Keep Your Gut Thriving Throughout the Holidays

By Marlien Wright

Strive to cook most meals from scratch

This way you are avoiding stabilisers, preservatives, and unnecessary additives like sugar and trans fats. This simple strategy eliminates most gut disruptors, and empowers us to reconnect to our wellbeing. Time in the kitchen can seem daunting within a busy life, but there are ways we can make it work such as batch cooking, planning ahead, and keeping meals simple.

Recognise stress and unprocessed emotions as hidden gut disruptors

Starting a practice of journalling in the morning and evening can help us process and emotionally digest the daily stressors we all encounter. When allowing emotions to come up, replace judgment with curiosity – especially for anger, shame, or fear. Remember: You are not your feelings, but they are a sacred portal to your inner world and are always welcome. We can feel our feelings, but we don’t have to act on them. Practise curiosity over judgement.

Keep diversity in mind

Unfortunately, like animals in the wild, many species in our gut are in decline and have been for decades. It’s partly because we eat such a narrow range of foods, which means our gut bacteria also have to live on a restricted diet. Of the 250,000 known edible plant species, we use less than 200.  Unfortunately, 75% of the world’s food comes from just 12 plants and 5 animal species. I encourage you to branch out a bit and try things like fermented foods, and challenge yourself to include at least 30 different plant foods over the course of a week.

Gut Health Shots

Ingredients

• 1 TBSP burdock or barberry loose tea leaves
• 2 TBSP dandelion loose tea leaves
• 1 heaped TBSP ginger powder
• 1 heaped TBSP turmeric
• 1 TBSP fennel seeds or powder
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 1 TBSP honey (optional)

Method

1. Add 500 ml filtered water and all the ingredients to a large plunger.
2. Let the mixture sit until entirely cooled down.
3. Plunge, decant into a bottle/ jar with a lid, store in the fridge, and drink a 50ml shot before supper for better bile flow (better digestion), and to reduce bloating.

About Marlien Wright

Marlien Wright is the author of The Yoga Kitchen and The Mandala Kitchen. She is a certified Health Coach, Kinesiologist, and Yoga and Pilates instructor, with over 15 years of experience in the wellness field.

Her passion for food as medicine began through her retreat catering and facilitation, where she created nourishing, seasonal menus designed to support both body and mind. This work eventually blossomed into her two cookbooks, which celebrate wholesome cooking, gut health, and the joy of eating in harmony with nature. 

As a health coach and Kinesiologist, Marlien specialises in blood sugar balancing nutrition, gut health optimisation, detox and sustainable lifestyle practices that restore energy, improve digestion, and foster long-term well-being. Her integrative approach combines nutritional science with yoga, kinesiology, and mind-body practices to help clients cultivate balance on all levels.

Marlien continues to share her knowledge through retreats, group programs, and one-on-one coaching or Kinesiology, inspiring others to heal their relationship with food and to reconnect with the wisdom of their bodies.

Learn more and get in touch at www.marlienwright.com, info@marlienwright.com, or 076 508 7188.