Tranquil Topics

The Power of Gut Health with Dave Holt from DH360 Fitness

• Stephanie Graham • Season 1 • Episode 17

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Dive into the fascinating world of gut health with expert trainer Dave Holt from 360 Fitness as we unravel the mysteries of your body's most complex ecosystem. Your gut microbiome—home to over 100 trillion microorganisms—might be the missing piece in your health and fitness journey.

Dave reveals how this "second brain" influences everything from physical performance to mental clarity, explaining why some people struggle despite following seemingly healthy diets and rigorous training regimens. The conversation shines light on how modern dietary habits, particularly our limited food diversity and reliance on processed "health foods," may be sabotaging our gut health without us realizing it.

You'll discover practical strategies for nurturing your internal ecosystem, including which fermented foods to incorporate, how to approach intermittent fasting for gut repair, and why cooking methods matter more than you think. Dave dispels common misconceptions about "healthy alternatives" like almond milk, which often contain emulsifiers and additives that promote gut inflammation rather than health.

Perhaps most surprisingly, we explore the profound connection between stress, sleep, and gut function. Dave makes a compelling case for why quality sleep should be prioritized above diet and exercise—revealing that even perfect nutrition can't overcome the damage of chronic sleep deprivation. Whether you're looking to improve your athletic performance, address digestive issues, or simply optimize your overall wellbeing, this conversation offers actionable insights that blend cutting-edge science with time-tested wisdom.

Ready to transform your relationship with food and your body from the inside out? Connect with Dave using the details below for personalized support on your gut health journey.

Instagram: @dh360fitness 

LinkedIn: Dave Holt

Email: daveholtpt@hotmail.co.uk

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Steph:

Hello, welcome back to another episode of Tranquil Topics. I'm your host, Steph, and today we have another special guest with us. He has graced our show before with his incredible insights on fitness and nutrition. I'm thrilled to welcome back Dave Holt from 360 Fitness, who is a renowned expert in the field of health and wellness. Last time he was on the podcast, Dave shared invaluable tips on how to maintain a balanced diet and stay fit. Today he's here to delve into another crucial aspect of our well-being: gut health. We'll be exploring the fascinating world of the gut microbiome, discussing its impact on our overall health and learning how to nurture a healthy gut. So, Dave, welcome back to the podcast.

Dave:

Thank you for having me back. It's a pleasure.

Steph:

So, for those who may not have heard our previous episode yet, because you were on our fourth episode on fitness and nutrition, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do, please?

Dave:

Yeah, I'm a personal trainer, one-to-one, based in a gym, so helping people on a one-to-one level and also now on a online aspect too. So I support them in the gym, helping them with the training, the food and even when they're in the gym on their own, supporting them. That way, a wide variety of goals like working with people, from weight loss, fat loss, strength training, muscle building, overall just improving, improving one's health and flexibility and injuries as well, to cover all that. And I have a broad, broad spectrum of clients varying from and from 18 to 80, pretty much mixture of skills and abilities. I have complete novices and everyone else in between. People with health implications hypertension, thyroid, pre-diabetes, people who do sports, running, play football and generally what I call myself and you, we're real people, aren't we in the real world? We have jobs, we have kids, we have life stresses and just navigating that and supporting people on that journey, just trying to be a little bit better for themselves.

Steph:

Yeah, and you focus on the long journey, don't you rather than these quick fixes?

Dave:

Yeah. I'm not a fan of the like currently, now, it's a it's 12 week this and it's a 12-week that, and you can do this in two or three months or whatever it is. I try and like to establish some sustainable, long-term plan which, when they do embark on this fitness journey, it's not one step forward, two steps back. You want to be able to sustain it, don't you?

Steph:

Oh for sure, yeah, I've been on it before when, like, like you say, you're like one step forward, two step back, and then you start feeling rubbish about yourself.

Dave:

Yeah, that's a huge probably part of what I'm about it's that let's, let's just start slow. Let's just build on simple things that you can't really get wrong, and sometimes you like to just dive into it and then straight into a diet. We reduce our, our calories, we train manically and then, before you know what you like, run out of steam.

Dave:

And then what?

Dave:

Then what's the next plan? So that's kind of a bit of like my ethos and where I come from.

Steph:

Okay, so you're here today to talk about gut health. Can you explain what the gut microbiome is and why it's important for our overall health?

Dave:

Right, where do we start? Um, so I'd probably say the microbiome. It's a bit like a big ecosystem. It's a community of microorganisms that are happening deep, deep down in our gut. Again, you can't really see it's It's on a microscopic level. They live in our small intestines, large intestines, in our GI tracts and they get affected daily by what we consume, how we live, stress. So everything that I do, I try and, from a dietary point of view, I support gut health, even if it's not on people's radar to start with. They may just want to lose a little bit of weight, but then I like to attack it from day one and implement it, implement the food that's going to support the gut health and it gets them on the right track.

Steph:

Yeah, I think that's a good point to make, that it's not always on people's radars, because it wasn't on mine when I started no with you as well, and I think people think like, oh, I need to just drop my calories. But then, like you said, your gut health impacts you, so what's the result of doing that? So how does gut health impact when it comes to physical fitness and performance?

Dave:

So if let's say, for example, your diet isn't really the best and, like you mentioned there about going into a like a calorie controlled model, you could reduce it and you don't really factor it in, and then if you compromise your gut, you can decrease your performance. You'll get an increase in inflammation of the gut, which will then compromise your immune system, you down regulate hormones and you generally don't feel pretty good, but then you can still be looking at your food and thinking I'm eating quite well here, but it's something that's just not quite right. So then when we do factor it in, it's you do notice that sometimes an exercise you don't. You just don't know why you don't feel pretty good and you just run out of steam or you don't feel energized or you're a bit bloated, and this is kind of stuff that you hear and it's probably not down to your efforts or your ability. It could be something else that you need to look at and, yeah, it could be this not for everybody, but it may be a small portion, it may be a huge portion, but then when you factor it in, it can aid performance, especially if it goes weight loss as well. It's a huge factor. From a food point of view, we're trying to create some sort of like diversity in the gut.

Dave:

So they kind of work. They have your good bacteria, your bad bacteria. They work, some work on the wrong, some work in groups and some work in clicks. And yeah, we're trying to, we're fueling all them. So if we are quite restrictive from a food point, you're only fueling some of the bacteria and not other ones, and then that can lead to gut dysbiosis and then you fall under the into like leaky gut and the permeability of your gut gets compromised, and so on and so on. It's a bit like a cascade of the effects of nothing that's going to be really good.

Steph:

I did look up a few stats because I knew we were going to have this conversation. And I didn't know that the gut microbiome consists of over 100 trillion microorganisms.

Dave:

Yes.

Steph:

And it's crazy yeah, it is like that's more than the number of cells in the human body.

Dave:

And they turn over every 20 minutes i've heard that as well.

Steph:

Really?

Dave:

Yeah. So what you do today with your food, you can influence how you feel tomorrow mentally and physically because of the turnover rate. Is that quick, which is interesting.

Steph:

Like you say, with there being such diversity within the gut microbiome, so with all the different species of the bacteria and them playing unique roles when it comes to health.

Dave:

Yes.

Steph:

I mean some people may know that the enteric nervous system, I like know a lot of people will probably have heard of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

Dave:

Yes.

Steph:

To like fight and flight or rest and digest.

Steph:

But quite a few people may not have heard of the enteric nervous system which relates to...

Dave:

Yeah the gut, digestion.

Steph:

Yes, so I know the immune system is highly impacted by the gut and I've researched this and it says 70 to 80 percent of the immune system is actually located within the gut.

Dave:

Yes.

Steph:

So if gut health isn't great then you're just going to feel awful. It's going to impact like a domino effect, isn't it really for other areas?

Dave:

Yeah.

Steph:

So when it comes to diet and nutrition, how can we influence our gut microbiome?

Dave:

Diversity, so it's having a broad spectrum of food. So I think we spoke about this in the gym, didn't we? Like most people, you could probably count on your hand or two hands 10, 12 foods that we eat, don't we, which is very in the modern days, probably coming from the beige buffet, where we just eat bread, pasta, rice not that that's wrong, but if we don't have the diversity of fiber, we don't have fermented foods, stuff like that, you're doing yourself an injustice, because these foods contain stuff which fuel the cells in the gut and then, like you say, if we compromise the gut barrier, then you get a knock-on effect into your immune system and that gets compromised and then illness and infections kick in. So, yeah, we don't really consume fermented foods, do we? Like you mention it to people and they go well, we don't like that. So, like we mentioned about sauerkraut and kimchi, that's a fermented food. Not many people include that, do they?

Steph:

No, I hadn't heard of that before I started.

Dave:

Yeah, that's just like one tiny aspect and then you've got, like um, kefir, yogurt or kefir, however you pronounce it. There is a good fuel source for the bacteria as well, and if you want to be a little bit brave, go down the raw route. So raw milk's good as well. That can help, even raw cheese as well. So parmesan, your pecorino romano and grana padana they're good options to include in the diet. I'm a big fan of people cooking eggs in ghee, because ghee contains compounds which fuel the cells in the large intestines, which nobody really talk about as well, so that's a good option. Yes, there's plenty of foods which people we don't really eat them, do we? We just stick to the other alternatives, or food substitutes, as I like to call them, which you may think are healthy, which potentially raise inflammation in the gut, and again, that's going to kick off another cascade of poor events happening.

Steph:

Can you explain what you mean by food substitutes? Is that like ready meals?

Dave:

Yeah, uh, processed. Obviously. We've all heard of processed foods and ready meals and basically stuff that's got additives, preservatives, to it. So I'd say a current one would be like it's quite popular at the minute to have almond milk and oat milk and stuff like that in there, whereas if you look at the ingredients so that there's probably water, sugar which is processed, it will be. This is another thing what people don't really understand in them there's all like quaggums and carrageenans. These are like we mentioned about emulsifiers and stuff which like thicken it up. These compromise the gut and cause inflammation. So just if you're going out for a coffee and you're going to get a latte or a cappuccino, just get the full fat milk, not the what you've been told is the healthy alternative, like an almond milk or an oat milk. Because if you look at the ingredients, if you look at the ingredients to that, it's processed. That's not going to do you any favours.

Steph:

It's almost been made sort of trendy.

Dave:

I've thought yeah and it's been given a bad press, hasn't it? But if anybody's lucky enough to have the grandparents still alive and if you speak to them back in their day, milk was milk. There wasn't any low-fat version, semi-skim version or there wasn't a man-made alternative, like, like you say, they're quite current and popular, aren't they? Yeah, just get a full fat milk. It may contain a couple more calories compared to the processed version that you're having, but if you've got a pretty good training schedule and the rest of your food that is, good quality, whole food that's in place, you're training, you're doing your conditioning or your cardio or whatever exercise looks like for you, then I wouldn't really worry about a couple of calories extra. It's the quality of the calories that you want to look at and bring into your diet.

Steph:

I remember we spoke about that recently as well. When it comes to calories and food, the calories that are actually on the label are usually not accurate anyway.

Dave:

Yeah, there's generally about a 10, 15 swing either way. So if you're on this, I don't know 1600, 1500 calorie controlled diet, which it has its purpose, don't get me wrong. You can't get away from energy in, energy out. But you may be on 1400, you may be on 1600. You don't know exactly the number. And then even from a training point of view as well, like we all, like you can track your on a Fitbit and your Apple watch, you can track how many calories you burn in a day. But even that is going to be a swing by 10, 15. So you never really know exactly how many calories you burn. So we're chasing this number that's not very accurate. It puts us in a ballpark, but it's not accurate. And then you don't factor in everything we discussed here.

Steph:

Yeah because you're trying to fit food in that will fit that number that you're trying to hit.

Dave:

Yes yeah, we're trying to fit that caloric model, but then in that process you could be doing your gut an injustice.

Dave:

You could be playing havoc with all your hormones, which we've talked on, touched on previously, yeah so there's plenty going on that you can be doing to improve.

Steph:

So, apart from exercise and nutrition, how does stress affect the gut microbiome?

Dave:

Huge. This is a big one. So, on stress, we have two kinds of stress. We have the acute stress and the chronic stress. So I'll touch on the acute one first. This is like so if you go to the gym and you do a weight session or you do a hit workout or a class or you go for a run, that's your acute stressors of the system. So the body will go through the stressful state and it will adapt to that. It'll build a bit of resilience, you'll build a bit of muscle, because next time it comes around to that training stimulus, you want to be aware or want to be ready for it.

Dave:

So these are good stresses, a bit like the cold plunge we talked about. That's an acute stressor, which is good every so often. But it's the chronic stress. I think you touched on it earlier about the sympathetic nervous system and when we're in that fight or flight mode and adrenaline's high, we kind of restrict blood flow to the digestive tracts and we can't break down food, we can't extract the nutrition out of it or utilise it. People might get a bit of GI distress, they might be a bit bloated, and then that's not good. The chronic stress and then that will impact sleep as well, which we all know how important sleep is for our overall health as well.

Steph:

Yeah, that's a good point. So, like the chronic stress thing, I mean it's probably more common nowadays because people always seem to be like switched on, like they finish work, they go home yeah still in work mode. Obviously everyone has different family dynamics and things like that that can add to stress. So yeah, it's just there all the time yeah, compared to what it should be was when, like caveman times, it should just be when yeah you see a tiger or something?

Dave:

Yeah, that's that fight or flight. Yeah, like you say, you're running from that. That's when, like you say, adrenaline is high in the body. That's a fuel source which, when that is high, you can sprint really quick and you can perform really well. But then, when it's chronically elevated and caught, is all the stress hormones high, you're not going to be in a good place as well, especially for weight loss and fat loss. Stress is high, insulin's high. You're in this chronic storing state. So you might be within that caloric model we talked about, but if stress is high, especially chronically, you'll be in a very good state of storing and unfortunately it could be fat.

Steph:

And you mentioned sleep there so can we just touch on sleep? Because, again, from the people that I know, anyway, a lot of them compromise sleep and don't prioritize it. So, when it comes to gut health, how does sleep link in?

Dave:

It's to do with your, again, it's cortisol and stress. So if you're not going to bed at all, you're working with your circadian clock. So again, it's the synthetic nervous system just in overload, it's overdrive. We're not getting that, we're not getting the rest and digest they are. We were not letting the brain recover. Um, and then, like you say, if you, if you work with your circadian clock and you're sleeping well, you're recovering well mentally and physically. When you wake up in the morning and you get that sun exposure, obviously, if you can get to it, that's good for your gut as well and your hormone production, especially vitamin D. So it kind of it's all interlinked. But that would be one of my non-negotiables sleep. If I could choose sleep, food or training, I could, I would control sleep and I would prioritize that till the cows came home.

Steph:

Wow, okay.

Dave:

If so, you could have the best diet, the best training regime. If your sleep is out of whack, then you will chase your tail, so that would be my top number one.

Steph:

Are you able to speak a little bit about fasting and how fasting can help with gut health, because I know at the moment you're supporting some clients through Ramadan as well.

Dave:

Yes, I'll be quite honest here, I wasn't, for a couple of years ago someone mentioned it to me fasting, and I was like, is this one of those gimmicky fads?

Dave:

And I went home and I was like, do you know what? I don't know too much about fasting, so I haven't really, I shouldn't really comment on it or give an opinion, or especially not a negative one. So, and it wasn't until I got into it, I found it really really fascinating and great for weight loss, great for fat loss. But then, like you say, with your guts, we don't have that rest and digest state. So, like previously mentioned about sleep and your nervous system being fired chronically, stressing out, we're not in that resting state. So if you just fast forward 12, 18 hours in a fast, the body can relax and it gives the gut a break from food. Obviously because we live in a world, don't we, where we eat three meals a day, we're snacking in between, we're eating late, there's no break on digestion. So implementing, however, a fast looks for you 12 hours, 18. Do you want me to go through the different stages of what goes on in the body at different times?

Steph:

Please, yeah, that'd be great.

Dave:

So the main, the main reason for a fast is autophagy. I don't know if you've heard of that or...

Steph:

I have but break it down for us.

Dave:

Yeah, so that's like a bit of a goal for a fast is autophagy which is to like in the autophagy, self self-clean or self-repair. Self-repair this is where you clean out any damaged proteins and you get a bit of cellular repair. You get an increase in mitochondrial function. So most people you should be able to get 12 hours. If you get to 12 hours. So let's say, you finish it, stop eating at 6 pm and then you have your breakfast 12 hours later. You've got to sleep in there, so that helps out. You get like an increase in growth hormone. If anybody's heard of growth hormone, that's like your anti-aging and healing hormone and linked with fat burning as well. But the sweet spot comes at 18 hours. So autophagy happens there. This is where you do start to see some like huge increases. Like you get a drop in blood glucose. You lower your insulin levels, which is good. You'll drain like your glycogen reserve in your body, so all your stored glucose will be used. And then you make that you make that metabolic switch which I don't think we've discussed. So when you make that metabolic switch, you switch from using sugar as a primary fuel source to fat and then when you start making that switch, that's when you start utilizing all your free up fatty acids for burning fat. Make a bit of a switch to using ketones as fuel as well.

Dave:

You get a rapid healing in your gut because you reduce inflammation massively. That stems from, like, the reduction in inflammation. The gut gets a break. So that's kind of where the gut health really kicks in that 18 to 24 hours. So if anybody's got the ability to push for a 24 hour fast, it'll do amazing wonders for your gut.

Dave:

And then it's just a matter of supporting how you break the fast. I think you touched on it there about supporting somebody through Ramadan. The key thing with him is how he goes into his fast and how he breaks it the quality of the food, but yeah, that's kind of in a nutshell what happens in the first 24 hours. And then, if you push on, yeah, there's other health benefits as well. But for it's purely from like a weight loss or a fat loss point of view. I'd say if you can get 18 to 24 hours, you don't have to do that every day as well. So I wouldn't put myself in a fasting camp and say you have to fast all the time. But it could be a strategy that you deploy once a week, once a fortnight. Just tap into that cellular repair and give your gut a break.

Steph:

If someone's going to try fasting, would you suggest start with like 12 hours or something?

Dave:

Yes, that's the most pretty simple one. Yeah, you want it to be again. Like I say, I'm all about the sustainability and longevity. I hope no one listens to this and goes right, I'm going to jump into 24 hours because you won't be able to do it. So if you stop eating at eight at night, don't have any food until you get past eight o'clock the next morning, which is it should be all right because you go to bed, don't you when you're sleeping, and then it's just a matter of adding on to that. So let's say, you reduce your evening meal back by a few hours and it becomes 6 pm, then push your breakfast back the next morning till lunchtime and go for 12 pm. Then it goes to 18 hours, or you might even fill it in somewhere like 15, 16 hours. Sorry, just bridge the gap a little bit and make it, make it easy for yourself.

Steph:

Is there a minimum time period for fasting, as in like would 8 hours not be as effective as 12, because I've heard of 12 being like a sweet spot. I don't know how true that is.

Dave:

Yeah yeah, I'm not too sure myself. I would go for the 18, but if somebody's eating really late at night and then first thing when they get up in the morning and they're only getting like six, seven hours, then yeah, maybe push for 12 and see how you react to it, don't dive into it, and then you have a little bit of a backward step.

Steph:

Yeah, because my partner Alan, as you know, we didn't realize he was already doing this, because he doesn't eat breakfast. He hates eating in the morning. He said it makes him not feel very well, so the first meal he will have would be his lunch.

Dave:

Yeah, we've discussed this, haven't we?

Steph:

Yeah, yeah, but I was like well, now I feel a bit left out.

Dave:

You have to get on board.

Steph:

Yeah, because I felt to be honest with you I felt like I'm fine having my tea and then nothing after it, but the first thing I think of in the morning is I need to have my breakfast because I'm not going to be able to have my lunch until whenever.

Dave:

Yeah.

Steph:

It wasn't a case of oh well, I don't need to stress about this, because I could treat this as like a fasting morning or day...

Dave:

Yeah, just by default yeah.

Steph:

Yeah, and, like you say, it's not putting pressure on yourself to think, oh, I need to do this three times a week it's just bring it into your life as and when.

Dave:

Yeah it's just, it's exactly that. Yeah, it's as and when. It's a protocol to use as and when. So, let's say, most people are weekend warriors, aren't they? They like to enjoy the weekends and eat nice food and go out, so you could maybe go well, I'll tell you what, because I've overkilled it on the weekend. Maybe do it on a Monday or a Tuesday. Just give your body that break from the carnage that has occurred from the weekend. If you've been out having a meal and drinking or whatever it's going to be, maybe do it on a Monday or a Tuesday or whatever day suits you. A good option to do there would be like, say, let's say you've got a really busy day, do it then. Don't do it on your day off, because if you're on your day off and you're not really up to much, all you're going to be thinking about is food.

Steph:

Yeah.

Dave:

Yeah, but again, it's these simple strategies which, if you've not like you've got a really busy, a busy morning into lunchtime and afternoon and go, do you know what? I'll just have a black coffee and I'll try and get through it, and then you've created a fast straight away there, without even putting stress and pressure on yourself. You don't want to be looking at your watch at nine o'clock thinking, oh my god, I've got to wait three hours now till my lunch. So just that's another thing. Like you support people with, you get a hold of people's schedules and see when they're busy and when they're not busy. And could it be a strategy we slot in on a Wednesday, or is it something you do on a another day of the week when you're busy?

Steph:

Yeah, when I was put in touch with yourself, one thing that I really liked was the fact that you did personalised plans and that you were there to like, I could just drop you a message and be like I need help with this. You know, how can I change this part of my diet or how can I implement this and it's having that support as well, which I found really, really invaluable, if I'm honest, because when I was on my own I was like I just I can't, I can't stick to this. I don't know if I'm doing it right. You know, you hear so much different things on social media that I don't know what to believe anymore.

Dave:

Yeah, and then that's like you say things change, don't they? And then work changes. Things change on a daily basis, so you have to have the ability to adapt and sometimes, like we said, you've got a busy day, throw a fast in, if you haven't, and prioritize a day where that's going to be, where you're going to eat really, really well and loads of protein and loads of fiber and you might have a time to get some fermented foods in there or whatever it'll be, and then just treat that as that day, whereas the day before you might have been on a big fast. So it's not a one size fits all. And, yeah, like you say, I'm available. Most of the work that you, that I do, comes outside of that one hour session in the gym or the two hours a week that you come to the gym. There's a lot of that's when people tend to go off the radar, don't they? And things can go to pot, kind of thing. So being in contact with people is huge. It's that's where I think that's the most valuable part. So, when I don't see you from one week to the next, what are you getting up to? And when you're busy and how can I support you like, say you just drop me a message and it's a yes or a no. Don't eat that. Eat this, simple.

Steph:

Can I just ask in regards to fasting does exercise training change if you fast?

Dave:

Um, would you, do you mean would you change your training if you're fasting?

Steph:

Yeah, so if somebody's fasting, let's say a 24-hour fast, just because, like a 12-hour fast could just be your night's sleep, if you're lucky yeah they're like if someone's doing a 24-hour fast, would their training change that day that they're fasting? Because when you think about fuel in your body, how would a fast and exercise fit? Do they fit?

Dave:

Yeah, so let's say that was the case and you stopped eating at six tonight. But then if you come to the gym in the morning, let's say you train before you go to work. That would be a great time to train because if you have a coffee, a black coffee or an espresso, technically that won't break your fast. So you're in this 12 hour phase where we touched on, where you're going to reduce your glucose, and then, if you're going to train, your body needs some fuel to train. So what is it going to do? That's where you would tap into, obviously probably slightly longer than 12 hours, but then you've got stored fuel on your body. You don't have to wake up and eat. Your body will use the fuel that is carrying its body, which is called fat. That will be a primary fuel source for training. You might it be more in your brain where you might feel a bit tired. So caffeine's good in this situation.

Dave:

But yeah, you just I would just carry on as normal. Don't create too much disruption. I wouldn't, just because you're fasting, think I've got to change my training and do a bit more weights or a bit more cardio. I'll just stick to the plan again. It's a let your body adapt, it's a good stimulus or it's a good stressor to the system and your body's pretty good, it will adapt to that situation. And if you're probably pushing a bit longer 18 hours, maybe 24 hours and I'd probably just make sure you'd get some electrolytes and some salt so you could have a glass of water, some electrolytes and then that would get you through it, then you would use your stored energy on your body as a primary fuel source. So again, it's very individual if, depending when you train, depending what you're doing, but I wouldn't overthink it, I would just carry on as normal and not create any more confusion in this situation. Just do what you do.

Steph:

That makes sense. I was worried that was going to be like a stupid question.

Dave:

No, no, there is no stupid questions.

Steph:

So, when it comes to gut health, are there any like repetitive misconceptions that you've come across with clients? Is there anything that clients have believed that have not been true?

Dave:

I'd probably say it's those Yakults you see on the adverts. You can buy those at the supermarket, can't you? You'd probably say, oh, yeah, right, I have some of them, which, again, it's not going to do you any favours, but no, I think it's more how important it is versus, probably, their perception of it. So, yeah, I wouldn't say exactly that you have a certain view on it. I think it's the awareness of how important it is because you mention it and, yeah, like, not many people know much about it, do they?

Steph:

No.

Dave:

So I'd say it'd be more no, no, you mention it and it's like what are you talking about? It's the awareness of it and how important and for some people it could be a huge factor. Some people it's maybe not, but it's very symptomatic in it if you're displaying certain symptoms or like GI distress or inflammation, bloated and skin problems or whatever it'll be brain fog, the list goes on of like how important it is and you could look at it and think, well, is it something else? It could be a gut, but if you factor it in, you might get to the root cause. But I'd say it's the awareness and knowledge around it versus an actual food that somebody believes is good for it. Because generally, when you mention about the foods that we've talked about today, people run a mile. they go I can't eat that, I don't like that, but they've never eaten it yeah yeah, quite, I probably said to you a few times I know it's about you need to rotate your foods as well. So having a broad spectrum of foods, of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, fermented foods, dairy um, protein, all that sort of stuff, it all helps out your gut. Yeah, it's quite complex but it's, there's a lot going on.

Steph:

You mentioned Yakult there, so I know I tried kefir and I was a bit scared of trying it because I've heard, I had heard from somebody, I won't name names, but they said that it didn't taste very nice.

Steph:

Oh, my god. I thought it tasted lovely, so I'll buy the bottle of it and have, like I don't know, a third or a quarter. And then I'll buy the yoghurt flavoured kefir and I'll have that over like melon and berries yeah so is it because kefir has active bacteria in it?

Dave:

Yeah. So you're looking at, that's what it has. It's all the the cultures and the bacteria which is in it which probably people go, oh, it's a bit bitter whether it's that which gives it the bitter taste. But then if you look at people's palate and what they, you kind of crave what you eat. So if you're not used to having these foods, as soon as you put them in you're like, oh, I don't like that because we have this bland diet, don't we? Or I say bland, slash, sugary. You crave what you eat. So if you eat a lot of chocolate and load of junk, you're going to crave it. No one's ever gone. Oh, do you know what I really crave? Dark chocolate and I really crave sauerkraut. Because you don't eat it. Yeah, so you crave what you eat.

Dave:

And then that can take time to change and again, I wouldn't overwhelm your gut and your digestion, just implement it slowly. So prime example January the first. Everyone goes right I'm not going to eat this, I'm not going to eat that. You go down this route of eating everything healthy that you can do and then that just taxes your digestion again, so that just creates too much overload in your system and it can't cope. It's a bit like if you compare it to like a muscle if it's injured you'd have to rehab it wouldn't you, before you'd go and use it in a sporting performance or the gym. It's a bit like your gut sometimes that needs a little bit of rehab. So if you introduce food, slowly and surely they'll kind of go, they'll get working again and they'll start to extract the fuel out of it or the nutrition out of it which they need. So don't just overwhelm yourself and pile everything in. It's a slow process and sometimes it can take days, weeks. You just gotta implement it, bring it out. But a big rotational system of a lot of food is probably the key here.

Steph:

If somebody's listening and they want to improve their gut health, are there any specific foods that you'd recommend them bringing in?

Dave:

Yeah, first you eliminate all the obvious stuff so off the top of your head. If you could just think what's a one or two, three things you could eliminate, it would be like you say alcohol is a big one, that's not good for your gut lining, that can play havoc, and foods which cause inflammation. So sometimes gluten can be one, but it's not for everybody. Like we should be able to eat bread and we should be able to break down the gluten in it, that's part of that as well, but sometimes that can be a trigger. Obviously the culprits here are the ultra-processed foods which by now a lot of people would know. So, like you say, all the man-made junk and the garbage that's out there which isn't what the human body recognises food, and just stick to something like a whole food diet, which again, it's meat, vegetables, fruits, etc. This is all single list ingredients which I've talked about previously. You can't really get it wrong if you stick to that and then implement some fermented foods, like you say. We touched on sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir. Get some good quality dairy in there, go for the full fat ones, whether it's cow's dairy, sheep's dairy. These are all good options. You could bring some apple cider vinegar in there as well. That's good for your stomach acid. Again, that's like the first step, where we start breaking down food and extracting the nutrition out of it. We extract a lot of B vitamins in the stomach. So, not having sufficient stomach acid, that could be an option. You could just bring a teaspoon of that in once a day, once every two days. There's loads of options you could do there and then, like I've said, rotate it all. But if you was to lay all your food out on a table that you consume in a week, it should look colourful, it should be different varieties that way as well, not just the beige buffet. You could tell sorry, you could just tell by looking at it if there's a broad spectrum of colours, that would be key as well.

Dave:

Vegetables, fruit like I've said, they're all good. Potatoes as well, sweet potatoes even normal potatoes are good. So there's another thing I don't think I've touched on this. It's called air-resistant starch. That's good for your gut microbiome as well. So let's say you have a jacket potato tonight and then it cools down. It tastes completely different, don't they? So, yeah, that's a resistant starch that fuels the cells in your gut as well. So, and then reheat it, and then that's going to be beneficial to your gut. So let's say, you make a jacket spud tonight, save it. Save one for the next day, reheat it. You could do that. Put some cottage cheese on it, a little bit of fruit, little veg on the side, whatever it would be. Yeah, so that's another thing, which is um, potatoes are good. They sometimes get a bit of a bad rap. So white potatoes, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, squashes, they're all carrying nutrients which fuel the microbiome.

Steph:

And if somebody is thinking well, my lifestyle is just too busy to bring this in at the moment. What tips would you give them?

Dave:

Just look at one meal, so start with your breakfast. Just look at one meal and think again you want to do something simple. You don't want to start wiping everything out you do. And if you eat at a certain time or just change one meal, just cook a meal in the evening. If it's not your breakfast because you're busy with work and you're up on the go, just have a coffee and whatever you need to do, maybe some berries. If you don't eat, don't eat. And then maybe, when you get home from work, look at that evening meal thing, because if you're typically nine to five, you'll have the time in the evening.

Dave:

Well, I say you have time. If you've got kids, it might be a bit challenging, but one meal, just cook it. And if you're cooking your meals from scratch, that's a good start point. And if you've not got time, put something in slow cooker. The slow cooker is a great option, by the way. I think if it's a priority, you'll do it. If it's not, you'll probably find an excuse. So now it's on your radar. Hopefully you can. I don't think you can use time as an excuse to be honest, if you're organized and you know about it, slow cookers are great.

Steph:

And just to finish up, so supplements, because I know some people think well, I'll just have a multivitamin um, yeah and I know that you've said to me in the past you can't out supplement a bad diet so how does supplements tie in with gut health?

Dave:

If, um, you wanted to go down that route, you'd get a probiotic. That would be the probably the first step, um, and then a live probiotic, probably one that you have to keep in the fridge, and it needs to have multiple strains so then you can get some out of a couple of strains, like they have them big, long words, don't you like bifidus lactalis or whatever it's called, I can't pronounce them so you'd have one that has multiple strains in it, not just like one or two. So if you're going to look for supplements, it's the as many strains as you can get. That would be one, especially for the gut. Something else maybe you could take.

Dave:

I'm not a fan of supplementing, but if you had to, you'd probably look at the stomach and maybe improving the hydrochloric acid of your stomach, so your hcl. So you could take Betaine HCl. That will help the first start of digestion. So if you have sufficient stomach acid, like we talked about, you can break down carbohydrates, fats and protein better. The better you can break them down, the better you can extract the nutrition, the vitamins and minerals out of it, which will then serve a purpose and then, as that food goes through the GI tract into the intestines, it's in a better place where again it will ferment and you'll get the nutrition out of it to fuel the gut and so on. But yeah, probably a live probiotic and maybe some Betaine HCl, but barring that, I'd go food all day. Food wins. Hope that makes sense.

Steph:

Yeah, yeah, it does, thank you. So how do people find you? How can people work with you?

Dave:

You can find me on instagram now. It's under @ dh360 fitness, so that'd be the first point to come and give me a shout or if anyone's got any questions or they want any help or advice, or reach me on there and I can help people with building a food plan. I can build a training plan for them, or you can have both if you need help with both of them, or even just one. But yeah, it'll be @dh360 fitness.

Steph:

Brilliant, and I will link all of your socials and contact details in the show notes so people can find you.

Dave:

Thank you very much.

Steph:

Yeah, thank you for coming on, Dave. It's been a really interesting conversation.

Dave:

Pleasure.

Dave:

Good, I hope somebody can take a little bit out of it and it gets them on the right track. It can be quite complex, but then my job is to simplify it for people and take all the thinking out of it, and all you have to do is just eat the right foods, lift some weights, sleep well, get some sunlight and we'll be on to a winner.