Love Island DJs, twins and super awesome Scotswomen Lisa and Alana launched ‘The Gut Stuff’ last year. With a mission to champion the gut health movement, to cut through the crap whilst getting to the guts of digestive health.
Ok enough with the sh*t puns. Guys, thank you, we’re delighted to hear more about how you’re leading the charge and helping people understand the importance of our digestive health. Here we go.
How did The Gut Stuff come about?
So basically to cut a long story (very!) short we used to volunteer for the Twin Research facility at Kings College and were asked to have our guts analysed as part of one of the projects there. They found out from our bodies that even though we have 100% the same DNA we only have 30% the same microbiome – so we set up a little series interviewing some of the scientists we were speaking to as part of the research as it was all SO FASCINATING. And thus www.thegutstuff.com was born.
Kombucha…come again? What are we missing?
Ha – so kombucha is basically fermented tea, it contains a lot of live bacteria, but be wary of some of the ones you buy on the shelf, they may not be what they seem. Its a great alternative for diet coke and (or!) alcohol too.
We know very little about gut health, what are the most important factors? (And Why should we care?)
Remember you’re not just eating for you you’re eating for your bugs too! VARIETY! Get in loads of colours and different plant based foods to stimulate those trillions of good gut microbes and get a nice diverse community in there – we create a blackboard of every vegetable we can think of and cross them off during the week.
Gut health is linked to so many things beyond our digestive health it really is our second brain.
How might we tailor our nutrition to improve our own gut health – how will we know what works for us individually?
Our best advice is arming yourself with the facts, I think if we all knew that around 95% of our serotonin was produced in our gut we’d take a lot better care of it. Also that we are ALL individual, if we, as identical twins can’t be sold the same diet/eat the same thing, neither can you!
Tune into your own body and start making besties with your gut. Food and symptom diaries are great – we’re bringing some of them to you soon 😉
Any myths you’d like to dispel about gut health?
The main one is that you have to restrict lots of things, its actually about ADDING things into your diet, unless you have been diagnosed with an intolerance. we have loads of myth busting on our site.
You’re touring the UK, taking the gut stuff to audiences far and wide, where can we catch up with you and what can we expect if we want to pop along? 
Next stop is Dublin at Thrive Festival – we’re doing all sorts there, fermenting workshops, digestive twists yoga classes. Then we’re taking our good friend Rangan Chatterjee back to Manchester Technology centre to follow with our last roadshow there.
Then BRISTOL in May. Expect the UK’ leading experts in Gut health, loads of free brekkies and a massive inflatable gut.
Post tour, what’s next for the gut stuff?
We’re expanding our offering in terms of advice and online stuff and also creating more tools and products to help people get Gut health into peoples lives cheaply and easily.
Other than looking after your gut health what else do you do in the realms of self-care?
Haha not enough at the minute to be honest, we schedule “sister time” together where we don’t talk about work, its very difficult but its really necessary – we like going away to retreats for this to totally switch off. We try and get early nights where we can!!
Lastly, you both worked on Love Island 2018 (AMAZING) – what was your highlight and are you back this year?
The highlight is always the amazing team that work on that show – we always forget how many people watch it! Its always fun touring with all the contestants after and we love how the show became such national talking point.
Visit The Gut Stuff for more information on gut health.
Join the gut revolution on Instagram.
