Hi, all,
I am very new, my first sign-on and topic. I was going to start the re-booting…..my problem is chronic comstipation. Does this need a remove and repair stage, or just eat heaps more veges? My diet is pretty inconsistent and poor in fresh stuff.

For healthy/ ‘normal’ gut transit (occurring in part due to a healthy/ ‘normal’ gut flora) we need a *properly balanced and very varied* wholefood diet.

Vegetables are not more important nor more effective than other prebiotic rich food group in bulking the stool. We need a balance and wide variety of certain fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, beans, lentils, wholegrains.

If you move quickly from a low fibre diet to a moderate or high fibre diet, you are likely to experience unpleasant gut symptoms such as excessive gas, bloating and even pain, so might appear to be intolerant to many nutrient dense wholefoods!

The key aspect of overhauling the diet is the detailed food and symptom diary. This will show you which food groups and types you are overeating and which you are undereating. This is measured by portion size and portion number for each group or type.

If you feel confident you are not intolerant or allergic to cows dairy products or grains containing gluten AND have not been overemphasising them, you may not need to exclude or avoid them entirely.

An alternative to ‘Remove & Repair’ is to make healthier or gut friendlier swaps one-by-one in order to *slowly and steadily* increase the probiotic, prebiotic and other nutrient content of your diet.

So instead of cows milk or processed cheese you might have live goats milk yoghurt, homemade kefir, Roquefort blue cheese, barrel-aged Greek feta and Camembert de Normandie.

Instead of white potatoes you might have a selection of coloured root vegetables (rainbow
carrots, beetroot, purple yam, turnip, sweet potato).

Instead of branded breakfast cereal, you might have a ‘granola’ of seeds, coconut chips and cocoa nibs. On another morning a vegetable omelette or frittata, and another morning mixed grain muesli with frozen berries.

By swapping you are not overwhelming yourself with new foods and new recipes, sticking to the spirit of Clever Guts (working in stages, p. 190 + 193), can track with your food diary, allow your gut microbiome time to acclimatise.

HTH!