L-Glutamine: Restoring gut health and leaky gut

Can L-Glutamine really help with my gut health? Well, that’s exactly what we’re going to explore. 

L-glutamine is a non-essential amino acid produced by the body but also found in food. The main characteristic is that it is considered to have immunological and pharmacological effects. L-glutamine is a major source of energy for intestinal and some immune cells, which makes it very important for overall gut health.

L-Glutamine is a critical amino acid that is necessary for a number of different functions in our bodies. 

So what are amino acids? Amino acids are the basic building blocks of protein, which forms a substantial percentage of our bodies. Proteins are found in every cell of our body. Cells use protein as building blocks to help our hair grow, regenerate our skin, and produce hormones, cartilage and tissue.

Proteins are the building blocks of our body and amino acids are the building blocks of proteins.  Amino acids are sometimes called the building blocks of life and for good reason.

Studies have shown L-glutamine has many positive effects in terms of reducing inflammation and helping in exercise recovery, but also in strengthening the immune system and improving IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) and IBS symptoms (irritable bowel syndrome).

A video on how L-GLutamine can be used for gut health, immune support and muscle repair

I have partnered with @nutridomcanada to explain how L-glutamine supports the immune system, digestion and muscle repair. You can also watch this video on Instagram.

More recently though, it has been used for its ability to help with overall gut health. You’ve likely heard about gut health, but it’s not always clear what exactly it means. One key factor to gut health is the strength and integrity of the walls that line the digestive tract. If this barrier is weakened or damaged, your gut health will suffer.

Leaky gut symptoms can include:

• Gas
• Bloating
• Cramping
• Irregularity
• Diarrhea
• Constipation

Poor gut health can also impact other systems of the body, like the immune system. Glutamine is essential to the growth and function of the cells that make up these intestinal walls. These cells make up a barrier that serves two purposes:

1. It keeps toxins and bacteria out of the digestive tract.
2. It allows nutrients and other beneficial substances to enter.

Improving gastrointestinal health is one of the best ways L-Glutamine benefits the body. Your intestines rely on this nutrient to be able to repair and rebuild its mucosal lining, which provides a much needed protective barrier from bacteria and toxins. This is especially important if you have any digestion related problems.

Leaky Gut:

Leaky gut syndrome is really a term used for increased intestinal permeability. If your gut has become leaky it means the tight junctions that usually hold the walls of your intestines together have become loose, allowing undigested food particles, microbes, toxins, and more to escape your gut and enter your bloodstream. These escaped particles can cause all sorts of problems within the body. Once they enter your bloodstream, your immune system tags them as invaders and attacks them, causing a rise in inflammation.

Changing your diet is the first step in healing a leaky gut. It is a 2 step process that includes removing the toxic and inflammatory foods that caused your gut to become leaky:

i.e : alcohol, caffeine, drugs and Inflammatory foods including gluten, dairy, corn, soy, eggs and sugar.

Then look at adding in the nutrients that will help it heal. This is where L-glutamine comes in.  L-glutamine is one of my favourite supplements to help restore gut health as it helps to restore and rejuvenate the gut wall lining.

What is a leaky gut? I explain it in this video

How can I incorporate L-Glutamine into my diet?

Supplemental forms of L-glutamine come in powders and can be easily added to drinks, smoothies, yogurts, and more. I like to add it to chia pudding and smoothies.

Here are a couple of great smoothie recipes that would be great for not only gut health but would be great with a scoop of L-glutamine:

• Blueberry Ginger Smoothie
• Liver Detox Smoothie
• Protein Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie

Foods high in L-Glutamine

It’s pretty easy to get enough L-glutamine from food if you eat meat daily. For vegans and vegetarians, it may be beneficial to seek out a supplement form. These are some great food sources of glutamine including some plant-based options:

• nuts
• legumes
• quinoa
• fermented tofu
• spinach
• cabbage,
• beetroot
• grass-fed meat
• bone broth
• wild-caught fish
• spirulina
• asparagus
• parsley

Eating an anti-inflammatory diet can go a long way in healing your gut, however, I find that most people (including myself) can use the help of just a few targeted supplements to help the process along. That being said, food is also a huge part that can’t be ignored.

Here are some of my favourite ways to include L-glutamine in my meals:

Key benefits of L-glutamine:

Immune system: This amino acid improves the action of your immune system by promoting the growth of white blood cells and other immune cells.

Blood sugar: L-glutamine directly adds glucose to your blood, and it also increases your levels of insulin, which fights back against the primary symptoms of diabetes.

Muscle: This amino acid helps create muscle proteins, which speed up exercise recovery and helps produce new muscle tissue.

Digestion: L-glutamine aids in digestion by preventing the growth of bad bacteria.

The Bottom Line on L-Glutamine

There is a lot to be learned about glutamine, and the evidence keeps building to show just how important it is for gut health. Although L-glutamine is made in the body, things like stress, illness, toxin burden, overexercise, and our daily diet may lead to deficiency. This deficiency may impact gut health, leading to conditions like digestive issues and leaky gut.

It’s clear that L-Glutamine is an amino acid that is fundamental to the well-being of the digestive and immune systems. Glutamine is great for repairing damage to the gut, helping the gut lining to regrow and repair and undoing the damage caused by leaky gut.

Making sure you are including foods high in L-glutamine can be helpful and taking an L- glutamine supplement may restore the integrity of the cells in the intestinal wall and improve overall well being. Have you tried L-glutamine for gut health? Let me know in the comments if you have.

This article was lovingly written by my intern Gemma Digby. She is a Holistic Nutritionist and Culinary Nutrition Expert who is intoxicated with the idea that food is medicine. Gemma believes that food should be vibrant, nutritious and delicious. She teaches and empowers women to create vibrant health and find the emotional well-being they’ve been missing. Check her out on Instagram and visit her website to learn how to create vibrant health using simple science-backed strategies that work.

Photo by Ella Olsson on Unsplash