The gut has become a hot topic for debate, especially when we talk about how to restore healthy gut flora. In this post I wanted you to know why I stopped taking a probiotic and how my gut health is better than ever.
Yet, I know this is an area of contention for many with different ideas, views and thoughts on how we can do this. This is also why we have the influx of probiotic and prebiotic rich foods and supplements on the market. Think kimchi, kumbucha, resistant starch and yogurt for days.
The question; are these foods and supplements doing any good? How do we fix our gut for good?
On today’s podcast we uncover the world of probiotics and prebiotics. Why your probiotic may be a waste of money and natural ways to fix your GI system including the one product I stand behind that isn’t a probiotic.
Listen to the show to get the full breakdown of everything you need to know about probiotics, prebiotics, resistant starch and healing your gut forever.
Listen on iTunes | Listen on Stitcher | Listen on Google Play | Review the Podcast
the impact of your gut
Gut health has been a fascinating topic for years. As we’ve watch the health of the world deteriorate from highly preventable things, researchers have began to wonder what specifically it is about the gut that plays such a huge role in our overall health.
To simply break it down, our bodies are home to around 40 trillion bacteria {yes that is with a t – trillion}. Which is about 10 trillion more bacteria than human cells.
While we often think of bacteria as harmful, this bacteria or the microflora living in and on your body is extremely protective and helpful with daily body function. In fact, some researchers would like to classify this microbiome as its own organ system, given the major role it plays in our body.
When we specifically look at the GI tract, the bacteria in the gut lining, are working to:
- protect you from harmful bacteria and fungi
- send signals to your immune system helping to regulate inflammation
- send signals to your hormones
- regulate what food particles and nutrients you absorb
- some can even produce their own nutrients including vitamin K and short-chain fatty acids
leaky gut
Now imagine what happens to your health, considering what this microflora does for you body, when diet and lifestyle choices start to degrade and kill off this good bacteria. Bad things occur including; lower immune function, weight gain, GI upset and issues, disease, cancer and practically every other disease known to man.
The medical community and holistic world refer to this as leaky gut.
Yet, for most that is actually far from the truth.
Again, while highly debatable I’m going to disagree that most of our issues are actually caused by intestinal permeability. Instead I suggest that rather than holes it is simply an imbalance in good to bad gut bacteria.
This imbalance throws off the helpful properties of the gut. Now we have less functional and more harmful bacteria sticking around leading to excess ammonia production which can leach through nearly every cell wall. This ammonia is what creates the nasty symptoms we see like; restlessness, anxiety, depression, skin problems, fatigue, weight gain, bloating, acid reflux, etc.
the diet connection
Not only are we reducing the amount of healthy bacteria leaving room for bad bacteria to grow, but our lifestyle choices are also hard on our liver. This leads to minimized bile production which also decreases hydrocholoric acid.
A decrease in hydrochloric acid means that the food in which you continue to eat is not getting digested well and this leads to rotting in your intestinal tract. This rotting is where you would insert the ammonia that will then spread through your body causing harm.
So what is doing more harm, the lifestyle choices that disrupt the bacteria or the lifestyle choices that reduce liver function and cause increase in ammonia? I’d say they are both as concerning and even more concerning is the very real possibility that both things are occurring at once.
What causes this harm?
Here are a few lifestyle factors that are taxing the liver and reducing good bacteria;
- high fat diet
- high sugar diet
- processed foods and food additives
- alcohol
- smoking
- medications {including birth control, pain meds, cholesterol lowering medications, etc}
- frequent antibiotic use
- hand sanitizer, germ killers
- lack of fiber
pulling it together
Just to make this super clear, cut through the confusion and learn how to restore your gut flora, lets break it down one more time.
As you eat a diet and live a lifestyle that is harmful to your good gut bacteria, you begin to create an imbalance in bacteria. Not to mention these foods and substances all have to get processed by the liver which in time can cause a sluggish liver to occur.
This sluggish liver no longer has the energy to produce the correct amounts of bile leading to a decrease in stomach acid production like hydrochloric acid.
This lack of stomach acid diminishes digestion that leads to food rotting in your small intestines. This rotting causes ammonia which feeds bad bacteria and seeps through your cell walls wrecking havoc both externally and internally.
The ammonia, the sluggish liver, the lack of stomach acids and the imbalance of bacteria all begins the vicious cycle. The cyle of your body becoming fatigued from working to fight off infections, bacteria and viruses that are all being fed by the harmful processed we’ve created inside our GI system.
heal your gut
In the podcast above we break down probiotics, prebiotics and how to actually heal your GI tract naturally and forever. I can assure you, pumping your body full or probiotics is rarely going to help and definitely not long-term.
Probiotics are not intended or designed for that. In some cases they may even be a waste of money.
healing foods
How do we heal our GI system and ultimately our body?
Through healing foods and lifestyle choices.
Most of the healing foods contain prebiotics or fiber that becomes the food that feeds your good bacteria and allows it to flourish. These are foods like sweet potatoes, squash, fresh fruit and vegetables. Basically a diet of whole foods found in nature is going to provide the most healing properties.
Foods to avoid include the inflammatory causing foods and the ones that feed bad bacteria and viruses that may be leading to an increase in ammonia production and inflammation. These foods include; eggs, soy, gluten, corn and dairy products.
healing lifestyle
We can’t forget to mention the lifestyle that is also healing to our bodies. This means one of rest, learning ways to deal with stress {because stress is a huge disruptor of healthy microflora}, reducing outside chemicals and toxins and living cleansed.
This also means reducing the urge to kill every single germ in site, living in a sterile environment. If you’re a germ freak, I’m sorry to tell you that this could actually be allowing resistant bacteria and germs to grow. Killing everything is not the answer. It’s providing what we need for the good and believing it will do the job to keep out the bad.
Embrace the dirt. There is so much good bacteria in the dirt that we can’t afford to fear it.
healing supplements
By now you may be wondering if you shouldn’t take a probiotic, than what should you supplement with to help heal your gut?
Here’s the deal. While I don’t believe that probiotic supplementation long-term is going to do a lot of good, I think it can be an occasional jumpstart. Whether you had to take a medication for a period of time, you had a virus or just feel like your body needs a boost you most certainly can take a probiotic.
Here is my advice around probiotics:
- Rotate which kinds and brands you use to ensure you are getting a diverse specimen of bacteria.
- Consume them in the absence of food {debatable} but my preferred method.
- Use them sporadically and periodically, not every day.
The other supplement I highly recommend for everyday use is a product called Restore.
Restore is neither a probiotic or prebiotic but rather a product that provides the right environment to foster natural GI flora maintenance. If you’ve been around for a while you know I’m all about enabling your body to do the job it was designed. This is just the tool to do that.
Restore delivers a balanced family of bacterial metabolites to provide the firm foundation for healthy bacteria growth and maintenance. This means you have better bacteria communication leading to greater biodiversity in the gut ecosystem supporting our natural immune function.
Personally, this is the first product that I have experienced tremendous gut benefit with and I can’t recommend it enough!
bottom line
It’s always, always, always about providing the right environment to allow our body to do the job it was designed. It knows best, it wants to do best we just have to give it the space to do just that.
Take care of your gut and it will take care of you!
Don’t forget to listen to the episode for the full breakdown of probiotics, prebiotics and learn more about creating the right environment for your body to fully heal. This means cleansing, healing and restoring your body. Most importantly be your own advocate! Listen, learn and experiment with your own body providing what IT needs and not what others are telling you!
To learn more about cleansing your body check out our FREE detox guide on cleansing the natural way.
It will elevate your health and allow you to experience food and health freedom once and for all.
I’m here to help you live in health not for it!
sources of research
Research on RESTORE gut health:
Research on gut health:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
