Do A Gut Check

Did you ever wonder where the saying “gut instinct” comes from?

Robyn Youkilis’s new book, Go with Your Gut: The Insider’s Guide to Banishing the Bloat with 75 Digestion-Friendly Recipes will give you a dose of fascinating stomach-health knowledge, and show you how your gut is linked to energy, stress levels, mental focus, sleep quality, chronic inflammation and lowered immunity.

“I believe there is a connection between a powerfully functioning gut and a powerfully functioning ‘gut instinct’,” says Robyn. “When the belly is at its healthiest, we can hear those gut messages loud and clear. How we digest our food is how we digest our lives.”

Youkilis, a certified wellness expert who trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, counsels that we should listen to and focus on what our stomach symptoms—weight gain, fatigue, insomnia, bloating, indigestion and constipation—are telling us. Her book is bright and spunky with advice that goes down as easy as its gut-friendly recipes.

The book convinced us to buy more raw fermented sauerkraut (which offers the benefits of eight bottles of probiotics, says Youkilis) and to remember to slow down and thoroughly chew what we eat, so the digestive enzymes in our saliva can do its work.

Out of all the no-nonsense recipes like apple chia “cereal” or Kabocha squash and kale tacos, we particularly love the Perfect Detox Salad, a light, fresh and bright combo of quinoa (easy to digest, naturally gluten-free, alkalizing and high in protein) with daikon radish and carrots, all freshened up with plenty of lemon juice and mint.