My Microbiome and Me

My Microbiome and Me
My Microbiome and Me
Gut health is a complex, yet vital player for achieving both physical and mental well-being.

Written by: Miranda Sarosi

Gut health is a complex, yet vital player for achieving both physical and mental well-being. Not only is it where food is broken down and digested into nutrients and fuel for our bodies, but it is also home to millions of bacteria - both good and bad - which combined make up what's known as our 'microbiome'. When our microbiome is misbalanced (ie. more bad bacteria than good), our physical and mental well-being suffers. So how do we prevent this from happening?

Society tells us that if we want to live a healthy lifestyle, we should eat a "healthy diet" to match. But what is a healthy diet really? For some, it's following Canada's Food Guide, or eating leafy greens and their daily dose of fruits and vegetables. For others (including myself), eating a well-balanced diet consists of research and testing to get to the root of your own microbiome.

I was always comfortably healthy. I went to the gym, I ate (what I thought was) moderately healthy, and I always wore my sunscreen! Mind you, I couldn’t run a mile if my life depended on it. Plus, if you waved a pack of Chicken McNuggets in front of my face I would drool like Pavlov’s dog; but I was healthy, in my eyes.

I never put two and two together that my acne prone skin, awful sleep cycle, constant mood swings, irrational/erratic emotions and constant headaches could be a result of my eating habits. I always chalked it up to just sh*t luck. It was not until I was gifted with the incredible opportunity of a food intolerance test that I really started to learn who I am physically.

Some of the results of my test did not come as a surprise in the slightest. However some of my results shocked me, and some left me flat out confused (like the fact that I’m allergic to snails). But I took my results seriously, and in under 24 hours, I embarked on a new lifestyle and diet.

Let me tell you, this was NOT easy at first.

I will not go into the details of my complete list of intolerances, but I will tell you that it was long, and it felt impossible to eat anything besides apples and bananas. However, like I stated above, it took some time to research. It took learning to cook without staple ingredients, reading the nutritional label on everything I bought, and most importantly, making sure I was still getting enough natural vitamins and nutrients from my food.

This process has been incredibly eye-opening. I started under six months ago, and I am nowhere near stopping. At thirty-five pounds down from what was considered “overweight”, being in a mental state that has never been better, and finally, treating my body like the temple it is, I cannot even think of any good reason why I never did this earlier.

To the Goddess who gifted me this life changing experience, thank you!

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