Gut Health: My Dos and Don'ts for Getting Started

DO #1  

Address stress and support your nervous system, focus on blood sugar balance and gut barrier integrity. Stress can wreak havoc on gut health and it comes in many forms! By taking the time to work on stress management, control blood sugar fluctuations and protect your gut barrier, you’ve already done most of the work to support your gut health in the long run. In a stressed state, your body cannot function normally or digest food properly. Stress can create imbalanced blood sugar leading to increased fat storage and tear down gut barrier integrity. A lot of the time when people want to heal, they want to do it quickly and create more stress in the process. Start with stress management as your base and add small habits one by one on top of that strong and balanced foundation. Slow progress over toxic perfection, always!

DO #2 

Keep track of the way that food affects your mood and well-being. Note symptoms of anxiety, depression, bloating, irregular BMs, headaches, acid reflux… even if these are next day symptoms. This is why recording can be so helpful. Instead of trying to draw conclusions from memory, you have data as your guide! For example, gluten can deplete serotonin levels in the gut, where about 95% of serotonin is produced, so depression is a possible side effect after consumption or prolonged exposure. This is the first thing I notice if I eat out at a restaurant and have been exposed to gluten, both anxiety and depression come back in full swing. I took SSRIs for years thinking that my mental health would never improve, but here I am living without debilitating anxiety after focusing on healing my gut!* There is much more that goes into healing from anxiety and depression, but it’s important to figure out your own triggers as food can make a big impact on your mood and your overall health.

DO #3

Invest in functional testing sooner rather than later to understand what’s going on in your body right now without the guesswork. Mineral imbalances, systemic inflammation, gluten intolerance, hormonal dysfunction, gut dysbiosis and pathogens… this is just a short list of what you can test for to save yourself frustration and struggle with your current symptoms. Figuring out the food sensitivities you have and if your immune system is on high alert due to an infection or bacterial overgrowth are great ways to reduce your overall stress load, but are often overlooked in a typical yearly check-up. Uncovering hidden imbalances that are affecting the way you function and show up in life is an investment that continues to pay for itself!

DON’T #1

Don’t cut out so many foods or macronutrients (protein, fat and carbs) that your body no longer feels safe. Stress plays a major role in gut health, so let’s not rock the boat by removing everything your body has gotten used to over the years overnight. Add in and replace before you remove—always. This is especially true when it comes to your macronutrients, because your body is not going to feel safe if you suddenly change the way you’re eating. Most Americans (~92%) are not metabolically flexible and cannot change from eating high carb to low carb overnight without consequence. Switching those higher carb meals from refined sugars and grains to complex carbs like sweet potatoes and squash can help make a smooth transition for your overall system without the stress.

DON’T #2

Don’t buy supplements from posts online—your body is far too individual to receive mass advice. Especially if you’re feeling more extreme symptoms, I wouldn’t roll the dice or waste the money on things like certain digestive enzymes, greens powders, probiotics/prebiotics, colostrum or detox pills without the guidance of a practitioner looking at your individual labs. Bacterial overgrowth, H. Pylori infection, dairy sensitivity or liver congestion are a few things that may show up on a functional lab test. Taking these supplements without this information could have a negative effect for you and your gut health!

DON’T #3

Don’t eat gluten or non-organic foods because they are more likely to trigger gut permeability. Gluten and pesticides like glyphosate cause your body to release more zonulin, which signals the tight junctions of the cells in your gut lining to open and allows the pass through of not only nutrients, but also toxins. With normal function, toxins cannot pass through this barrier. Factors like stress, bacterial overgrowth and medications like birth control can increase this permeability and make it more likely for you to become susceptible to leaky gut. When these toxins are able to pass through into the blood, symptoms like headaches, joint pain, and even autoimmune disease may occur. If you are symptomatic or have a lot of food sensitivities, you may already have an issue with gut permeability and you don’t need to add fuel to the fire by consuming gluten or glyphosate regularly. There are functional tests available to determine how much pass through is happening, if gluten sensitivity is present, and if the villi of the small intestine are damaged from recurrent stress and exposure to gluten. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to avoid these things forever either, but it is advisable if you are working on healing your gut!

*This is not medical advice or recommending that you stop any prescription medications.