Confessions of a gut therapist: why I talk about poo (and you should, too)

Most people will do almost anything to avoid talking about their digestive system - let alone their bowel movements. But not Ruth Reynolds.

“No-one wants to talk about poo. Except me,” she says with a mischievous laugh. “If we did talk about it honestly, half the population would realise their symptoms are not ‘normal’ at all.”

At 56, Ruth is one of the UK’s most sought after gut health nutritionists, a woman whose clients range from stressed out executives to desperate parents who’ve tried everything for their chronically bloated teenagers.

Her home office in Brighton, where she speaks with clients over Zoom, is calm, elegant and filled with sunshine - a world away from the high-pressure media career where her story began.

“I used to commute to London, run a PR agency, drink like a fish and work insane hours,” she says. “Late nights with clients, early mornings at my desk, endless travel. I thought feeling exhausted and bloated was just part of being ‘successful’.”

Then, at 38, everything changed.

“I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My mum had died suddenly of pancreatic cancer not long before and it was like my body was shouting: stop.” Radiotherapy forced her to slow down, but more than that, it made her reassess everything. Her relationship of 20 years ended. Doctors told her not to try for children for two years – so she did the opposite.

“I remember thinking: I want kids and I want them now. Even if it means IVF. Even if it’s risky.” She pauses. “Pumping yourself full of hormones when you’ve had breast cancer isn’t something you take lightly. But my oncologist said, ‘Some risks are worth taking,’ and that changed everything.” She went on to have twins.

Through it all, her interest in nutrition deepened. She’d always eaten well growing up, but suddenly she wanted answers: why do some bodies break and others cope? Why does stress destroy digestion? What does the gut have to do with immunity, hormones, even mood?

“The gut is the foundation of good health - it’s our second brain,” she explains. “You’re not going to absorb anything your body needs if your digestive system isn’t functioning properly.”

Twelve years ago, she retrained, became a Registered Nutritional Therapist and founded Ruth Reynolds Nutrition. Since then, she’s worked with hundreds of people on everything from chronic bloating to debilitating constipation to the kind of diarrhoea that leaves people afraid to leave the house.

“A builder client once told me he knows the location of every single public toilet in Brighton. That’s how much gut issues were controlling his life.”

So why poo? Why obsess over something everyone wants to flush and forget?

“Because your poo is a report card on your health. It tells me what’s happening in your microbiome, whether you’re absorbing nutrients, whether you might have an infection or if your digestive juices are firing on all cylinders, and more.”

Ruth teaches clients what healthy stool really looks like - and most are shocked. “People think daily bloating is normal. It’s not. They think constipation once every few days is fine. It’s not. They think diarrhoea after eating is just ‘my stomach’. No. These are signs something’s wrong.”

Her approach is firm but warm. “I don’t do extreme diets or fads. Food first, always. Tiny changes add up. More fibre, more colour, less sugar. Eating slowly. Not working while you eat. Sleeping properly. Managing stress. Your gut is listening to all of it.”

And the results? Her Google reviews are full of life-changing transformations. People who get their confidence back. People who stop planning their life around toilets. People who, for the first time in years, feel “normal”.

“I’ve lived a whole other life, one where I ignored my body until it screamed at me. Now I help people listen to the whispers before they become shouts.”

In a world obsessed with surface-level wellness, Ruth’s message is simple, a little cheeky and genuinely lifesaving: “If you want better health this year, start by looking in the toilet.”

For more, visit: https://www.ruthreynolds.com/