Gut health is not something one associates with Goodwood. That would be motorsport and horse racing. But after a 24-hour luxury taster of their 5-day Gut Health Programme (GHP), comprised of delicious food, spa treatments, soft bed, and countryside walks, I suspect that it soon will be.

The GHP, launched just two years ago, is teaching its guests nutrition and lifestyle principles that can change lives. 

This isn’t just about improving digestion. Clinical nutritionist Stephanie Moore, who devised the programme, says, “From a healthy metabolism and weight management, to a happy brain, sleep quality, stress resilience, a smart immune system and well-balanced energy, all require a robust and balanced gut.”

This is achieved in four ways. In order to rest the gut, no grains, dairy, and starchy vegetables are allowed. Also, the gut microbiome is nurtured with lots of healthy fats, proteins and fibres – think hearty meals (say, fish pie with celeriac mash, or confit leg of partridge). Sugar –  sob! –  is removed from the diet, as it’s fattening, and inflammatory. Finally, two interludes of fasting stimulate cellular cleansing and gut regeneration. 

Thankfully, these brief bouts of deprivation are rendered relatively painless. I visit the gleaming kitchens of The Goodwood Hotel, where executive chef Mike Watts has assembled juicy beef bones, plus carrots, celery, and onions, and herbs –  fresh from the Goodwood Estate’s organic farm –  to create a wholesome bone broth.

And please note, we’re making gut-friendly chocolate and nut chia truffles directly after.  

The broth twice features as dinner, beginning a fast until lunch the next day to rest and restore the digestive tract. “We call it liquid gold. It’s where the flavour is,” says Watts. “It’s also really good at nourishing the body. It’s got so much gelatine and protein. It’s easy to break down; a quick hit of natural ingredients.” 

The finished product is surprisingly tasty. Watts cubes tomato, and scatters cress to give it texture, helping you feel fuller. Guests eat in the restaurant, Farmer, Butcher, Chef –  where the likes of beef dripping triple cooked chips are served – and it’s a point of honour for Watts to create gut-nurturing food that’s enjoyable and “interesting.”

He succeeds. At lunch, Moore recommends I try the beef. It’s exquisite –  smoky, melty, satisfying. I’m stunned it’s permitted. No Swiss-clinic style starvation rations here.

That surprises many guests, who are “almost apologetic that they eat red meat, that it’s terribly bad for us,” says Moore. “We dig into the science and clear up these misunderstandings around food.” 

Quality, organic grass-fed beef is “red meat,” same as “a nasty bit of sausage,” she says, but “they are not the same thing.”

Moore adds, “Men really respond quite well to having fantastically delicious meat for supper.” And many leave “with a tighter notch on their belt.” 

Are we paring off the fat? Certainly not. Most of us believe that animal fat is purely saturated fat. In fact, notes Moore, it’s a combination of monounsaturated, unsaturated, and saturated fats. Fats have many critical roles in the body, she says. 

The brain is nearly 60 per cent fat, and fats in foods help to stabilise blood sugar. Eating meat with fats al o enables us to better digest protein. “Look for free-range, organic, and ideally grass-fed meat and wild fish,” she says.

A former vegan, she notes that vegan fare is not gut-healthy by definition. If you’re devoted to beans, tofu, vegetables, and fermented soy, sure, but, “If someone’s main principle is not to eat anything animal, they can have the junkiest, most awful diet in the world.”

Convenience “plant-based” foods are often full of “refined sugars, refined grains, refined oils” –  ghastly for our symbiotic gut bugs, and loved by pro-inflammatory microbes.

Quality marbled beef, and organically grown vegetables certainly sound more “on brand” for this elegant piece of English heritage than – as some fear on hearing the phrase “gut health” – one almond and a spoon of mung beans. And while the programme is educational, there’s pampering too (abdominal massages, body brushing). 

Yet, we might still wonder how this science came to the ancestral home of fast cars where one finds jars of dog biscuits, and red-trousered men in the hotel corridors.

Blame the Duchess of Richmond, for whom gut health is a passion. Goodwood was the perfect venue for such a venture, she says, when we meet in a cosy drawing room. “We’ve got the organic farm, we’ve got the food that underpins the programme.”

The week I visit she hosts a summit attended by 100+ gut health heroes (e.g Jessie Inchauspé, The Glucose Goddess, Dr James Kinross, author of Dark Matter –  the New Science of the Microbiome, Dr Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People.)

The Duchess, (the Hon Janet Astor before marrying the Earl of March, now the 11th Duke of Richmond), grew up eating cornflakes like the rest of us. But when she was eleven, her mother started giving the children a savoury breakfast –  “eggs, kippers, bacon, sausages” –  a tenet of keeping your blood sugar level and reducing inflammation, great for the gut.

Her interest in health developed further in parenthood. “My first child was a little bit… active, so we removed additives from his diet,” she says now. (To benefit “hyperactivity and asthma and eczema.”) But, “it turns out that’s part of gut health.” 

As Moore explains, “Most additives and emulsifiers added to food to give colour, to enhance flavour, and to enhance shelf life and texture, are man-made chemicals. Most peoples’ gut microbiome will be negatively affected.” Now and then is fine, but too much and our healthy bugs are either killed off or reduced, and pathogens bloom.

If we mistreat our microbiome, our ‘good’ microbes can’t fulfil their many health-promoting duties, such as educating our immune system, synthesising vitamins, regulating mood and brain chemicals, managing hormone levels, supporting liver health, calming inflammation, regulating metabolism (think, appetite, fat storage, and fat burning.) 

Yet looking after them can be transformative. The Duchess is an example. Twelve years ago, she was “heavier”, with more visceral fat. Her gut healthy lifestyle has reduced both. Without being rigid, she’s followed “a lowish carbohydrate diet,” has a savoury breakfast, Epsom salt baths (to boost magnesium), and “something fermented at pretty much every meal” – kefir, kombucha, or sauerkraut, probiotics containing live bacteria that improve or restore gut microbiota. 

“What I love most about the gut health programme is that everybody can leave here with a few small changes in their daily, weekly life which are entirely manageable,” she says. ”It’s not a diet. It’s principles for life.”

Indeed, I return home slightly evangelical. Moore’s mantra of “fibre with every meal” sticks, and I start eating leftover vegetables from dinner with breakfast. I don’t love sauerkraut, but the Duchess’s twentysomething children use it as a burger relish – I like their style. I also introduce more bean nights (my black bean soup isn’t purgatory) so when we do have meat, I can spend a little more on quality.

And, knowing that home-made apple crumble is a different beast to shop-bought – as it’s without chemicals, cheap fats and not heated to vitamin-killing temperatures – I enjoy mine with a large dollop of full-fat Greek yogurt, guilt-free.

Nine Goodwood rules for optimal gut health

Focus on nutritious food, not calorie counting

“Weight management is about hormones, which respond more strongly to the quality rather than quantity of the food you eat,” says Moore. If we limit calories and increase activity, the body assumes famine is imminent, and it will “hold on to body fat and burn muscle instead.”

She also notes, “You need to eat fat to lose fat.” (Eat too little fat, and your body will burn muscle for energy.) Essential fatty acid omega-3 is found in cold water fish, grass-fed meat, eggs – and harder for the body to use – nuts, seeds, greens. Monounsaturated fats, found in extra virgin olive and avocados, help to prevent heart disease, and improve our blood cholesterol ratio.

Plus, every calorie is not alike. “Two hundred calories of chocolate cake and 200 calories of raw almonds will not have the same effect on your weight.” The cake sugar causes a blood glucose spike, prompting a large insulin response. Insulin is the ‘fat-storing’ hormone. Also, the fats in commercial baking (also spreads, ice cream, many snacks) are harmful trans-fats, toxic to the gut and cells, and readily stored as fat. Almonds contain healthy fats, proteins and carbohydrates, all of which the body can burn. The fibre and fats ensure a low-insulin response. They’re also more satiating, and (unlike ultra-processed foods, with their sly mix of sugar and fats, stimulating the brain like opiates) don’t leave you craving more.

Fibre at every meal

“Gut microbes need fibre,” says Moore. She advises fibre, fat, and protein at every meal, with “half the plate leafy, colourful veggies.” Note: Fruit, vegetables, beans, legumes, are all carbs. There are many types of fibre. Prebiotic fibre provides our microbes with essential fuel. They’re found in onions, garlic, leeks, artichokes, rocket, kale, cooked and cooled potatoes, asparagus, beans, lentils, nuts, seeds and low-sugar fruit (such as berries, citrus fruits, avocados, green apples, kiwis and pale green bananas.)

Fill up on polyphenols 

Polyphenols are super-fuel plant compounds for your gut bugs, found in colourful fruit and vegetables, as well as coffee, tea, extra virgin olive oil (“a peppery one – heat and bitter notes indicate polyphenol content,” says Moore), green tea, berries, cocoa (hello, 75 per cent cocoa chocolate), and red wine. Moore notes that while alcohol is a toxin for gut bugs and the brain, the occasional glass, enjoyed with good food and company, has evidenced health benefits. As with any so-called “bad” food, think moderation. And, she says, “If you want something sweet, have it after a meal  –  the impact on your gut microbes will be minimal compared to eating on an empty stomach when you’re stressed.”

Eggs and butter  – yes please

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid produced by happy microbes. Linked to reduced inflammation, it improves serotonin and dopamine levels, and is involved in neuro-plasticity. It’s also found in grass-fed butter and beef. What about cholesterol? Saturated fatty foods  – think also eggs, prawns  – “are now known not to contribute to high cholesterol in the blood,” says Moore. Though eating lots of fibre “helps to manage lipids in the blood.”

The right sort of carbs

“People over consume fast-digesting carbs,” says Moore. Bread, pasta, potatoes, rice “and anything that tastes really sweet.” She adds, “The continuous overstimulation of excess sugar in the blood triggers inflammation that feeds the wrong microbes and suppresses the good microbes.” Instead of cereal and toast, opt for a three-egg omelette. She notes, “If you’re metabolically sluggish, overweight, and full of visceral fat  – dangerous, inflammatory fat  – we get those carbs right down.”

Many of us have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), because if you eat too much fructose, the liver turns it to fat. “The only way you’re going to de-fat a liver is if you’re not feeding it sugar,” says Moore. 

A 12-hour fasting window

Time-restricted eating has proven health benefits for our body and gut. Long-term, a 12-hour daily overnight fast is sufficient. “Metabolically as well as microbially, the body benefits from a 12-hour window,” says Moore.

A range of probiotics

If you take too many probiotic supplements for too long, says Moore, “you can crowd out your own microbes.” She advises the “food first” approach, and prioritising variety (e.g. aged cheddar, raw apple cider vinegar, miso.)

“A dairy kefir – incredibly microbially rich even compared to yoghurt – a bit of sauerkraut here and there. You’re drip-feeding in variety.”

Drink non-homogenised or raw milk if possible

“Homogenised dairy is not great because the fats have been broken down to a tenth of their natural size through the process – and the body doesn’t know what to do with these little particles of fat,” says The Duchess of RIchmond. “Whereas in natural milk, the body either uses or excretes the long-chain fatty acids.

“The critical temperature is 78 degrees – once it goes over, the milk becomes slightly caramelised and the fat particles become blobby instead of spiky.” (Raw milk is only available from farms, but non-homogenised milk is available in some supermarkets.) 

Get digestive juices flowing 

Before every meal, guests drink a shot of “bitters” – distilled bitter herbs in water, as a digestive aid. “Those bitter notes stimulate saliva, part of our digestive system,” says Moore, and the production of stomach acid and enzymes. Levels are often low “because we’re rushing around,” or stressed, which means we can’t properly absorb nutrients, e.g, vitamin B12. Apple cider vinegar with water also stimulates gastric function.

How do you take care of your gut health? Let us know in the comments