Gut Health 101- 4 Steps to a Happy, Healthy Gut!
“All disease starts in the gut.” “Eat fermented foods to heal SIBO.” “You will have Crohn's, Colitis, and IBS for the rest of your life.” We have all heard just as many myths as we have truths about our gut health and healing. I want to do a deep dive with you into the human microbiota and give you the knowledge as well as the tools necessary to your healthiest gut, and most optimally performing body! This is what I needed most and did not have in one succinct place while I was struggling with my gut health and debilitating SIBO/IBS years ago.
First things first, what is your gut? Anatomically speaking, your gut is comprised of your stomach, small intestine, large intestine (which includes the colon), liver, and gallbladder. These organs work synergistically to digest and assimilate nutrients as well as keep the bacteria flora in happy homeostasis.
When symptoms spring forth within the gut we develop common conditions and symptoms diagnosed (that also go undiagnosed) such as: irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and gastroparesis, to name a few. For these aforementioned conditions western medicine will prescribe pharmaceuticals, schedule surgery, or send you away without answers. Alternative medicine sells you six bottles of supplements and advises you to stop eating fruit because that will fix the problem. Insert eye roll here and read why. What is really going on in our GI tract and how it is affecting the rest of our health?
Think of the gastrointestinal tract like a river.
When the GI microbiome is out of balance the river becomes toxic, seeping with bad bacteria and unable to sweep food through at an effective rate.
When our digestion falters the body becomes sick and the liver grows weak from being overburdened.
Digestion further slows due to reduced bile production from a weakened liver and more bacteria breeds along the lines of the intestines. This is when disease and disorder begins to ensue within the digestive tract. Gas, pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhea are common symptoms from bacterial overgrowth. If you’re struggling with autoimmune GI disorders like colitis there is viral infection in your gut to be eradicated through various nutritional and herbal therapies.
It ALL Begins in the Gut
You can be a shiny red apple on the outside while simultaneously rotting on the inside, literally. The same goes for your body if your gut health is deteriorating.
Eventually your skin, mental health, and GI symptoms will be a clear depiction of how your gut is functioning internally.
Foods harder to move through the GI tract like meats, oils, nuts, seeds, and legumes require higher amounts of hydrochloric acid. When you’re autoimmune or chronically ill you’re likely deficient in hydrochloric acid due to low thyroid hormones, as well as not producing adequate bile due to an overburdened liver. What does this mean? Food is not moving through at the rate it should, which feeds and breeds the non beneficial bacteria living in your GI tract. Stagnant gut rut also causes ammonia permeability from GI tract to blood stream causing fatigue, malaise, skin problems, restless sleep, and anxiety. When gut rot is unknowingly happening bacteria is proliferating in your GI tract & your immune system is fighting an invisible war every single day. You develop uncomfortable SIBO symptoms like gas, bloating, and abdominal pain. You are also more susceptible to recurrent strep throat and sinus infections. Why? BECAUSE COLDS, FLUS, & STREP ACTUALLY BEGIN IN YOUR GUT! Our dietary choices have everything to do with how often we get sick. Combine slow gut motility with bacteria feeding foods (gluten, dairy, high animal protein/fat) and gut bacteria proliferate, get into the lymph system, and travel to our glands causing infection. Sinus infections work a bit differently as most of us have colonies of strep bacteria residing in our sinus cavities that once flared by diet, allergies, or physical obstruction cause infection secondary to result of inflammation.
Gut Healthy Diet
Now that I have you convinced your gut is the root of all evil, let’s talk about what we need to be doing to heal our bodies by targeting our gut health through nutritional therapy.
Step #1: Stop eating like crap! Your body is not a garbage disposal. You are not a dog to be rewarded with treats that do not serve you. If you are having cravings and cannot get away from the processed foods, fried foods, and sweet treats there is a reason for this. You are likely facing nutrient deficiencies and pathogens within the GI tract that are literally biohacking as they send chemical signals to your brain that create a craving to keep you eating the foods that cause them to proliferate. Just because bacteria do not have brains does not mean they’re not wired for survival.
Step #2: Cut the inflammatory foods that are acting like razor blades sweeping through your GI tract causing inflammation. Gluten, dairy (why here), canola oil, MSG, corn, refined sugar (anything “cane”), citric acid, ascorbic acid, and the preservatives on food labels you can’t even pronounce. “So what does this leave me with to eat Jen?!” Eat what we’re created to eat..eat like you live in nature! If you want to feel alive and HEAL you must consume real food!
Step #3: Eat living foods! If you’ve been diagnosed with SIBO you’ve likely been told a FODMAP diet will benefit you, when in reality a FODMAP diet is a bandaid holding you back from your true healing potential. FODMAP diets prevent you from eating the most gut healing foods like onion, garlic, banana, celery, and watermelon. Sure, you don’t have the amount of gas and bloating eating in accordance with a low FODMAP diet. That is because these healing or “high FODMAP” foods cause die off in the bacteria colonies and this produces a gas as these colonies are laid to rest. You NEED TO EAT garlic, melons, bananas, etc. These will be the only foods to heal your gut of that yucky harmful bacteria and restore your vitality.
Step #4 Drastically lower your protein and fat. Surely you will wither away and lose all muscle mass correct? WRONG. Read more here. How does lowering fats and proteins help to heal the gut? Remember, when our gut health is struggling then that means we’re likely not producing the hydrochloric acid necessary and our liver is overburdened leaving bile production ineffective. So when we’re eating the carnivore diet or the closest thing to it believing what we’ve been told, we need to be eating meat at every meal, our liver is crying out for rescue and the heavy meats and oils we’re consuming create thick layers of bacteria feeding byproduct on our intestinal walls which become the breeding ground for illness to occur. So where do you get the necessary amino acids for muscle building and cellular synthesis? GREENS. Spinach, kale, lettuce, the peel of cucumbers and zucchini, potato peelings, peas, cruciferous vegetables, you get the picture. Believe it or not we do not need the amount of protein we’re led to believe. I am still crushing my strength goals in the gym and eating a FRACTION of the protein I once ingested.
Easy rule of thumb, eat meat once a day. If you’re severely struggling with your gut health, have it once a week. Cut out all protein supplements for good and eat more fruit instead. Nothing will give you a sicker bicep pump than pounding down some watermelon.
Step #5: Become your body’s own detective. Beans make you hurt? Avoid them while you heal. Dairy gives you the runs, well duh. Ice cream is a pathogen party waiting to happen. Your protein shake makes you burp? Chances are you could benefit greatly by backing off on the supplements. Our symptoms are a blessing. They are a message from our body that says, “ I am fighting for you, I need your help here, please listen to what I am telling you.”
The above steps are crucial for any level of gut health symptoms from a little gassy once a week to full blow ulcerative colitis. How can this be? Because all of these gut health conditions stem from toxicity within the gut. NOT the body attacking itself or your “bad genetics” screwing up the way you digest food. Is what you’re doing now working for you? Then there is still room for change to take place and improvements to be made!
Want a tangible PLAN from these steps above? Download my free healing guide here!
SIBO/Candida Relationship
I used to say I wish I could just not eat, because everything I did eat would cause me pain. This is not normal and can be corrected through healing SIBO.
If you have SIBO, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, you have an overgrowth of candida as well. However, you have likely been told that we need to treat your candida and kill off the yeast in your body!
This information is actually incorrect. Sibo and candida always exist hand in hand on some level because candida is low key saving your life. How does this work?
Your body is so smart that when harmful bacteria begin to take over the GI tract population, candida says “oh no you do not” and begins to spread to literally save your behind. If your gut is full of harmful bacteria you will likely become septic and face serious consequences. If your gut is covered in candida you will just have some very unpleasant side effects like fatigue, joint pain, skin out breaks, undigested food, gas, pain, and bloating. Thankfully the candida is saving our life, and the even better news we can heal that too using the steps above to begin, and further targeting your individual nutritional therapy needs.
How Emotions and Stress Affect Gut Health
High stress levels or even an anxious vibe about someone absolutely contributes to poor gut health. Why? When cortisol (stress hormone) levels are high the vascular system vaso constricts, sending our bodies into sympathetic nervous system dominance, and when this happens simply put things just don't digest like they should and nutrients are not adequately absorbed. Managing our stress in efforts for our gut health is so hard because we cannot see what is happening inside the body, but if you commit to being mindful about your stress levels, reactions to daily stressors which will contribute to how well you're digesting, absorbing, and eliminating you will absolutely see a difference. I speak from not only knowledge, but experience, my fellow gut health warriors! My gut health was so poor at one point I would avoid eating until bedtime because of the pain, bloating and awful gas smell consuming any food would trigger! This was due to a combination of my toxic diet and toxic emotional health. I used the same steps above along with deep emotional healing practices to heal my toxic belly.
Let’s wrap this discussion up by setting straight the most common gut healing myths and truths..
Healing Myths:
You need a probiotic to heal. The right brand can be helpful, however, I’d rather you save the pretty penny they cost and buy organic produce for the prebiotic fibers + elevate biotics they contain that will heal your gut faster than any supplement.
Fermented foods and kombucha are gut healers, wrong. In fact if you’re struggling with yeast overgrowth they’re likely making things worse for you. These foods were created to allow our ancestors to survive in the winter by fermenting cabbage to have a vegetable to eat also known as sauerkraut. Likewise, kombucha sure is fun to grow and is a delicious beer alternative, but it isn’t benefiting your gut health!
Taking shots of Apple Cider Vinegar is pickling your liver and not helping your gut heal! If you want a cleansing beverage hydrate with lemon water or take a shot of orange, ginger, + turmeric.
Healing Truths:
Your bad breath is 100% related to your gut health. Ammonia and bacteria by product travel up through our gut into our mouths, this is even how cavities develop while we sleep. Bad breath is like having rotting meat or garbage in your trash can and when you open the lid, a bad odor comes up and out!
You should poop 2- 6 times a day depending on your fiber intake! Your gut has to get rid of all the toxins produced as a byproduct of your metabolism that your liver dumps in through the bile, and if things get backed up, you will become toxic and unable to lose/gain weight!
Prescription drugs are killing your hydrochloric acid production: Antibiotics, immunosuppressants (they’re also wrecking your ability to fight chronic illness), antifungals, amphetamines, and over the counter antiinflammatories/pain relief are all culprits of poor digestion and nutrient absorption. Consider overuse of medications that damage the gut or block normal digestive function and begin to investigate new ways to remedy your conditions without drug therapy. Drugs also contain toxic heavy metals which we will need to remove from your body to heal your gut as well. These heavy metals are causing cellular damage within the body and feeding bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi.
Celery Juice will heal your gut. It has healed mine and I drink it every morning. I have not missed a single serving in two years. Plain celery juice on an empty stomach will restore hydrochloric acid and kill toxic gut microbes. Try it for a week, you will see. :)
Every individual requires different dietary needs and supplementation for healing. My free healing guide listed above is a great starting place if you do not currently have the resources to work with someone well versed in nutritional therapy and functional medicine. However, if you are wanting to completely heal your body at the highest caliber hire a healing professional to work alongside you. You are worth it, your health is your greatest investment and your most abundant source of wealth.
Healing Abounds!
Love,
Jen
Questions?
