↑

April J Harris

Family, Travel, Food and Style from April J Harris of The 21st Century Housewife.

Meet April Contact Subscribe Blog Disclosure Privacy
  • Home
  • Recipe Index
    • Appetizers
    • Breakfast
    • Comfort Food
    • Desserts
    • Gluten Free
    • Main Dishes
    • One Pot Meals
    • Pasta
    • Sauces
    • Side Dishes
    • Slow Cooker
  • Home & Lifestyle
  • Style
  • Travel
  • Restaurants

5 Ways to Nourish Your Gut

January 31, 2019 by April Harris 7 Comments

Share31
Pin11
Tweet
Email
+1
42 Shares

It's important to nourish your gut to create a healthy microbiome, but learning how can be confusing. Don't miss these 5 Easy Ways to Nourish Your Gut!
A healthy gut is a key part of good physical and mental health. It’s important to nourish your gut to create a healthy microbiome, but with all the talk about prebiotics, probiotics, fermented foods and more, it can be very hard to figure out how. I’m sharing 5 easy ways for you to nourish your gut later in this post, but first I want to share my experience at Fearless in the Kitchen!

Disclosure: I have not been paid for this post, but I was gifted with the Nourish Your Gut workshop by Fearless in the Kitchen. As always, I am sharing my honest, personal opinions. Full Disclosure Policy

Nourish Your Gut Workshops at Fearless in the Kitchen

Recently I attended a Nourish Your Gut Workshop at Fearless in the Kitchen, Jen Roach’s Berkshire cooking school, set in her beautiful home near Warfield. I learned a huge amount about keeping your gut healthy from Jen and her guest speaker Jenny Tschiesche, of The Lunchbox Doctor. Jen then taught us how to make homemade kimchi and lots of other wonderful recipes that were both healthy and delicious.

It's important to nourish your gut to create a healthy microbiome, but learning how can be confusing. Don't miss these 5 Great Ways to Nourish Your Gut!

Our Day at Fearless in the Kitchen

When we arrived at 10.30am, we were served coffee or tea, along with White Potato, Spring Onion and Feta Breakfast Muffins made with buckwheat flour. I would never have thought to make muffins from leftover cooked potatoes and I was pleasantly surprised by just how delicious these savoury treats were. We then learned a bit about the benefits of fermented food, before making our choice of kimchi or sauerkraut to take home.

It's important to nourish your gut to create a healthy microbiome, but learning how can be confusing. Don't miss these 5 Easy Ways to Nourish Your Gut!

After a mid-morning snack of Aubergine, Carrot and Cannellini Bean Hummus, marinated Labneh cheese, and a gorgeous Miso Salmon Pate, along with crackers and flatbreads, we divided into groups to make lunch.

It's important to nourish your gut to create a healthy microbiome, but learning how can be confusing. Don't miss these 5 Great Ways to Nourish Your Gut!

The menu included Jackfruit Tacos with Corn Salsa, Saffron Cauliflower with Apricots and Pistachio, and Harissa Baked Peppers served with quinoa. Jen had also made some Falafel with red lentils, chickpeas and pea flour.

It's important to nourish your gut to create a healthy microbiome, but learning how can be confusing. Don't miss these 5 Great Ways to Nourish Your Gut!

From top left, clockwise, we have Harissa Baked Peppers, Saffron Cauliflower, Corn Salsa, and Jackfruit Taco filling. Jackfruit really does taste like pulled pork, especially in the flavourful barbecue sauce it was cooked in. Instead of tacos, we had pea flour pancakes as taco shells. They were absolutely delicious!

Jen and Jenny are both lovely and the whole atmosphere at Fearless in the Kitchen is very convivial and supportive. I thoroughly enjoyed the day. We departed at 2.30pm with our own containers of the kimchi or sauerkraut to ferment at home, a jar of preserved lemons that will be ready to use in about a month, and some of the food we had made. I also came away with new kitchen skills and a much broader knowledge of how to nourish my gut and stay healthy.

You can find out more about Fearless in the Kitchen here. Classes are small, with 3 to 8 people attending, and sell out fast. Don’t miss out!

It's important to nourish your gut to create a healthy microbiome, but learning how can be confusing. Don't miss these 5 Great Ways to Nourish Your Gut!

5 Ways to Nourish Your Gut

1. Prioritise Vegetables

When meal planning, my of us think first about the meat, fish or protein we are building our meals round. Ideally, you want to turn this premise around completely and think first about the vegetable element of any meal. Once you have determined a vegetable dish, you can then serve the meat, fish or protein as an accompaniment, not as the main event.

2. Ditch the Ready Meals and Processed Food

Although there is a time and place for ready prepared food, the closer food is to its natural state when you eat it, the better. Even “Gluten Free” and “Vegan” ready meals may not be as healthy as we think. Cook from scratch where possible, using fresh, unprocessed ingredients. It’s easier than you think. Try my Easy Vegetarian Orzotto with Mediterranean Vegetables or Easy Vegetable and Cashew Stir Fry. Either can be served as a stand-alone meal, or as an accompaniment to a small serving of chicken or fish.

3. Eat Fibre Rich Foods for Prebiotics

While many of us are trying not to eat too many carbohydrates, it’s really important not to eliminate fibre from our diets. Fruit and vegetables are rich sources of fibre. Garlic, onions, leeks, brassicas (cabbage, Brussels sprouts) and legumes are also rich sources of prebiotics.

Resistant starches help with prebiotic formation as well. You can make starches more resistant by heating and cooling foods. For example, trying making Potato Salad with potatoes which have been heated and cooled. Keep the skins on for extra nutrition and fibre. Cooking and cooling pasta and grains has the same effect. Salads using cooked pasta and cooked cooled grains are a great way enjoy foods containing resistant starches.

4. Eat Fermented Foods

Fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles, kefir, yogurt (be sure it’s not too high in sugar!), miso, kombucha and pickles are rich sources of probiotics. Fermented foods can improve digestion, increase our immunity and help us maintain a healthy weight.

5. Reduce Your Sugar Intake

Sugar can decrease the amount of good bacteria in your gut. This can then cause you to crave more sugar, which can cause inflammation in the body. Inflammation can make you feel generally unwell, with lots of digestive issues. Very high levels of inflammation is also believed to be a cause of more serious diseases.

Learning more about how to nourish our guts can lead to lots of benefits including improved digestion, sleep and all round good health. Just a few small changes can make all the difference. You can learn more at the Nourish Your Gut courses at Fearless in the Kitchen.

Disclaimer: This post is not intended as medical advice. You should always consult your doctor before making any health changes. No information on this site should be relied upon to determine diet or treatment for a medical condition.

More Healthy Living Posts

5 Healthy Eating Tips That Helped Me Lose Weight and Feel Healthier

How To Lose Weight and Keep It Off

An Occasional Vegetarian – The Easy Way to Eat Less Meat

Share31
Pin11
Tweet
Email
+1
42 Shares

Filed Under: Healthy Living, Life Tagged With: cookery workshops, fearless in the kitchen, healthy eating, nourish your gut

Previous article:
« Caramel Croissant Pudding
Next article:
Easy Make Your Own Take Away Recipes »

Comments

  1. Pauline Wiles says

    February 2, 2019 at 12:18 am

    Sounds like a fascinating day! These recipes and ideas would definitely get me out of my comfort zone…

    Reply
    • April Harris says

      February 2, 2019 at 12:04 pm

      It really was, Pauline! I must admit, at first I did feel a bit out of my comfort zone with some of the recipes. They tasted so good though, my comfort zone has expanded 🙂

      Reply
  2. Angela Johnson says

    February 5, 2019 at 6:12 pm

    April, this was very interesting. I suffer from Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue. I am always on the hunt for ways to decrease inflammation and help with other symptoms. I cut out refined carbs 3 years ago, because of the Fibro in my stomach. I am now looking to decrease sugar as much as possible. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for sharing this post. I definitely got some ideas from it.

    Reply
    • April Harris says

      February 6, 2019 at 2:03 pm

      I’m so glad you enjoyed the post, Angela, and I really hope it helps. Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue are definitely very challenging things to deal with. I’ve read a lot about how decreasing inflammation in the body can help, but I regret to say I don’t have enough experience to offer much advice. I would definitely recommend clicking through the link in my blog post to Jenny Tschiesch, The Lunchbox Doctor’s website. She seems to have a lot of recipes, and I know that she has written a book on gut health called Gut Health and Probiotics. However I don’t know if she specifically deals with the issues you are concerned with in the book, so do check it out before ordering. I do have a real interest in gut health so I hope to explore it more in the future and I will definitely share anything I learn. Best wishes x

      Reply
  3. Claire Justine says

    February 9, 2019 at 10:03 pm

    Sounds like a great event April. I love learning new things about health and food. Food looks tasty 🙂

    Thanks for sharing at Creative Mondays, hope you can join us again at another party soon.

    Reply
    • April Harris says

      February 12, 2019 at 11:49 am

      Thank you, Claire! I’m a bit less organised this week as I’m getting ready for a trip, but I hope to join you at your Welcome to the Weekend Blog Hop on Friday 🙂 Have a lovely week!

      Reply
  4. clairejustine says

    February 9, 2019 at 10:04 pm

    Sounds like a great event April. I love learning new things about health and food. Food looks tasty 🙂

    Thanks for sharing at Creative Mondays, hope you can join us again at another party soon.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

My mission is to inspire you to expand your horizons both at home and away. Join me for delicious home cooking, travel and style.

WANT TO KEEP UP WITH ALL THE LATEST?

subscribe to the newsletter!

Search

Pinterest

Instagram

Follow on Instagram

Grab Our Buttons

April J Harris of the 21st Century Housewife

The Hearth And Soul Link Party
Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100

search

archives

categories

Copyright ©2019, April J Harris. All Rights Reserved.
Design by Pixel Me Designs


April J Harris & The 21st Century Housewife are registered trade marks of April J Harris in the United Kingdom
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy