Despite gut health hacks having been all over my social media feed for the past few years, until a few months ago, I knew nothing about my own gut. I knew that diet played a role in keeping gut bugs happy (as the Strong Women team has told me umpteen times), but beyond that, I couldn’t tell you what a healthy gut felt like or why it mattered. That was until I came across an app dedicated to improving digestion.

Founded by twins Lisa and Alana Macfarlane, The Gut Stuff is a 100-day programme and information hub that aims to take you through the basics of gut health. It does everything from helping you to recognise problem symptoms to understanding the ways in which our guts can influence our stress levels and mental resilience. As someone who works in a fast-paced newsroom with countless deadlines and demands, the idea that it might be possible to get a better grip on daily stress by tweaking what and how I eat is mind-blowing.

“We believe one-size-fits-all diets, expensive testing and detoxes are adding to a wider gut health problem and that education alongside simple habit changes over time make the biggest impact,” the founders tell Strong Women.

Lisa and Alana wanted to combine everything they’d learned about the gut over the past decade into accessible and engaging information – and so the app was born. I downloaded it in the hope of finding out more about my own health. I’ve not been feeling great for a while, and I wanted to know whether my lack of motivation to move, sluggish digestion and overall feelings of ‘meh’ might be linked to my gut. 

To find out, I joined the app’s 100-day programme, which has been put together by a team of dietitians and nutritionists. People can upgrade their subscriptions (it starts at 20p a day) to include one-to-one sessions with qualified experts, but the basic programme covers everything from sleep and energy to diet and the menstrual cycle. That’s because, the women tell us, “people come to gut health for a host of different reasons – skin, hormones, stress, mental health or because they have a specific issue”. The key to solving those problems is a combination of tracking, tweaking and research.

Over the next few months, I learned more about the gut than I could have ever anticipated. Every day, there’s a new mini-lesson to read through and you’re encouraged to track your diet and health symptoms using the in-app diary, which helps you to clock any changes over the course of the programme. Then, at the end of the course, you can download a PDF of data trends that you can present to your GP.

“A lot of us don’t have the vocabulary to clearly tell our GP the inner workings of our gut, so we wanted to make it into an easy format for your GP or healthcare professional to dive into what’s going to help you,” Lisa and Alana explain. 

One of my biggest takeaways from The Gut Stuff is that a realistic gut health routine is very much possible – even for someone in their 30s who has never bothered to work on theirs. You don’t have to introduce big dramatic changes to your lifestyle or spend money on expensive products to see a big difference – one or two tiny tweaks can be hugely powerful. I definitely found that the more I read and tracked, the more motivated I was to, for example, batch cook more fibrous meals. Just having a few days of dinners and lunches packed with easy, cheap ingredients like lentils and brown rice on the go has had an impact on my digestion and energy levels. 

With that in mind, below are the six tips I learned from the 100-day gut challenge.

Track your symptoms to get to know your normal

The more we track and reflect on our gut symptoms, diet, lifestyle, mood, sleep, movement and stress, the more we can start to truly understand what works for us. Keep a gut diary, and it won’t be long before you start to see patterns. 

Start looking at your poo

It sounds gross, but your poo can tell you so much about what’s going on in your gut, and it’s one of the symptoms you do need to bring up at a GP appointment. So, make sure you pay attention when you’re on the loo. 

Stop obsessing over protein – it’s fibre we need to worry about

Around 90% of us aren’t getting enough fibre, and that’s a huge issue because it’s absolutely fundamental to gut health and overall wellbeing. The average adult should be aiming for 30g per day, which is doable if you follow a whole foods diet that includes lots of fruit, veg, whole grains and legumes. 

Eat more plants

Team Strong is forever banging on about the importance of eating 30 different plants a week. That might be difficult (it certainly isn’t a reasonable goal for me yet), but just aiming to get more plant diversity over the week can be hugely beneficial to our gut microbiome. I’ve set a much smaller goal but am hoping to gradually increase the number once I’ve become more confident. 

Drink more fluids

“This feels like we’re stating the obvious, but hydration is often overlooked when it comes to gut health,” the sisters tell us. “Drinking enough fluids helps to keep everything moving and grooving in your gut.” I drink quite a lot of tea, but if I’m not at my laptop, it’s all too easy to go for hours without a sip of water. That’s something I’m trying to work on.

Stay active (even if it’s just a quick walk)

The biggest thing I’ve clocked from this experiment is that I just don’t move enough. I don’t exercise and I probably don’t do anywhere near the recommended number of steps a day, and I’m now convinced that staying static is having the biggest impact on my gut, moreso than my diet. But I’m trying to change that after learning that studies have found moving more can improve the diversity of our microbes. It also helps food to move along our guts too, so might be a helpful tool in the battle against constipation. 

Download The Gut Stuff app, £15 for the first three months, then £5.99 a month thereafter

Images: Getty