Her Discussions by Dr Faye - 6 Science-Backed Ways To Fix Your Gut | With a Microbiome Scientist

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Before you jump into today’s episode, fancy winning a book? 📚 Dr Emily is giving away a copy of ‘Fibre Power’ to one of you!To enter, share this episode to your Instagram Story and tag @herdiscussionspod. We’ll announce the winner next Monday 👀Have we made gut health way more complicated than it needs to be?This week, I’m joined by Dr Emily Leeming, a gut microbiome scientist at King’s College London and registered dietitian, to unpack the gut health advice that’s actually worth listening to.What you’ll learn:🍽️ The easiest way to hit 30g of fibre in a day🎈 The difference between normal and concerning bloating💩 What should healthy poo actually look like?🫃 Why a flat stomach isn’t a sign of a healthy gut🧬 The link between your hormones and your gut🥝 2 kiwi trick for constipation🩸 How does your menstrual cycle affect your gut?Resources & links mentioned:Dr Emily’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dremilyleeming/?hl=enDr Emily’s book ‘Fibre Power’ - https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/476519/fibre-power-by-leeming-dr-emily/9780241804520Poop Map App - https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/poop-map-pin-and-track/id1303269455🔔 Join the HERd* broadcast channel here: https://www.instagram.com/channel/AbY4liwxlLnewx4H/?igsh=MWhuaXFweGtucTB3cA==📱 Find us on socials:Instagram & Tiktok - @drfayebatePodcast Instagram & Tiktok: @herdiscussionspod📩 Want to reach out?Email: [e-mail]🛑 Disclaimers:Opinions are my own. This content is for educational / entertainment purposes and not medical or financial advice.

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Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for Calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Women are being sold so many ways to fix their gut, but how much of it is actually real? Today I'm asking Dr. Emily Leaming, a gut microbiome scientist at King's College London and registered dietitian, what women actually need to know about their gut, because understanding your symptoms should feel clearer than the wellness industry makes it. We're going to talk so much about bloating and gut health and practical ways that our listeners can improve their gut health. But first, your background is extremely interesting. because you went from working as a chef to working in gut health. And I'm very passionate about

making sure we discuss people's career routes because I know so many women who are listening to the podcast are ambitious women trying to find their own path. So can you tell me a little bit about how you've ended up where you are? Yeah, I have a very unconventional beginning to academia. And I never ever thought I was going to end up in research. There was never something that I even had in my brain and that that would happen. So I was a chef on Supiots. So I was travelling around the world. This is pre-Belodeck, but I feel like Below Deck has kind of, hopefully made all of us Yottis look good because it is a lot of hard work, but it's a lot of fun. So I did that. And then I just got really, really curious about the science of what I was

making. I kind of was like, oh, I'm seeing these kind of reactions happening in the pan. But actually, all of the reactions then happening in the body as well. And a lot of the clients who I were working for, they all were very interested in health. That was kind of my, my demographic, because I already had an undergraduate nutrition. And then, funnily enough, read a book on the gut microbiome, gut by Julia Enders, who's a gastroenterologist, never heard of the gut microbiome before, and was just fascinated that we've got this collection of microbes that we need to look after in our gut. I think for many of us, if we remember Tamagocchi's, it's kind of like that. We need to look after that. And that kind of really led me to go and do my masters as a dietitian in Australia. So I moved to Melbourne and did it there.

And then did a research internship at Kings while I was doing my master's in holidays. And then just got absolute got the bug for research. And I've been at Kings. You know, did my PhD there and the gut microbiome and nutrition. And yeah, currently there. And we're running the fibre study. Just to come back to your route, I think it's really interesting. When we talk about career paths, it's often described as you're either an architect or an explorer or an architect or a digger or something like that where you either design, you pre-plan and you plan out what your career is going to look like or you're a digger where you just dig a little bit, enjoy something, go, oh, I'll dig a little bit further and then go, oh, I don't actually enjoy that and dig in a different direction. And I think that from the sounds of it, your career seems like it was a

real digger where you just, you followed your curiosity and followed your passion. I think that's a wonderful message. It seems to be a lot of pressure to have it all figured out. And that can take away sometimes from just following what you're interested in. So that's really, really interesting. I would love to now talk about women's gut health specifically. And a particular pain point that we seem to have with a lot of the listeners is understanding what's going on in their gut can change throughout the course of the month. Could you explain a little bit about what happens then? Absolutely.

So our kind of sex hormones are obviously going up and down throughout our cycle. And these sex hormones are kind of telling our uterus, you know, are all, you know, to kind of get ready for certain events as if you were to maybe then have a baby. But those signals that it's then making to your uterus and all your other kind of female organs that are involved are also then, giving signals to your gut because it's so closely connected. So you have progesterone, which is going to help to kind of relax and tune down some of those signals that is in the aftermath of after

ovulation, so before your period starts. That tends to be a time that that kind of tuning down, that relaxing of the womb is also then relaxing of the gut muscles. So then that could lead for many people to have constipation for things to slow down because they're not getting, it's almost like a dial getting turned down on that responses and that communication that's happening. Then we get into, you know, the period starting itself and things change. That those signal noises get dialed up. So we've got different sex hormones happening. And again, that then shifts for the gut as well because things can then have moving very quickly. So things like period poos are then happening for many people. And then there might be

be some kind of gut discomfort as well. And it's really just a sign that that everything in the gut is connected to the rest of the body, that if one thing's happening somewhere, usually that's having some kind of effect elsewhere. But it does mean that for many people, there is changes that happen. And actually for 70% of women, there tends to be one kind of gut related symptom that's happening on a monthly basis. So it's very, very common. And what practical tips would you give to women who are really struggling with constipation, it may be towards the lucile phase and then just explosive period pews as they reach menstruation. I think firstly, just be aware that it is the time of the month and things are changing.

Because I think it can be really frightening when you suddenly think, oh gosh, what's happened if I just had something going on? But if you can just focus on just paying attention to yourself, looking after yourself, that's a bit of self-care, if that's maybe kind of relaxing, having a bath, you know, going for a walk, maybe wearing some more comfortable pants because we know that, for example, wearing really tight trousers can just make everything feel a lot more painful, especially if there's bloating. If you are struggling with constipation, I usually say, you know,

go for the Kiwis. Functional constip, if you have long-term constipation to Kiwis Day has some good evidence to show that it can help get things moving and you don't have to have the skin. The research is actually on skinless Kiwis. Stop! My God, no, because the first time my fiancé ate a kiwi with the skin on, I was horrified that he was eating the kiwi with the skin on. But then now I eat the kiwi with the skin on because I was like, well, and he said, well, you get the the furridge, you get the extra fibre.

So now I do eat the kiwi with the skin on after taking the Mick out of him. Is there not a significant reduction in the fibre content with the... It's more to say that I mean, I'm great, like glad if you're going to have the skin on because you are going to get that extra fibre. But I think for a lot of people, I think Kiwi is one of those ones that they're a bit like unsure. But if you really dislike the skin, which I think a lot of people do, it's just to kind of feel confident that you're still getting the benefits without the skin. And then the skin is as an added bonus.

Do you know what? That's a really important lesson, I think, in just health in general. You can take the option that's maybe not as optimized, but you still get part of the benefits. Yeah. There's no one to throw the baby out with the bath also. If you don't like to eat Kiwis with skin on, that doesn't. means mean you need to forego Kiwis completely, you know? Exactly. What is it about Kiwis that make them so, so good for constipation? They've got a certain kind of enzyme that kind of in them that

kind of helps things to kind of move through, but also there's got that wonderful fibre that's going to help to sort of soften everything. And that's what we really want to happen when you've got constipation. Things are a bit dry. They're slow to move through. So you want something that's going to help to kind of soften the poo that's in there so that everything can then get moving. And I would say if you're also thinking about what you're eating, it's also movement as well. It's really important. Because again, talking about how your muscles are then connected with the muscles in your gut and how food moves through your gut. It's a little bit like toothpaste moving through as you're squeezing it, going as if it was going through a pipe. So any kind of movement that you're doing is going to help almost kind of help send signals to support those gut muscles to move things through as well. So going for a walk in the kind of. of 30 minutes after a meal can also be really helpful. Visit BetMGM casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick.

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Ontario. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19 speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility and Optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary. Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle total registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. I've started doing that recently because there was a study about it being helpful for your blood sugar and I'm not saying that blood sugar spike shouldn't be feared but a walk after eating

can help soften it over time over like doing it regularly. So that's a habit that I've introduced recently so that's good to know. It's also good for my digestion as well. Another pain point that we had from the community was knowing how much blotin should be considered normal. So when would you advise anyone starts to worry maybe about blotin? Yeah, I think I think those women were so told that any kind of change in our kind of, you know, our stomach looking flat and not looking flat is a problem. And I really, really want to push back on that. Because I think when we eat a meal, that food has got to go somewhere. So quite often that stomach protruding a little bit, it's just simply that you've got a little bit of extra, you know,

that food is happening. And then a little bit of bloating can also just be a normal natural healthy sign. Your gut microbes that live in your large intestine. When you eat food, a lot of the time, the fibre, which is in those foods, so things like beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables are all really great sources of fibre. Your gut microbes love it. It's their favourite food and they will feed on it and they all make, yes, molecules for your health, but actually a side effect tends to be also producing gas. So actually having a little bit of gas sometimes in terms of that bloating kind of feeling could actually just be a normal, natural, healthy thing that's happening. What I would say is I want to separate that out to does it feel

painful? Because a lot of the time we see bloating is like related to having more kind of stomach pain on sensitivities. It might not actually be that you are producing more gas. It might just be that your nerves that around your gut are extra sensitive. So they're just picking up on pain signals in a really strong way that can feel really uncomfortable. So I would say if you're feeling that you're having bloating that isn't going down, that it's just staying around and sticking around most of the day, that you are feeling any kind of sign of discomfort with it. That would be when I would go into the doctor or talk to a dietitian. And usually for most people, it is diet and lifestyle fixes, a small tweaks that you can make to have that better. But also, yeah, let's not feel like

we have to have a straight, smooth belly all the time. That's just, you know, part of being a woman. Yeah, absolutely. Speaking about women's gut health specifically, there's emerging evidence about the Easter bloom. Could you tell us a little bit about what that is and what we do know and what maybe we don't know? Are you, the strabolome? Yes I was like Oh that's such a good word for it though Why do you say

Estrabolome? Astrobalome It's like A strabolome You know what I know No one's going to know with that I feel like Easterbloom sounds way better He sounds more

Estrobalo I was like fine I'm saying it wrong Yeah Could you tell us How did you say The Easterer I feel like I'm saying

I'm like estrubalome So effectively Yes It's kind of talking about The relationships Between your sex hormones and your gut microbiome. Eitogen in particular has this kind of strong relationship with your gut microbes.

They kind of have this tuning kind of back and forth where we think your gut microbes help to potentially support your estrogen levels, but also your estrogen levels then influence your gut microbiome. And one interesting thing, and this might be something that is, you know, I think we need to explore more particularly in menopause, is in menopause when you have flucturing levels of estrogen, that, you know, maybe it's something that, you know, looking after your gut microbes may able to kind of just temper those kind of peaks and troughs

happening. The way that they can be potentially supporting is that your gut microbes can help to almost like recycle some elements of the waste estrogen that comes into your gut. So this kind of waste estrogen is passed into your gut to just be removed from the body and the gut microbes can potentially be like, ah, hey, let's take these useful elements and that can then be absorbed back into the body to be then remade into estrogen. So there's some really interesting kind of nudges and insights here that I think we just need a lot more research to be like, can we use this as a specific strategy to help us? And it also whilst we're awaiting the research, there's no harm in trying to, you know, do bits and bobs for your gut to try and improve it. Improving your gut

health or putting more effort into understanding your gut health is not going to have negatives in other areas of your health. Before we come on to some practicals here, for understanding and looking after your gut health. We've got buy or bye-bye. So I'm going to show you something on this piece of paper and I would love to hear whether you would buy this thing or say bye-bye to it. There is only one rule.

We love nuance. There's never enough nuance on social media. So give all the context that you want. Oh, I don't want to hear the answers to this one. I don't want to hear the answers to this one. Poppy soda. So I would say it's, bye-bye, but with a caveat. I would say if you are somebody who really enjoys a fizzy drink,

then I do think like a kind of prebiotic fizzy drink is a good alternative. One of the contacts I want to give with that is we need to be eating 30 grams of fibre a day. It's really important for not just I've got microbes, but our heart health, our bowel cancer risk, so many different elements. And in the UK we're eating on average 16 grams. So the fact that there's two grams of fibre in products like this, I'm not against. I'm like a little bit as is always going to help. But I think there's way better ways that you could get it just in eating fruits and vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains. And it is, you know, still a fizzy drink. I think sometimes these things look like they're, you know, super super kind of health halo. So for most

people, I would say, bye-bye. We had another guest on who said a similar thing where if it's marketed as a health food, that's just not true. But if you're having it is like a instead of a diet Maybe it could be an upgrade from from that potentially, but maybe it's not it's not beneficial in itself. Would you agree with that? I wouldn't say necessarily for all any health food whatsoever, but I would say particularly for gut health because the claims tend to be. Actually, what's interesting, a lot of the products that are kind of gut health, it's actually the only claim that they can make for that is if they've added calcium to it. It's not actually because of the fibre, because we have certain health claims that you're allowed to make and they're very,

kind of restricted in terms of gut health. We haven't really had any new ones come in. So a lot of the products are the benefits, you know, not necessarily being clearly communicated and it's been oversold in terms of what they actually do. That's really interesting. I can't believe it's only two grams. God, I've been out of a hookline and syncing with that one. Food intolerance test.

That's an absolute bye-bye for me. And I hear this one so often and I've looked them up online and they look so fancy and scientific and I totally understand why someone might want to do a food intolerance test, I say please save your money. What they're doing is looking for something called an IGG response, which is really what you would just get. It's very normal to get for the foods that you would eat. It's not telling you that you're intolerant or that you have an allergy to them.

They're just going to give you a long list of foods that are going to make you feel completely overwhelmed and are not going to make any difference. And it actually might have a negative consequence because you're going to be cutting out all these things from your diet. What to do instead, please go see a dietitian. They can help walk you through hand in a very systematic way to check of what might be causing you any problems in your diet and give you solutions that work specifically for you. I find with a lot of these tests, they seem attractive. Like it would be wonderful if we all got handed, I don't know, like a manual essentially. It feels like they're selling as a manuals for our own body, but just the human body is just not that, not that simple.

and my dad did one of these, much to me advising against him. And then like you said, then he comes home and he cuts off a lot of things. But then he could eat like a gluten-free pork pie. And so then he just ate loads of gluten-free pork pies. And I was like, Dad, this is not healthy. But anyway, I will have to show my dad your answer. Gut cleanses. Bye-bye.

Your gut and your body is absolutely able to kind of push things through. and its own pace to kind of and sweep things out if it needs to. I would say also this can potentially be damaging because, you know, if we think, for example, if you're doing a juice cleanse, you're not then having the fiber, you're not having all the other kind of nutrients that your body needs to thrive. If you are doing a kind of, what's it called hydrotherapy water cleanse where things kind of get scooshed up and to kind of clear things out, you might feel lighter, but that's simply just kind of food waste being moved out and actually again you might be just sweeping out

some of your microbes with it that you really want to keep hold of so again not a good idea killing off this hamagocchi's yes hosing down this hamagocches castor oil packs bye bye again no evidence that they help with anything and I think yeah I would say probably just bye-bye to most stuff that tries to get their money their money from you I think it's just a complete waste of time. There's a lot of things that I didn't realize, don't realize the trends. I think if you end up on, like my algorithm probably knows what I'm interested in. And then someone sent me these castorial packs and I was like, I've never heard of them. And it, I don't know, it, it opens your eyes to what is being being sold. Raw carrot salad trend. I'm always going to say yes to carrot.

But whether we need to be chowing down on a thousand carrots a day, no, I'd rather. I'd rather we just all have everything in moderation, you know, that typical phrase. And no one food is going to be the cure all of all. It's, yes, great source of different nutrients, but have that in a salad, but lots of other things or like bake them, roast them, puree them and have it as a variety. Because again, if we go back to your gut microbiome, if we think about you might not like mushrooms, I love mushrooms, your gut microbes are the same. They like to eat a different types of fibers and those fibers are present in a wide range of foods. So really think about that diversity of your plate. I actually love mushrooms. I think they're great. Fibber max in. So I am a big

kind of whoop poop yes on this, but with a caveat. Okay. So I really think one of the easiest, simplest ways that we can have a big impact on our health is by eating more fiber. Most of us are not eating enough. Ninety-six percent of us are not eating enough fiber. And it is one of the nutrients with the most evidence for benefits of not just our digestion and our gut health, but also our heart health, our bowel health, our blood sugar control, you know, the list goes on. What I would say with fibre maxing is that it makes it seem that you need to hit this really high number at a really speedy rate. And I would say that speedy rate is a huge problem. Because what I see with fibre being incredibly powerful is that if you up your fibre too quickly,

you are going to end up almost feeling like you've got glastombrian, you know, rocket party going on your guts. And that's what puts people off fibre. They get, you know, going to have all these uncomfortable symptoms. And that's a lot because your, you know, your body is just not used to fiber. It needs to be slowly trained almost. So kind of like you wouldn't do a marathon without ever, you know, going to the gym or kind of training to do that marathon.

We need the same approach with fiber. So really, I would say, upping your fibre by about five grams a week. And seeing how you feel, that might be different for different people, slowly but surely, and that's really the way to up your fibre. And yes, absolutely aim for 30 grams of fibre a day. In terms of eating more than that, we actually don't know that much. It's actually one of the reasons we're running our study at King's at the moment. We're looking at whether 40 grams of fiber might actually, you know, give us any kind of interesting feedback on. Is that better for the gut microbiome? But I would say if you're just reaching 30 grams of, that's fantastic and that's when most of the evidence lies. Well, so 30 grams, I was horrified to discover, you're not taught this in medical school, you know, but I was horrified to discover that I think an apple has like three grams of fibrin or something, something like that. It's quite low.

It's actually, I think like, yeah, one and a half two. But a pair is like four grams. Interesting. So with protein, most people we can rattle off what is a high protein food. Yeah. But it comes to fibre, we kind of get stuck on thinking, oh, it's just like stodgy, brown, you know, bland, boringness. Actually, it's found in pretty much every plant food. And what I talk about is the BGBGs, which is BGBGS.

And this is for me is just like an easy way to remember some foods that are high in fiber so that when you're in the supermarket, you can just kind of grab them in your bag. So B is beans. Yeah, super high in fiber. Great. And then you have G for greens. So that's things like any kind of green veggies tends to be high in fiber just in terms of the vegetables. So green peas, kale, green beans.

Then you have bee again. So that's berries. Actually, any fruit that has got seeds in it. So things like passion fruit as well, really great source of fiber. Because it's going to just give that extra oomph to the fruit in terms of the fiber content. And then you have G, which is grains, is in whole grains. So think of any kind of high fiber. whole grains, that could be piled barley, but that could also equally just be going for your brown

seeded bread or for swapping out your white pasta for whole wheat pasta. So like super simple. And then the S is actually not just seeds, but nuts and seeds. And actually it's the nuts and seeds, the beans and the whole grains that tend to contain the most fibre more so than fruits and vegetables. And those we just eat so little of here in the UK. And a really easy wins if we can just add that end. So just add in a handful of nuts and seeds to your day, have it as a snack or sprinkle on your breakfast, you know, all these like simple changes we can make. I don't know if you were, if you were on social media much back in like 2017. There was this big push from personal trainers comparing like white bread with Nutella on to whole grown bread with peanut butter or like a handful of nuts and

seeds in comparison to a Mars bar. And the message was supposed to be the white bread with Nutella has less calories on and the Mars bar has less calories than the handful of nuts. Nuts are actually really caloric and you should avoid them. It was a really big push. It was like a big trend on from personal trainers on social media and then for some reason against my better judgment against you know many years of understanding a bit more about how nuts are metabolised and actually a lot of those calories aren't even absorbed but it doesn't really matter because they're so full of brilliant nutrition and you know their nutritional powerhouses. That belief was just stuck almost in the back of my mind, like nuts and seeds are really calerific.

And I think obviously diet culture and being a woman obviously plays into that. And then it was only recording this podcast. And I think every single nutritionist we've had on, every single dietitian we've had on, nuts seeds, nuts seeds, nuts seeds, nuts seeds. So now I try and have like at least one, a mid-afternoon, when I start to have my mid-afternoon slump, I go down and I have my little, my cup of nuts and seeds. And that's been a really nice way for me to boost my. fiber intake, which is brilliant. But I was wondering if you could possibly, this might be

a little bit of a hard question, possibly talk us through what a day of 30 grams of fiber would look like. Absolutely. And I love that you said about having a handful of nuts and seeds as a snack and actually having a handful of nuts and seeds with a piece of fruit or even two squares of dark chocolate. Doc chocolate is super high in fiber. It's 11 grams per 100 grams. So obviously you're not going to have the whole bar or that you do. So it depends. Dark chocolate's pretty potent. But if you just had like a couple of squares with your, that's like five grams of fibre. That's, you know, that's mega. Nice. So it just needs to be simple. Yes, say breakfast. It's hot right now. So that's this overnight oats would be a great start. So oats, really great

source of fiber. Add in your nuts and seeds to that. So cheer seeds, super high on fiber, but that could also a poppy seeds are great alternative or any kind of seeds that could be sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds are also great. I tend to have flax seeds to so much. Any baked goods you can chuck flax seeds in and nothing will change, but the fibre increases. So a really sneaky one if you're just like making things, particularly if you've got kids and you're wanting to make pancakes or something.

It's easy add in. Add in your berries to that or it could be grated apple, greater carrot, cinnamon, spices again because anything that's kind of dehydrated. So spice obviously lost all their moisture and being ground down. They're kind of high in fiber. And also things like dehydrated fruit. So any kind of, you know, prunes or raisins, cranberries are also higher in fiber. It's not that the fiber is increased. It's just that you've taken the water weight out. So volume for volume. So that's a really nice sweetness to add it into your breakfast. So that would be 10 grams. If you're adding, I very much, and in my book I'm very keen on this that

we've made a mistake of just talking about protein paste and I don't want to do the same with fiber. So all my recipes are protein and fiber targets meeting. So you could have your Greek yogurt in with that or your Skiya yogurt. And then if you wanted to bump up the protein more, you could put hemp seeds in. Then go on to lunch. You could have maybe a pasta salad in the summer or it could be like a kind of warm pasta in the winter. Choose the whole wheat pasta. Taste exactly the same.

Big believer in that. You could add some white beans to there, some tomatoes, some kale, kind of make it a kind of Tuscan. maybe some basil and some mozzarella balls that would also be like sorted. I'm hungry now. And then yeah, if you're having a snack, let's say the handful of nuts, as you said, some dark chocolate or a piece of fruit, whatever tickles your fancy. And for dinner, it could be a piece of salmon and just some new potatoes. And I, you know, I say one of the easiest hacks for getting your fibre is actually eyeballing your plate.

and just making half your plate veggies. So you could just have a medley of like green beans, peas, you know, or we prefer to have carrots, whatever it is. And then maybe you make like a nice little kind of sexy sauce to go on the side with some herbs and some kheffo and yogurt and whatever it is that you kind of want to make that taste all delicious. And that's your 30 grams. It feels like...

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Free of charge. BetMGEMG operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Like we are moving into the era of fibre, but you're pushing for balance, which I really, really, really love. And giving fibre, giving fibre more airtime, but not letting it take up every, every aspect. Love that. Ooh, greens powders. That's a bye for me.

Because I think mostly, what I think that really irritates me is how expensive they are. And I think actually, what is it really? Is it much better than a broccoli soup? It's just dehydrated and, you know. And so many of them, they just kind of put a lot of kind of chaff in to kind of bulk it up. And I think also in the way that it's eaten tends to be, is it a meal replacement? And actually that's then worse for your health. I would say, and it probably contains just one to two grams quite often of fibre.

When it might have some kind of benefit if you really want to spend the money is if you've got a really poor quality diet, then it's obviously going to be still bringing some extra nutrients in there. But you could make so much more big inroads for your health with that money. You could make, you know, making healthy eating easier. So buy the pre-coked sattos of grains. maybe you get some like kind of freezer like really nice kind of frozen beans and veggie kind of curries that you can have in the freezer for days and you just don't feel like cooking. You know, those are the things I'm like put your money on.

Maybe it's getting the, you know, extra nice tomatoes that just tastes really good. So you really enjoy that salad. That for me is a way better use of that money. Seamoss gel. Funnily in kind of, yeah, I used to when I worked as a chef, sometimes use this in vegan cooking to kind of make a kind of, but because you were so. limited because you had to kind of use. But for health reasons, no, again, it's a bye-bye for me. Put it to the tomatoes. Yeah. Final one. Raw milk. Oh, that, yeah. It's funny because I think people

think being a gut health scientist, that I would say yes to this. And for me, this is a big, big red flag, no. The reason for that is that, yes, okay, by not pasteurizing it and that kind of heat processing, which is then going to take some of those microbes out that would be naturally present. It's actually also making that milk safe for us to drink because what we know with milk, that it's really, really hard to make that a kind of sanitary product. It's coming from a cow in a very kind of dirty environment, no matter how clean and sanitised everything is. And it can be incredibly dangerous, particularly for young children or any children,

for people who are pregnant, older people who are immunocompromised. we see kind of really dangerous rates of people getting sick and being hospitalized because of raw milk. It's just not worth the risk. It's really interesting, like, when the conversation, a lot of these trends that they originate from, well, 50 years ago or 60 years ago, or, you know, that seems to be the argument. That was how it was always done.

And it always seems to be that, like, maybe the life expectancy at that point is ruled out of the conversation or the rates of, You know, what were the consequences of certain infections at that point? That doesn't seem to be included in the conversation. But anyway, next I would like to talk to you about the gut health and the brain. The gut brain axis is a really, really interesting conversation, but I'm not sure it's always explained very well. Could you do a brief, maybe overview of what the gut brain,

what that relationship looks like? Yes. So our gut and our brain are physically connected with a long, wandering nerve called your vagus nerve. So that's really the most direct highway that's happening between your gut and your brain. And this is before we then talk about your gut microbiome. This is simply this, you know, nerve that then is connected in a kind of web around your gut with nerve endings that then ping signals kind of back and forth between your brain, your gut. A little bit like WhatsApp shooting messages. Yes, our brain is the CEO of the body,

but our gut is incredibly chatty. 80 to 90% of those messages are from your gut going to your brain. Now we've got this kind of newer piece coming in of your gut microbiome. This is only in the last 20 years. I've even begun to understand that there is a gut microbiome and now what role is it playing? In the last decade, we've had a lot more research in this. But there's still so much that we don't know. But we're getting this kind of emerging signal that gut microbes are then influencing these signals to our brain. So yes, through that direct pathway of our gut to our brain, but also other ways that our gut can be influencing and our gut microbes can be influencing our brain. That can be through the hormones that are released and the signals that sense.

If you think about your fullness and your satiety hormones being like a really simple ones, but lots of other hormones as well. Also through your immune system, that might be more of a kind of knock on different reactions that are then happening to then get to your brain. And we also have your neurotransmitters. There's a lot of miscommunication around this. So I think that one of the key ones I hear is, yeah, 90% of your serotonin is made in your gut. And I think I'm like, yes, but it's also kind of not what you think it is.

So serotonin has lots of different roles in the body. And when it comes to our gut, it's helping to support our digestion and things moving through our gut at a nice timely pace. It's actually too big a molecule to make it through our blood brain barrier, which is this kind of protective membrane around our brain that's kind of very kind of rigorous us about what is allied in and what's alive and what's kept out. But what we actually do think might be happening when it comes to our gut microbes is that one of the building blocks of serotonin that's needed to make serotonin is the amino acid tryptophan. And the gut microbes seem to actually act as kind of influencing how triptophan is used in the body. So it's used in, again, many different

ways. But one of the things is getting that triptophan into the brain so that it can then be used to make serotonin, which then influences your mood and your brain. So now I'd like to move on to bowel cancer, because I believe you've researched bowel cancer in younger people. What made you want to research bowel cancer in younger people? So this is something where we're seeing rising rates in people under 50. Bile cancer is something that historically is a disease of older people in their 70s, and what we're seeing across different countries,

and I would say, you know, we can see this across 18, 19 different countries. is that rates in older people are either stabilising or slightly going down. But what we are seeing, again, a lot of this is in kind of well-developed countries that the rates in people under 50 are starting to have been ticking up and been ticking up for a while for a couple of decades. And what is going on there? I think when we start seeing it as being an age difference, then it's like, is there something in the way that we're living that is causing this to happen?

So that's one of the things that we're collectively looking at as a research team. And then at my, at King's College London, the study we're running is specifically looking at the diet element. And do you know yet? Or do you have any hypotheses on what may be going on? I think with all these things, it's always way more complicated than it seems. There's never one thing that's having a singular effect. It's very rare for that to happen. So it could be that, you know, there's rising rates of obesity.

It could also be that our food landscape has changed. It could also be that it's our gut microbiome and that we're kind of losing certain types of microbes or we're having a shift in that pattern of microbes because we see that in some of the research. Also, microplastics really new. It's been like really hard for us to either identify and find microplastics that's so, so tiny.

And now we've got the technology to really be able to explore that. So a lot of kind of signals that could be potentially there in terms of what's happening. key other factors, again, fiber when it comes to diet, we know that for every 10 grams of fiber you eat is related to a 10% lower risk of bowel cancer. But could it be antibiotics in early life? I mean, there's so many unknowns,

which is why I think it's so important that we are spending time on this. So it's a kind of collective team across Harvard and different institutions where we are looking at what's called early onset bowel cancer, so bowel cancer and people under 50. And at Kings, we're running within that a study that's looking at the impact of fibre

and also is it also not just about eating more fibre but different fibre types and is that then protective in ways that we can give extra specific advice on to help in this? And what are the different fibro types do you mind me asking? So we're looking at whole foods particularly and so we're not doing any isolated fibre types. and what we're using as our kind of control group. So we run twin research, which is really fantastic for us, because it means that we can put one twin on, you know, one die and one twin in the other. And it just takes out that kind of nature element of kind of because they're identical twins.

So the control twin is on a, basically the goal standard advice that we currently have, which is the UK national guidelines, the eat well plate. The reason that we want to do that is it does make it harder for us to, run the study because there's not so much difference between the two diets. But it's really important for us to know that any difference that we do see is, you know, quote unquote, better than what the current advice is. So that was something that we felt very strongly about. The intervention is then adding extra layers of advice on top of the current guidance. So they are effectively doing a modified UK dietary guidance. So instead of 30 grams of fibre, we're doing 40 grams. And then we've given

specific amounts for beans, whole grains and nuts and seeds. So everybody's eating a handful of nuts and seeds a day. They're having two thirds of a can of beans equivalent. So it could be hummus. It could be falafel, but it's effectively 160 grams of beans. And then whole grains, it's 90 grams, which is very similar to what the Danish, you know, it's what the Danish partnership have done and with huge success in Denmark. So we've kind of taken lessons from that. So we should have the results to early 2027. I do find nutrition studies. They must be so, so, so hard to run

because it's easy, I guess, coming into it from a medical background where it's fairly straightforward, you give someone the pill or you give them a placebo. That's bish, bash, bash, you're done. But changing, like a diet is so much more multifaceted.

So that must bring about a lot of challenges. It is. It does. And yeah, running nutrition trials is like notoriously difficult. It's something you have to kind of constantly think about all these different elements. And they have a lot of support going through. So they have one to ones with a dietitian. There's like a community group that they have kind of easy access to to get extra materials.

Lots of different supports that we can give them. And then, yeah, we take their poo, their pee and blood samples. So we can look at their microbiome, but also the molecules the microbiome makes, called the metabolome. We're looking at so many different measures and that's what's so fantastic about the research department that I'm in and the team that we have is that we are able to look at such a wide variety of measures and look at, you know, markers that are related to the gut barrier lining and look at, yes, you know, other different effects that might all be related and just see what we can find. So yeah, fingers crossed. And if we've got any twins who want to come join,

please do sign up. That must be quite tricky. Finding identical twins as well. One of my best friends, he's a twin, and he was told he's a, he's told he was a non-identical twin. He is 100% an identical twin. I'm convinced that the doctors has given them wrong information. They're definitely identical. But yeah, so I'll have to let him know. Before we come on to some community questions, I want to talk about what red flag symptoms that people should look out for if they're concerned about bowel cancer.

Yeah, so I think a key one that we see, and this might not be for everybody, but is if you've got blood, in your poo or it's even just it's black because that can also sometimes be dried blood. It might not be something suspicious, but it's absolutely worth going to your doctor and getting checked out on. Other things that we see are even just changes in bowel movements from day to day. So what is normal is anything from three times a week to three times a day. But even if you have a significant change, and I would say longer than kind of three weeks within that kind of normal amount, that's also maybe something worth just thinking, again, it might not be anything suspicious. The other things that we see, and again, this is what ends up

being things that you can easily just be like, oh, well, I feel tired. That's just because I'm stressed. Also, unintentional weight loss is also potentially a flag. For most people, you know, I just really just want to put people at ease. It probably is just that, you know, it's just stress or are there something else, you know, just that's not that worrying going on. But I would say, if you have anything, it's always worth going to the GP. It's always worth going to the doctor and just having a check because you just don't want to get kind of too far down the line if you've been experiencing symptoms for a while and haven't done anything about it.

I find that when we're in this world where either everything is trying to distract us or we're relying a lot on wearables, which like I love my wearable, I love my wearable, but we're losing our own bodily record keeping. And I think that probably one of the most powerful things that you can do for your health in so many different aspects

is recognising what is normal for you. Like whether you are a three times a day, pooer, or you're a three times a week, puer, you know, if you know that that is what is regular for you, then if you deviate off that path, you are going to spot that so much quicker, which is probably one of the hardest things to do when we're constantly being pressurised and tugged this way and that way. So I think that's a really, really, really important lesson. Yeah, I think I get asked a lot about how can you tell that you've got good gut health? And I think one thing when it comes to poo is we are so afraid to even just look in the toilet bowl and look at our poo. So yes, it's not just how often we go.

I would say one of the best things you can do for keeping track of your health is just what color is it, what shape is it? It should be a brown color. It should be a kind of smooth sausage or a sausage with cracks in it. We talked about how often you go. But it also should feel like when you're doing a poo that everything should come out. It should be easy. It should be painless. Your body is giving you this kind of really easy signal.

And the same with the color of your pee as well. The color of your pee is telling you how hydrated you are and also giving you different signals. So we just need to kind of pay attention. Yeah, anything that's too dark, that's more like concentrated apple juice. But again, that's also something that ties in with your digestion because we need that water,

particularly when you're upping your fibre. It's really important to get enough hydration because that's really going to help with your bowel movements as well. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only.

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in the same way that I would think about the menstrual cycle. So maybe the poo is your seventh vital sign and your wee is your eighth. So that's another very important lessons to come away with. If that's one thing anyone takes away from this podcast, it would be that they look at that poo. Nice. So just like, make it a habit. Just do it. No one knows. No one's watching.

Also, no, I was about so, so. I was like, do you ever look at your poo and you go, I'm quite proud of that? I have this app where you can rate your poos and record the places you've pooped around the world and you can basically keep log. Where did you get your, you keeping log? It's very good to keep track. It's an app. Yeah, such a fun little way to track your bowel habit. I think I might have to try that actually. Yeah.

Make poo sexy again. Finally, before we come on to the final question that we ask all the guests, I've got some community questions. First community question, what habits should I be implementing into my daily routine to optimise my gut health? We've got Checky Pooh. What else? I would say please do put fibre at the heart of it. And one of the reasons I really want to explain about fibre is that if we think about the pipe of what your gut is, because it really is basically this long pipe, most of the new

nutrients you eat are getting absorbed higher up before they reach your gut microbes. Fiber is different. Fiber is a bit of a rebel nutrient. We don't have the enzymes to break it down ourselves, which is why it was kind of moved to the side of, well, it's not really doing anything for us because we can't digest it, which is now we recognise as, you know, completely not true that it's doing so much for our health. And so it's really then fiber that lands on the kitchen table of our gut microbes. And then they feed on it and then they make the molecules for our health, which then cross into our body and the fact that we're eating so little of it, you know, just over half of what we need as a kind of a UK average, I would say in a way that sounds like a bit depressing, but it's actually, I think, such a great take home that it's one simple thing that we can double down on to make a difference for our health and like really put our money on where that kind of effort is. So that's something I would say, I would say if there are any kind of gut health products, really it all comes down to if we can just focus on what's in our shopping basket. It's most days, most meals, you know, it's not every single meal or every single

day. Like your gut microbiome is very resilient. So I think I'm very kind of anti these headlines of 10 foods to kill your gut microbiome because I just think they're based on kind of nothing. There's never, it's all about the pattern of what you eat. So you can absolutely still enjoy cake and, you know, kind of Coke, whatever it is. Dr. Emily came in and we were on. having a diet care. I said this isn't very good health-friendly, but it's the last podcast recording of the day. So I know the guest before called it a fridge cigarette,

but it's, which I thought, found quite funny. But yeah, I think an ad not subtract mindset is just, I think it's powerful, especially in diet culture and everything else. I write for a national newspaper and I have to do a lot of journalist's comments and it's really something that I've really seen from my side that there is this, you know, we want to click on something that sounds scary. So then the newspapers will cater to that. So I think just keep that in mind.

And actually, yeah, just add into your plate and don't worry about, yeah, the little bits of yumminess in between. It has been an absolute pleasure. That's been a wonderful episode packed full of so many practical, tangible tips. I'm sure everyone listening will take away. And fingers cross, implement into their own life. I know that I'm reinvigorated on my gut health journey after that conversation. unfortunately we are now at the final question of the podcast we ask all the guests what do you wish every woman knew by the time she was 25 i think i want to say this coming from my heart of

something i've experienced and i think a lot of my friends and um you know people i talk to have experience as well and i think as women it's we particularly struggle with us is black and white thinking when it comes to nutrition i think we're so thought that you know we're almost doing this scorecard through the day of kind of plus and minus points of what we eat. But actually, that's just not how your body works. That's not how nutrition and health works. And I would say the best thing you can do is just make peace with the grey, recognise that food is so much more than just the nutrients you eat. It's also joy and connection. And just, yeah, shift away from thinking about rules to I talk about like most days, habits

and adding in. And yeah, always eat with flavour and joy. know, don't, you know, we just want to be savoring and having fun. We don't need to be eating anything that's going to make us feel sad and miserable. I love that. Cheers to that. What a beautiful way to end off the episode and we will leave the link in the description for your book, Fibor Power. Thank you so, so, so, so, so much. Thank you so much for having me. It's so great. It's so great to be here.