Nutrition Know How

One of the requests I received is how to improve your gut.  I believe they were talking about the biome, or bacteria that inhabit our intestinal tract from mouth to stomach to intestines to anus.  Technically the contents of our intestines are all external to our bodies, it is essentially a big tube snaking around inside of us.  That is why it can be teeming with bacteria, but we do not get sick from it for the most part.  There is a whole new area of research that is shedding light on the gut biome, and we are now realizing that it has a lot more to do with us than just bloating, reflux and diarrhea.  The gut biome impacts chronic diseases, mental illnesses, skin issues and sends many hormonal signals throughout our body that affect us throughout the day, as well as being one of the front line of defense in our bodies immune system.  

So, knowing all this, what can we do to optimize our diets and improve our gut heath?  The first step is to reduce the irritation and inflammation in our stomach and intestines.  This is caused by processed foods, additives, chemicals, and food dyes that our food system currently puts into most products we purchase.  Just look at the labels on your foods you buy.  If you don’t know what an ingredient is, then you shouldn’t be eating it.  

For example, can you tell what this food is?

Ingredients: Corn, Vegetable ON (Sunflower, Canola, and/or Corn Oil), Maltodextrin (Made From Corn), Salt, Cheddar Cheese (Mik, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey, Monosodium Glutamate, Buttermilk, Romano Cheese (Part-Skim CoNs MIk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey Protein Concentrate, Onion Powder, Corn Flour, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Dextrose, Tomato Powder, Lactose, Spices, Artificial Color (Including Yellow 6, Yellow 5, and Red 40), Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Skim Milk, Red and Green Bell Pepper Powder, Disodium Inosinate, and Disodium Guanylate.

CONTAINS MILK INGREDIENTS.

These are Doritos chips, a very popular chip brand.  Now compare that ingredient list to this one: 

Ingredients, Corn, avocado oil, sea salt, citric acid and lime oil.  Which would you rather be putting in your system?  So start looking at the ingredients of what you are eating and try to remove chemicals, additives, food dyes, etc.  

The second recommendation is to reduce the amount of added sugars in your diet.  These non-nutritional calories are not doing you any good and are promoting some of the bad bacteria in our guts.  I am sure many of you have had or know of someone who gets “hangry”.  Hungry and angry.  Well, this is not due to low blood sugar as was the old wives tale, but is due to bacteria signaling your brain that they are missing their sugar nutrient.  I know this because I used to get hangry, but while wearing a continuous glucose monitor noted that my blood sugar did not go low when I felt this way.  You can learn to ignore that signaling from the gut and will be much better off because of it.  

The third recommendation is to reduce the amount of processed foods that we eat.  Many processed foods have the fiber and nutrients removed from them during processing, so you end up with the calories without the nutrients.  Many American on the standard American diet do not eat enough fiber, which his good for the healthy bacteria in our guts.  The best way to do this is to focus more on whole foods, rather than processed foods.  The phrase I like is “If it grows on a plant, eat it, if it is made in a plant, don’t eat it.”  The concept is easy, you recognize and apple, peanuts, rice, carrots, peas, beans, etc.  These are whole foods. They are the way nature made them, with fiber and micronutrients in them.  Eat a variety of these throughout the week.  Which foods contain fiber?  Many fruits and vegetables, peas and beans, dark chocolate and more.  You can google healthy fiber foods to find the ones you like. 

Lastly, I recommend making sure you have enough fermented foods.  This is because these types of foods are very beneficial to the healthy bacteria we want in our guts without going into too much detail.  Fermented foods include sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir, kimchi, kombucha, pickles, raw unpasteurized cheese, cottage cheese and natural sourdough breads.  

So, to improve your gut health eliminate, additives and chemicals, processed foods, added sugars and instead focus on whole foods, fiber, and fermented foods.  As you change you’re the foods you eat pay attention to how you are feeling.  Notice when you are feeling really good and think about what you ate the day prior and remember to eat more of those foods  The same applies when you aren’t feeling great and try to avoid those foods.  You could also take test such as Viome, which will analyze your bacteria and let you know what foods are better for you and what to avoid.  I did this and found out that I should not eat broccoli, spinach and the like as I do not process oxalates well.  Listen to your body and determine what works for you.