I'm a Manchester-based gut specialist and this is the absolute worst thing you can do

I sat down with Manchester-based gut health specialist, Jordan Haworth (or otherwise known as Mr Gut Health) to uncover the worst and best things you can do for your stomach.

Jordan Haworth, 30, from Radcliffe/Prestwich started his Instagram account called “Mr Gut Health” five years ago during the pandemic which is now at 193K followers.

He said: “I just started because there wasn’t really much else to do at the time, work wasn’t busy and I had kind of been toying with the idea of doing something on social media because I saw other people, you know, dieticians and doctors doing stuff. [...] It wasn’t really until the last 18 months where it really took off.”

Jordan believes this increase in followers and views was because of his deep-dive into the Mediterranean diet which gave him some brilliant results. Although he was pretty healthy to begin with, he saw his cholesterol and blood pressure go back to normal and lost 3% body fat without working out anymore than usual.

He highlighted the idea of the diet as a set of principles rather than strictly following specific foods. For example, he started eating fermented dairy, limited red meat, four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil each day, two servings of vegetables, fruits and grains and a glass of red wine.

He said: “You don’t need to be in the Mediterranean and you don’t need to eat Mediterranean foods, you just need to make sure that you’re hitting those principles, hitting that checklist and technically you’re following the Mediterranean diet.”

With Mr Gut Health, Jordan has also been working to combat misinformation surrounding gut health online after a sudden surge in interest in the topic.

He said: When something becomes really popular, then you get a lot of charlatans and a lot of grifters that try and invade the space and one thing they like to do is fear monger. [...] When you’ve been to the doctor and the doctor’s done all the tests and they’ve come back normal, and you know you’re still struggling, you become desperate for answers. And then some people on social media sound like they’ve got all the answers because of the way they put the information across but really, that information can in some cases be really harmful, especially when it comes to advocating for restricted diets. We’re seeing a lot of interest in the carnivore diet, for example.”

Jordan also talked about the issues with food intolerance tests which often come back with wrong information. Having conducted his own experiment last year, he found that two of the leading companies in the UK came back with completely different results.

“I don’t have any food intolerances and they came back with 17 intolerances between them both, but only three foods matched on both tests. So who do you believe? [...] the tests are not validated. They’re not accurate whatsoever.”

When I asked Jordan what the worst thing you could do for your gut health was, he said: “So the worst thing hands down, is if you get food poisoning. It’s the single biggest risk factor for long term gut health issues and we see a lot of people in clinic who has said their issues started after they got a tummy bug.”

To combat this, Jordan suggested proper food hygiene and possibly taking a probiotic before travelling to a country where you think you could be at risk. Other than this, stress and anxiety was another big factor in poor gut health.

And what can you do to improve it, you may ask?

Jordan said: “Don’t overcomplicate it, gut health is about what you can add and not what you can take away. People think: “I need to cut out gluten, I need to cut out dairy to improve my gut health.” Probably not. You just need to eat the right kinds of dairy like kefir, yoghurt and fermented cheeses. Not milk, cream and processed cheese. You don’t need to cut out gluten because only 1% of the population are celiac and can’t have gluten, you actually just need sourdough bread which has been fermented and is easier to digest.”

Well, I certainly feel like I’ve picked up some great information here and if you want to learn more about your gut health then head to @mrguthealth on Instagram or check out the free @tummymot resource.