Women With GRITT: Pernille Jensen from The Gut Co On The Secrets To Gut Health

Gritty Pretty (GP): Hi Pernille! You’re the founder, director, naturopath, herbalist and clinical nutritionist at your beautiful wellness brand The Gut Co. How did you enter the realm of wellness and get into the field of making people well, and how did that become part of your life mission? 

Pernille Jensen (PJ): I think it started a while back. I was always interested in health and nutrition and after studying naturopathy for five years, became a naturopath. For the past thirteen years of practice as a naturopath, I wanted to take all that one on one information that I was giving out to people daily to a wider audience. So, I embarked on The Gut Co, but I  really think it’s always been in my bones to be interested in what’s healthy. It’s changed a lot since the 80s. It was: you can eat junk food, but as long as you exercise you’re fine. And then we realised, ‘Oh no, that doesn’t work’. Now we know that food, and what we feed our bodies, is probably 80 per cent. Great if you exercise, that’s part of being healthy. But what we feed our bodies is really the main element on how healthy we can be. 

GP: When did you personally witness that change to inner wellness being just as important as things like exercise? 

PJ: I think it really depends on what your journey has been and your age. I think I was very robust. I could burn my candle at both ends for a very long time. Throughout my 30s was pretty intense in that I worked hard, I played hard. Then I entered my 40s and it didn’t take me until 42 that I started feeling like okay, I’m not getting away with everything. And I know from seeing clients for so many years, that sometimes that happens in the 20s. Sometimes someone who is 22 may have chronic fatigue or other issues. And it seems to be the same time for everyone when you begin to take an interest because you realise that life is really not that enjoyable when you’re unable to drag yourself out of bed in the mornings. 

I think it’s reaching a wider audience and has been for the last ten years. I think there is a wider understanding of wellbeing, but I also think people get motivated by skin health and hair health, which I’m all for. Whatever it takes, and sometimes that is what it takes. My daughter is 14 and she said, “I’m starting to get pimples, what do I do?”. She had no interest in health prior to this and I just ran with it, because that was my window of opportunity to teach her.

GP: Tell me more about The Gut Co’s philosophy when it comes to beauty wellness and the ingestible beauty product arena. Because, for you, it’s not just about the hair and skin, it’s about more, isn’t it? 

PJ: I’ve found ways of motivating people over the years. I’ve been saying the same thing to ninety-five, maybe even ninety percent of those that come and see me. It doesn’t matter if you have acne, or you suffer from diabetes or fatigue. I always start with the gut, because if the gut is not working, you’re not going to assimilate all those nutrients that you need in order to heal yourself. You may do more, but you always start there so that we can get the right nutrients and then we build on that. And that is my philosophy that everything begins in the gut. You turn over something like billions of cells every day, you need nutrients to turn that over. So, the old saying ‘you are what you eat’ is not really true—you really are what you assimilate. Even though you may eat a really healthy diet, you may have organic vegetables, but your gut is out of balance, you’re not going to assimilate all the nutrients from that food. Which means in turn, you’re not going to get the nutrients that you need to feel energised and create serotonin, which is the feel good hormone. 

I think there’s still a long way to go, but that is the foundation of The Gut Co – to harness that and help people create that baseline. We want them to live an optimal life where you can work hard and enjoy it and you can also play hard and enjoy it. 

GP: And so how do you approach formulations? I know you have a curated offering and obviously you’re so focused on the gut, given your incredible expertise, how do you approach that process and adding a new product to your lineup? 

PJ:  So the first two formulations, Feed and Repair, were really cooked up at home because I knew what ingredients had shown to give results in clinic and in the research, once I saw the results on my clients I started manufacturing the formulations in bulk and that was the beginning of The Gut Co. 

With something like Multitasker, our multivitamin, I would start thinking about what I want to achieve. With Multitasker, I wanted people to feel like they have more energy, they’re more focused on the tasks at hand during the day, their stress can be more manageable, they should feel zen and centred all day rather than a bit on edge. And as a bonus, it also makes your hair grow thicker and longer. 

GP: I wondered if you could talk a bit about the link between the gut and feeling and looking well. 

PJ: I think having an unhappy gut, it’s not always obvious. The obvious symptoms would be bloating, indigestion, maybe feeling fatigued after a meal, maybe even suffering from constipation or diarrhoea.

But the less obvious ones are feeling fatigued, finding it hard to focus, food intolerances, allergies, skin issues such as acne or eczema. All those things people don’t always associate with gut issues. I think that’s why it’s important to understand how the gut works and why. 

We focus on two aspects when we talk about gut health. The first one is the microbiome, and it’s all about the ratio of the good to the bad bacteria, and you want to have lots of good bacteria. The good bacteria help digest food, look after the immune system and are important for a healthy gut-brain connection. Then you’ve got the bad guys. You need them to a certain extent, but you don’t want them to overgrow. Once they overgrow, you have something called dysbiosis, which can cause bloating and all those symptoms I just mentioned prior. You should feed those good bacteria and you do that with prebiotics and probiotics.

The other aspect is the gut lining. The gut lining is made up of these tight junctions and when food has been digested into minute particles, these particles seep through the tight junctions into the blood stream. However, when these tight junctions start to open up due to stress, gluten, medications and inflammation, they allow bigger particles through such as viruses, bacteria and undigested foods, which will lead to an inflammatory response, which over time will fatigue your immune system and it might confuse it. We refer to these openings in the junctions as leaky gut or gut permeability, which over a period of time have shown to CAUSE food intolerances, autoimmune diseases, brain, acne and other skin issues. We want to really tighten those junctions and this is where REPAIR comes in as the collagen, glutamine, Aloe vera and superfoods will help repair those micro holes.

GP: Before I let you go, I would love to talk to you about your own morning routine, including both beauty, but also what you personally take from The Gut Co. How do you start your day?

PJ: I, almost without fail, get up at 5:30. Sometimes on the weekend, it might be 6:30. But my inner clock just wakes me up at that time. I get up, I go downstairs, I let the dogs out. And then I make myself lemon in water. I always have a glass of water—hydrate is my tip for everyone. It’s so important to set you up for the day. Then I go and make a coffee with ghee and I drink that in the car on the way to the gym. I really love doing weights. I’m really focused on building muscle mass. I think at my age the bone mass is so important. I come home and I have a smoothie. I add my Feed {gut+immune} and Repair {gut+skin} and I also add our PROTEIN {collagen+WPI}. In the afternoon I have CLEANSE {organic greens+mushrooms} in coconut water and ice in a shaker bottle, it hits the spot every time and helps me get through the afternoon without any slumps or cravings, it also helps me keep my liver detoxed, so my body can function optimally.

GP: Well, lastly, what are your big three? Your go-to cleanser, serum and moisturiser? 

PJ: I do love a gel cleanser. I just started using it a few months ago, it’s by Retreatment Botanics. It’s beautiful, I just feel clean after but not tight. Then I love the Sans Ceuticals serum called Superdose Masque. It’s a bit sticky, but soaks in straight away and smells divine. It’s got manuka honey in there and also it has a bit of a tingle sometimes so I don’t know if it’s got something in there that just tightens the pores, but it’s really lovely. Then I use Emma Lewisham Illuminating Creme. At night, I use a college and cream by Dr Spiller. It’s really thick and rich. I really feel like I wake up in the morning and my skin is dewy from just having slept in that, it’s almost like a mask.