FIX MY BELLY

Physical Activity and Diet

While we’re going to discuss various ways to manage and deal with leaky gut (or other digestive issues), the term “treatment” has to be used loosely. This is because there isn’t a clear-cut answer on complete treatment yet as we are still in the early stages of understanding the illness itself. 

Also, because of the lack of information available, treatment depends heavily on proper diagnosis. For instance, many people may claim to have “cured” their leaky gut, however, it’s possible that they eliminated dairy from their diet and were actually lactose-intolerant, which then, reduced their symptoms. 

All that said, even if you’re able to find management techniques, you may find that your life can improve significantly.

Exercise

As a general rule, incorporating physical activity in your life is encouraged as part of healthy living. However, when it comes to a leaky gut, you may have to take a few things into consideration due to the condition of your digestive system. In fact, based on how long you’ve had leaky gut and your age, you may already know your limitations (if any). First, what do you currently do for physical activity?

For example, if you're an athlete who has had leaky gut issues for some time now, you probably know your limitations. That said, you may still benefit from some of the takeaways here. On the other hand, if you live a more sedentary type of lifestyle, then the recommendations below may be more useful for you.

Exercise has been shown to improve gut bacteria by helping with diversity and motility (Source). This makes sense because the more you move, the more you move things around in your body, which...helps you go!

Depending on your symptoms, you may benefit from certain stretches for your leaky gut as well.

To understand and apply exercise in our lives, we have to remain cognizant of our digestive health. It helps to filter exercise by intensity levels.

Exercise intensity can be categorized into 3 main areas (low, medium, and high). The table below shows examples of each intensity-level of exercise.

Low Intensity	Medium Intensity	High Intensity
Spending 10-30 minutes walking at a regular pace	Weight-lifting	Running at a fast pace
A few swimming laps at a regular pace	Jogging	Jumping rope
Tai-chi	Cycling	Elliptical at a fast pace
Yoga	Dancing	Stair-climbing

One thing to note: any exercise program that requires high energy to perform activities, with short resting periods, and often until exhaustion is defined as high-intensity, and high-intensity has been known be very stressing on the bodies of those with digestive issues.

Again, this is different for everyone. However, as a general case, the recommendation is to start with low intensity exercises. This could just be a 20-minute walk in the afternoon.

Then, you will want to gradually progress to medium intensity and ultimately, try out some high-intensity exercise.

Please note that this does not mean that you need to exercise at a high intensity for your gut health to see benefits. In fact, this may even be detrimental at times. As we saw in our l-glutamine post, excessive physical activity can reduce glutamine levels in your body.

 

The most important thing is that you get physically active (whatever this means for you). Working through the intensity levels should be viewed as a more general fitness goal (if you decide that it’s for you).

As a final note before we dive into the diets, is that, generally speaking, if you’re able to maintain a physically active lifestyle (as best as you can), and stay in shape, you are in the best position to combat a digestive disorder.

Diets for Leaky Gut

Many of those who suffer from digestive disorders have cited several diets as helpful. It's important to remember the reason why this is the case. When it comes to leaky gut or digestive health, there is no one-size-fits-all. Every "body" is different.

That said, the diet you will need should meet the following four criteria:

1. Maximizes nutrition
2. Minimizes symptoms
3. Relatively cost-effective
4. Helps you maintain a healthy and fit body

Generally speaking, by definition, if you’re only selecting foods in your diet which maximize your nutrition, it’ll be significantly easier to maintain a healthy and lean body. Naturally, if foods are meeting all four of these criteria, they are going to be gut healing foods for you. 

Diets for "leaky gut" will be similar to diets for any digestive disorders (such as a diet for IBS, or an ulcer diet) because we're targetting the digestive system and learning how to heal your gut. As such, we’ll look at some popular diets for gut issues.

As mentioned earlier in this guide, before you start any diets, you want to make sure all of your tests are complete. This is because they might provide you a sense of any allergies or intolerances. For instance, if you test positive for celiac disease, then you already know that you’ll need to avoid gluten.

Finally, many people find that leaky gut supplements and herbs help their leaky gut symptoms.

That said, you'll want to have a diet plan first as a foundation before looking into supplements and this is what will be covered for the rest of this guide. Through this journey, you'll learn how to heal your gut.

While we previously discussed the types of foods you want to avoid, here are some popular diets for leaky gut below.

FODMAPs

FODMAPs stand for:

• Fermentable
• Oligosaccharides
• Disaccharides
• Monosaccharides
• And
• Polyols

While this definition might sound daunting, it’s very straightforward! FODMAPs are basically types of carbs, which can cause irritation and symptoms for some people.

As such, many individuals have seen improvements in their Leaky Gut symptoms by following a low-FODMAP diet.

One thing to note here is that experts suggest that a low-FODMAP diet be only followed for a short-period of time. Generally, this is anywhere from two to six weeks.

Fiber

Fiber and digestive health can become very interesting and complex. This is because some people can introduce a high-fiber diet and see benefits in their symptoms, while others may see them worsen. In addition, some can follow a low-fiber diet, and also see improvements in their digestive health, while this can be disastrous for someone else.

Generally speaking, the people who benefit from a high-fiber diet mainly suffer from constipation, while the people who benefit from a low-fiber diet mainly suffer from diarrhea. All this said, in keeping with the theme at Fix My Belly, you’ll want to try both approaches and determine how you react.

Keto

The ketogenic diet (or called “keto”) is a low-carb and high-fat diet.

The idea is that if you restrict carbs, your body will not have enough glucose to use as energy and when this happens, your body creates an acid called ketones. Basically, this means that your body is using fat instead of carbs as fuel.

Studies have shown that a carb-limiting diet can be very beneficial for several ailments and diseases, including leaky gut (Source). By definition, many people reduce/eliminate dairy and gluten from their diets, which are known to be problematic for some. If you benefit from excluding all these types of food, then you'll be left with gut healing foods that work for you.

In addition, many have found the keto diet to be anti-inflammatory, which also helps promote weight loss.

That said, we must also look at the caveats. For some people who suffer from digestive issues, a high-fat diet may take some time for the body to adjust, and it's possible that it may not suit them at all because foods high in fats can be triggering.

Paleo

If you’ve ever heard someone say that they’re following a diet which is similar to “how we’re supposed to eat” or like “we did thousands of years ago,” chances are that you’re talking to someone who’s following the paleo diet!

In a nutshell (no pun intended), a paleo diet mainly consists of meats, vegetables, nuts, and seeds.

In the paleo diet, you restrict or avoid dairy, grains, sugars, and legumes.

Generally speaking, removing dairy, grains, and sugars is consistent across a few diets for leaky gut and removing these should be beneficial.

However, similar to other diets, you should be exploratory with the paleo diet as well and see if it works for you. This is because as you will see, diets are subjective.

For example, many people are reactive to vegetables and nuts. In this case, the paleo diet no longer applies. On the other hand, some people have no issues with dairy and therefore would lose out on the nutritional content from these products unnecessarily.

Vegan

Veganism is a fairly popular diet. Even if you don’t have any gastrointestinal issues or leaky gut, you probably have heard of this diet. For many, it can even be considered a lifestyle.

Veganism means avoiding all food derived from animals - this includes dairy, meats, and eggs.

At this point, you’ve probably come to recognize the theme when it comes to diets: different people will react to different things. The vegan diet is a prime example here. There are various personal accounts and studies where people have seen improvements in their gut health from a vegan diet (Source).

On the other hand, there are also people who have publicly voiced that the vegan diet was very detrimental to their gut health (Source).

Carnivore

The carnivore diet is exactly what it sounds like - you eat like a carnivorous animal! This means that you eat only animal products - this means you may only consume meat, eggs, fish, and some dairy.

Generally, for most people, this diet may not appear “healthy” or optimal for a variety of reasons. For example, higher intakes of meats are said to have correlations with cardiovascular diseases and other illnesses such as gout. In addition, avoiding vegetables and fruits completely may restrict you from valuable vitamins and minerals. However, for some people, the carnivore diet has very beneficial as they believe that due to the body's way of digesting meat, it's a natural gut healing food which gives the digestive system a break. For example, famous podcaster Joe Rogan, did a carnivore diet for a month in early 2020 and reported positive results with reduced inflammation.

All this said, the idea of a carnivore diet is a relatively newer concept so there hasn’t been significant research just yet. For the reasons mentioned above, it’s possible that many dismiss it as a true “diet” and therefore, it’s given little scientific or medical attention.

How Shoud I Diet for Leaky Gut?

As mentioned above, there are several diet plans which a person may follow. To say that X diet plan is the best is wrong and not helpful. You will need to learn to work with and understand your body. Over time, you'll recognize which sorts of foods are the culprits.

You may also find that you slightly fit into one diet plan and slightly into another. For example, you may find that the FODMAPs diet is best for you. On the other hand, you may find that vegan tends to work best for you, but you’re able to incorporate salmon. This is fine. The goal isn't to commit to a  community, it's to better manage your symptoms while remaining healthy.

One should always aim for an anti-inflammatory diet. While it's obvious that most junk food may have inflammatory properties, your body will tell you how it reacts to various foods. It's for you to explore.

The visual below showcases how you want to find your anti-inflammatory diet plan. The goal is to test as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Then, you’ll have a foundational diet with gut healing foods.