Why Your Gut Issues Might Not Be About Food

The Reality of Modern Digestive Problems

Feeling discomfort after eating lunch at your desk while answering emails? Experiencing gut issues when you're stressed in back-to-back meetings or running late to pick up your kids, knowing you'll be met with guilt about being the last parent there again? Your nervous system was already activated before you took the first bite, and that chocolate craving at 3pm isn't about lack of willpower—it could be your dysregulated nervous system sending distress signals, or your unfriendly gut microbiome demanding quick energy now!

If you're nodding along, you're not alone. And you're definitely not broken.

Maybe you've already tried elimination diets—cut out gluten, dairy, FODMAPs. Followed protocols that promised to "heal your gut" but left you more restricted than ever. Each approach failed, leaving you frustrated with solutions that don't account for your busy reality.

Here's what might change everything for your digestive health.

An Unexpected Discovery About Gut Health and IBS Problems

I'll be honest—this wasn't something I expected to learn during my nutrition degree. I was absolutely convinced that digestive issues like bloating, IBS symptoms, and stomach problems were simply a matter of identifying problematic foods and eliminating them.

By complete chance, I was also doing my yoga teacher training alongside my nutrition studies. During one module on the nervous system, something clicked that completely shifted everything I thought I knew about digestive health. I became genuinely fascinated by a possibility I'd never considered.

What if food wasn't always the villain in digestive chaos? What if chronic stress and nervous system dysregulation was playing a much bigger role in digestive health than anyone was talking about? This was a revelation that would completely change how I approach gut health without elimination diets.

The Gut-Brain Connection: Why Stress Affects Your Digestive Health

I had no idea that your gut contains more nerve endings than your spinal cord. Your digestive system has its own nervous system—the enteric nervous system—that's constantly communicating with your brain through the gut-brain axis.

When your nervous system perceives threat (whether it's a looming deadline or that mental load you're constantly carrying), it literally shuts down non-essential functions. If you're running from danger, your body won't waste energy digesting food—it needs every resource for survival.

The problem? Your nervous system can't tell the difference between a genuine threat and the chronic stress of juggling career, family, and endless to-do lists. Your body responds to all of it like it's life-threatening.

The Moment Everything Made Sense About Digestive Health and Stress

As I sat there learning how stress switches off digestive function, everything clicked. What really struck me was that people with gut issues are usually advised to follow strict elimination diets, cutting out foods that provide precious nutrients for their body and microbiome—often making problems worse.

What if we've got this backwards? Unless it's a diagnosed condition like coeliac disease, nervous system regulation should maybe be our first approach for digestive wellness, not eliminating beneficial foods through restrictive elimination diets.

The research backs this up. Up to one-third of people with IBS also experience anxiety or depression. IBS is now being reclassified as a disorder of gut-brain interaction, recognising that nervous system dysregulation plays a central role.

But social media is flooded with influencers telling people to cut out food groups. Such as, when people remove fibre-rich foods to "heal their gut," they're starving beneficial bacteria. Those hungry bacteria then eat the gut's mucus lining, damaging the barrier and allowing food particles to trigger inflammation, making problems worse.

What Actually Happens to Your Digestive System When You're Chronically Stressed

The research on stress and digestive health is compelling. Chronic stress may significantly impact your gut health through:

Gut motility and IBS symptoms: Stress can slow down how your gut moves food through your digestive system, which may lead to bloating, constipation, or irregular bowel movements. These are classic IBS symptoms that may have nothing to do with the food you ate.

Intestinal permeability: Sometimes called leaky gut, though this gets controversial since gut cells are naturally designed to let certain things through. Your gut has tight junctions that normally allow nutrients through while keeping larger molecules out. Chronic stress can weaken these junctions, potentially letting substances cross into your bloodstream that shouldn't be there, triggering immune responses and inflammation.

Gut microbiome imbalance: Stress hormones directly disrupt the balance of beneficial bacteria in your gut, affecting everything from mood regulation to immune function and digestive wellness.

Digestive inflammation: Chronic stress triggers inflammatory responses throughout your digestive tract, contributing to various gut problems and digestive disorders.

When Food Gets Unfairly Blamed for Digestive Problems

It's completely natural to blame food when digestive symptoms show up after eating. But what if the timing is just a coincidence?

Picture this scenario. You're rushing through lunch between meetings, scrolling emails while eating. Your nervous system is in fight or flight mode before the first bite. When discomfort appears later, it's easy to blame the sandwich, but was it the food or your stress response?

The hypervigilance of constantly monitoring food for gut problems creates more nervous system chaos. When you're anxious about every meal, you're keeping your digestive system on high alert, actually worsening digestive health.

I became properly fascinated by this stress and digestion connection. Food was copping the blame for so many digestive problems and gut health issues, but what if nervous system dysregulation was the missing piece? What if we'd been looking in completely the wrong place for digestive wellness solutions?

How to Support Gut Health Through Nervous System Regulation

Small changes that help regulate your nervous system for better digestion can have big effects on gut health, even when you're juggling everything:

• Sit down to eat in a calm space when possible (even 10 minutes helps)
• Take three deep breaths before meals to activate your rest and digest mode
• Put the phone away during meals (emails can wait 15 minutes)
• Notice how your body feels rather than just tracking symptoms
• Recognise that digestive issues aren't always about food, sometimes it's the stress you're carrying
• Manage stress levels throughout the day to support gut health

A Different Approach to Digestive Wellness

Your digestive issues aren't a personal failing, they don't mean you need to eliminate more foods. They're often your body's normal response to chronic stress and the impossible load you're carrying.

What would it look like to approach gut health by supporting your nervous system rather than restricting foods? To create conditions where your body feels safe enough for proper digestion?

This doesn't dismiss that sometimes it is food, it recognises that how we eat might be as important as what we eat. When your nervous system feels regulated, your digestive system gets the space to do its job properly.

Your body isn't broken. Sometimes the biggest shift comes from understanding that your gut and stress response are having a conversation you might not realise is happening.

Apply healthy consideration to wellness advice—including this. Digestive health is complex and individual. If you're experiencing chronic digestive issues, IBS symptoms, or persistent gut problems, working with healthcare providers who understand both nutrition science and nervous system health can give you the comprehensive support you deserve for long-term digestive wellness.