May 8, 2026: Intermittent fasting with enough nutrition

Welcome to this month’s edition of Boost Gut Health. As  Hippocrates, the father of medicine, observed: all disease begins in the gut. 

Two Gut Healthy Habits

Fuel up with fiber. When we eat fiber in fruit and vegetables, we’re feeding our gut bacteria. A bit like a thank you, the bugs then make something that works for us: a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate, which can prevent leaky gut and reduce inflammation.

The power of kiwifruit. Kiwifruit is a great source of vitamin C, as much as an orange; plus it contains electrolytes potassium, calcium and magnesium, which help make the most of other nutrients.

One Lesson

Intermittent fasting with enough nutrition. Extending our not-eating window, or intermittent fasting, for 12 hours or so has been shown to benefit our overall health; including gut health.

When we fast, our body starts burning fat, our insulin levels drop, inflammation decreases, and our body starts a clean-up process called autophagy.

Maybe skip breakfast to get to a 12-hour window of not eating; say from 8pm to 10am. There is no one perfect, not-eating window. The key is consistency, so experiment to find what works for you.

You can hear more on the power of intermittent fasting on David Sinclair’s returning podcast Lifespan, which came out this week after a couple of years’ break. David is an Australian-American professor at Harvard Medical School who became famous thanks to his book Lifespan, kick-starting the modern fascination with longevity.

One Quote

“I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”

Winston Churchill