13 Simple Ways to Heal Your Gut & Boost Immunity | Molly Obert

Jan 12
4 min read

Why Gut Health Matters?

Nutritionist Molly Obert's gut-healthy shopping list for midlife wellness.

What is The Gut?

Your gut is: your esophagus, stomach and intestines. The gut starts in your mouth and ends at your, let us be mature for a moment, anus. That is a huge amount of YOU!

If that much of you is unhealthy, a lot of things can go wrong with nutrient and fluid uptake, immunity, defense against infections, signaling to the brain, prevention of allergies, mood regulation (and more).

What is Gut Health?

You hear it often, “you need to heal your gut”, “gut health is important”, “it’s all about the gut.”

A healthy gut is: effective at digesting and absorbing food, lacks gastrointestinal illness, has normal and stable intestinal microbiota and has an effective immune system.

I’d like to focus on supporting a healthy microbiome because we can adopt new habits that directly relate to the health of our microbiome and therefore improve our overall health right now.

For women in midlife, nourishing the microbiome is about more than just digestion; it’s about reclaiming a sense of peace in your own body. As our hormones shift during perimenopause and menopause, our gut health can impact everything from sudden bloating and 'brain fog' to our mood and sleep quality. By focusing on these small, daily habits, you aren’t just 'fixing' a system—you are creating a stable foundation that allows your body to handle hormonal changes with more resilience and less inflammation.

A very simplified definition of the gut microbiome is: the balance of good bacteria (microbes) and bad bacteria (microbes) in our gut.

In a healthy microbiome, microbes enter and our immune system (most of the immune system is found in our gut) develops a tolerance to the microbe. This give and take strengthens the gut microbiome and immunity. If outside microbes aren’t present, the body is unable to build certain immunities and is therefore left vulnerable and weak. To give an illustration, picture the gut with no incoming microbes as a muscle that doesn’t get used (it’s weak). Then, a gut that is challenged by and overcomes incoming microbes is a muscle that gets daily workouts (it’s strong). The gut needs this exercise to be ready to fight bigger microbes and viruses.

In general (more so during a pandemic) Americans use a myriad of antibacterial products: wipes, soaps, sprays, cleaners, sanitizers. A search on Amazon for “antibacterial” produces over 7,000 results; products for hands, hair, pillows, carpet, jocks, feet, pets, babies, dishes, floors, windows, laundry, shoes and teeth.

If allowing certain microbes into our body helps us build a healthy immune system and we are overusing products that wipe out these microbes, what is that doing to the balance of our gut? This overkill wipes out too many microbes in our environment. Thus, leaving our guts unchallenged, unbalanced and vulnerable.

Here are immediate, simple actions to take:

1. Go Barefoot.

Literally the easiest, most immediate action you can take is to go outside and put your bare feet on your grass. Dirt has soil based organisms (SBO's) that support gut health. (In addition, standing barefoot on the Earth produces grounding; a reconnection with the Earth's energy.)

2. Eat fermented foods.

Sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, miso, tempeh and kefir are probiotic. PRO (for) BIOTIC (microbes)...they are for/in favor of microbes!! Yes!!

3. Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

The variety will give you a variety of enzymes to heal the gut and aid in digestion.

4. Eat Fiber Rich Foods.

Fiber rich foods help move food along the gut thus reducing inflammation from stagnate waste in the colon (gut). Fibrous foods: avocados, raspberries, artichokes, lentils, legumes, quinoa, oats. Eating a lot of plant based foods will ensure your fiber intake.

5. Probiotic supplements.

The best probiotic supplements are generally refrigerated but there are good shelf stable ones as well.

6. Limit Sugar.

In the same way that you feed bread yeast sugar to proliferate, sugar feeds the bad gut microbes.

7. Limit Antibiotic Use.

Antibiotics kill all bacteria. Once you are finished with your course of antibiotics, you'll have the task of rebuilding your gut.

8. Eat Grass Fed Collagen, Gelatin and Bone Broth.

Collagen, gelatin and bone broth can repair your gut lining.

9. Eat Prebiotic Fiber Foods.

Prebiotic fibers are not digestible and feed good gut microbes. Prebiotic foods: artichokes, onions, garlic, jicama, green bananas, green banana flour, cooled rice and cooled potatoes.

10. Avoid Foods That Bother Your Gut.

Pay attention to foods that don't agree with you. The most common foods that disrupt the gut are: gluten, grains, dairy, sugar and non food items like artificial sweeteners, colors and additives. It is also a good idea to schedule time with me to tease out the foods that bother you, heal your gut and get the foods back into your diet that should be healing!

11. Avoid Overeating.

Eat less at each meal. Eating to the point of feeling stuffed or even full can put too much work on your gut.

12. Don't Eat Too Often.

It isn't necessary to take on the challenge of fasting but pay attention to how often you eat. The more time you can comfortably go between meals, the more time your gut has to digest then heal.

13. Clean Green.

Overuse of cleaners that are antibacterial (similar to antibiotics) wipe out too many microbes. Microbes are needed to grow healthy gut bacteria. Using less aggressive yet highly successful cleaners made with natural ingredients are less of a burden on the environment and less of a burden on our microbiome.