embracing foods with good bacteria

“Our gut bacteria love, love, love diversity in our diet, but as people age, they don’t create that diversity. We tend to eat the same things every day and don’t eat a lot [of variety]. Now, that’s one of the biggest problems. As you age, it’s really important to make sure that you’ve got that diversity to feed that good bacteria in our gut.”

She particularly recommends foods rich in prebiotics and fibre. “Things like asparagus, apples, onions, garlic, oats, sourdough, leek, Jerusalem artichoke. All are excellent foods that we should be eating. A little test is make sure you’re eating 30 different plant species over the course of the week.”

Ultimately, she says, you’re never too old to take charge of your gut health. “Reassess your health, stay on top of it, go for diversity, plants, hydration, exercise, sleep well. It’s never too late.”