The Gut Movie review
I’m gonna be really honest folks and tell you straight up, this blog post is going to talk about poo a lot, like a s**tload. If the poo emoji made a health documentary, The Gut Movie would be it. In fact, Kale Brock, who featured on MAN ABOUT ADL a while back, dressed up as the poo emoji to launch his movie at the Capri Cinema Goodwood on 5 November, to a sold out crowd of 750 people, eager to learn about optimal gut health.
Image Credit: @kalesbroccoli
I rocked up at 7:30pm, bright eyed, innocent, and ready to learn about the role gut health plays in overall well being. The Capri Cinema in Goodwood was absolutely chocka’s and it was standing room only while we waited to take our seats.
Image Credit: @chillovacoffee
We entered the theatre at 8pm and shortly after Stacey Kirsch (@wildoriginsmovementnutrition) took to the stage to share her incredible story of how she overcame fibromyalgia, obesity, and an inability to get pregnant naturally (among other things) by adopting a paleo lifestyle and implementing Kale’s gut health principles. She is now a Primal health coach, nutrition student, personal trainer, and founder of the Adelaide Paleo Group Facebook page, as well as an admin on the Adelaide Paleo Group. After concluding her story, she introduced Kale to the stage. He bounded up to thank us for coming to support the movie and then we were into it.
The documentary took a familiar path, starting out by introducing Kale and his journey as a journalist, gut health advocate, actor, and now film maker. We were introduced to a series of healthcare and medical experts specialising in the microbiome of the gut and how it impacts health. To establish a starting point, Kale submitted his own poo sample for testing so that viewers could see the results before he embarked on a mission to try and diversify/improve it.
We learned that we are made up of about 90% bacteria and 10% actual DNA (us). So what we put on our skin, the chemicals we’re exposed to and the food we put in our mouths, all play a big role in our gut bug diversity and balance. Remember the Inner Health Plus ad?
Image Credit: YouTube
Once Kale’s poo analysis results came back, he discussed the results with Dr Margie Smith. He discovered that whilst he had some good bacteria in there from all the greens he eats, courses of antibiotics he had taken as a youngster had reduced the diversity of his gut microbiome. He asked Dr. Margie if living with a remote tribe in Africa, eating their food and living their way of life, would increase the diversity of his gut bacteria and therefore contribute to better health. She absolutely agreed and Kale set off to Namibia for a week to live with an ancient hunter gatherer tribe called the San, to test his theory.
Enter probably the funniest part of the movie (and there were a lot) where Kale tries to negotiate taking poo samples from some of the local tribes people that he had been living amongst for the last week. After some consideration and discussion, they eventually agreed. What ensued was one of the most awkward and hilarious exchanges I’ve ever seen, with Kale exclaiming at one of the tribesmen, “Phwoar, that’s a good one!” The embarrassment he put himself through for the sake of science made this an entertaining movie in it’s own right, in addition to being very insightful.
Kale managed to collect the samples and bring them home to be tested along with his own poo after living with and consuming the traditional diet of the San for the week. It’s no surprise that he went from having a relatively low gut bacteria diversity, to being at the higher end of the scale, akin to that of a native hunter gatherer.
The movie provides a greater awareness of the role food and lifestyle play on our gut and how maintaining great gut health is a consistent and daily effort made up of a holistic approach to health.
After an entirely SOLD OUT Australian Tour in 2017, The Gut Movie is back for another round in 2018. The Adelaide screening will be on 1 March at the Capri Theatre. To find out where and when it will be showing in other cities, check out the website here!
The Gut Movie gets 5 out of 5 poo emojis.
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