Discussing the effects of anxiety on our health is now commonplace but crucially, society largely continues to separate mental health from physical health. Stress Awareness Month (April) allows the conversation to explore the reality that there is no separation; physical health without mental health does not exist, and stress, as well as affecting our mental wellbeing, can lead to numerous physical health problems, not least inflammatory gut ailments.
Gut health expert and award-winning nutritionist, Dr Lucy Williamson explains: “As a nutritionist I can’t help inflammatory gut issues like IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) or IBD (Irritable Bowel Disease) without first addressing stress. In fact, it has a greater impact than nutrition!
“Here’s why. A short episode of stress is actually a very necessary physiological process designed to protect us and keep us safe. Consider our so-called ‘Fight and Flight’ response – the sudden release of stress hormones, an evolutionary response to danger triggering a chain of events putting the body on high alert – more shallow and rapid breathing for example. Of vital importance here is the impact on our Gut Health; our stress hormone cortisol, reduces the healthy mucosal layer on the inside of our gut wall where our good gut microbes live and get their nourishment; stress also triggers an inflammatory response within our body.
“When our body stays in this state for too long, as is the case in our present world of information overload and busy lives, it becomes a problem.”
But what do we mean by stress? How does it manifest? It ranges from physical reactions such as hunched shoulders, headaches, body aches, sweating, high blood pressure, shallowness of breath, shaking, to heart palpitations. Mentally symptoms might include, feeling nervous and tense, irritable, experiencing difficulty concentrating, having trouble sleeping, feeling nauseous or abdominal distress.
So how can we manage stress and nurture good gut health at the same time?
Lucy’s Five Top Tips
- Embrace little glimmers of joy every day! These can be as simple as being mindful of a nice aroma when cooking or in the garden – all of our senses help to trigger our vagus nerve which has an important calming role on our biology.
- Work on your sleep quality – our body heals as it sleeps, and our gut health also thrives when we’re at rest
- Aim to eat 30 different types of plants every week to nourish gut health and ensure a good intake of natural antioxidants – these ‘micro’ nutrients in plants nourish our gut bacteria and help with everyday natural detox too. This isn’t as hard as it may sound; the ’30 target’ includes herbs and spices, as well as fruit and veg – and here’s the good part, it even includes chocolate!
- Take time to enjoy food slowly and with good company. This gives our body time to digest properly. Even before we eat, our mouth is already starting to prepare our digestive system by producing saliva. A stressed gut is an unhappy gut.
- Taking regular breaks to reduce tension is great – a short meditation or a box breathing exercise can be really helpful – breathing more slowly and deeply greatly helps to relieve stress
- Take regular exercise – just half an hour of brisk walking each day will help
- Fermented foods – research shows that small amounts of fermented foods daily can have a very helpful anti-inflammatory function.
It’s clear that what we eat is key in nurturing gut health, so Lucy has developed some tasty recipes to help achieve and maintain a healthy gut:
Wild Garlic, Dandelion and Nettle Soup
Inspired by natural chef Georgina Valentine, this soup is a perfect way to explore the joys of foraging! A cleansing Spring soup bursting with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants from the season’s first young leaves.
Prep: 10 mins. Cooking 20 mins
Serves 4 as a light lunch
Ingredients:
- 1 small onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 handfuls of a mix of nettle, dandelion leaves and slightly more wild garlic leaves, thoroughly washed.
- 2 small handfuls of spinach leaves
- 1 stick of celery
- 2 small potatoes (peeled and diced)
- 1 tbsp of lemon thyme leaves
- 1 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
- juice of ½ a lemon
- 100g frozen peas
- 50g soft goats cheese
- 500ml chicken or vegetable stock
- a few walnuts or flaked almonds to decorate
- Optional toppers: Fresh mint leaves or chives, dandelion flowers, yogurt
- Salt and Pepper
Method:
- Sauté the finely chopped onion in the cold pressed rapeseed oil until it softens
- Add the chopped celery, grated garlic clove and potatoes and ‘sweat’ on a low heat for 5 minutes
- Add the nutmeg, stock & lemon thyme. Bring to the boil
- Simmer for 10 minutes until the potato has nearly cooked then add the frozen peas, spinach and foraged leaves and simmer for 3 more minutes.
- Blend the soup with the goat cheese and season to taste. Serve your beautiful bright green soup in delicate bowls, and swirl in a drizzle of yogurt and olive oil. Top with either flaked almonds or chopped walnuts with some chopped mint leaves or chives, and if you have, dandelion flowers look pretty too!
Enjoy nature’s wild harvest and this nutrient-rich bowl of cleansing goodness!
Notes: Cold pressed rapeseed oil is an excellent nature-friendly cooking oil and is unaffected by high temperatures. It’s nice to be flexible with your foraged ingredients hence using ‘handfuls’ as your measure!
Spring Lunch Bowl
I love being able to vary this salad according to what greens are available seasonally and also flexibility on toppings – goat cheese, nuts and seeds – what’s yours?
Prep: 5 mins. Cooking 25 mins or less if you can multitask!
Serves 4 as a side or light lunch
Ingredients
- 1 cup coral whole (coral) lentils (these keep their shape really well)
- 1 cup quinoa
- juice of half a lemon
- 2 spring onions finely chopped
- bunch of asparagus (if available – comes into season nice and early)
- 100g broad beans (frozen work well here too) or 50:50 with frozen peas too
- 100g feta cheese, crumbled
- Fresh herbs – mint should be available and adds wonderful flavour
- 4 tbsps green pesto (either bought or my recipe)
- 4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and Pepper
Method:
- Cook the coral lentils until tender – about 15-20 minutes simmering either in salted water or use a nice chicken or vegetable stock. (whole lentils hold their shape well). Drain and set aside to cool.
- At the same time cook a batch of quinoa – save time and cook double so you have a batch in the fridge for other recipes. Pop the quinoa in a pan overheat and toast gently shaking it for 2 mins. Add twice the volume of cold water. It will bubble up. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave, covered, for a further 10 minutes.
- Cook the broad beans (and peas) and plunge straight into cold water so they keep their colour.
- Mix the lentils, beans, chopped herbs, and spring onions together. Add the lemon juice & olive oil and season to taste.
- Partly mix through the green pesto and drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil.
- Steam the asparagus lightly for 8 minutes until tender and serve on the top
- Stir through crumbled feta and add extra mint on the top.
Optional extras
- grated lemon rind, mixed seeds and for a burst of colour, top with some pomegranate jewels!
- use some leftovers like previously roasted beetroot which is still in season in the Spring
Herb & Feta Crusted Baked Salmon
This also works with white fish of your choice; protein rich and easy to cook, fish is a rich source of Omega 3, a vital anti-inflammatory oil
Prep: 10 mins. Cooking 16 mins
Serves 2
Ingredients
- 2 salmon fillets
- 1 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- Salt & Pepper
- Chopped mixed fresh herbs – mint and parsley work well
- 50g crumbled feta cheese
- 20g jumbo or porridge Oats & 20g stale breadcrumbs (if you don’t have breadcrumbs just double the oats)
Method:
- Heat the oven to 180 fan
- In a small mixing bowl mix together all of the above apart from the salmon, cold pressed rapeseed oil and lemon juice
- Place the fish in a baking tray and drizzle over the rapeseed oil and the juice of the lemon.
- Bake the fish for 8 mins
- Top with the herb/ feta/ oat mixture, roughly over both fillets. Some will just lie within the tray.
- Bake for a further 8 minutes.
- When serving make sure you spoon up the oil and herby mix from the tray – this way you don’t lose out on the healthy fish oils that leak out during baking. And it’s also delicious!
- Serve with carbohydrate of your choice if you need it; (remember the crumble topping is a nice bit of carbohydrate) A slice of sourdough and a little butter goes well and either veg or salad of your choice. If part of a weight loss regime, just have nice salad on the side and no further carbohydrate.
Looking after our physical and mental health is important for our overall health, but it needn’t be a chore when eating such fabulous food is a big part of the solution!
To find out more about gut health and its overall effect on the whole body’s health, and for more delicious recipes, visit www.lwnutrition.co.uk