WELLTHY Generation Podcast!

66. Gut Health: The Impact of Food & Emotions, Plus 4 Steps to Better Gut Health

• Naihomy Jerez • Episode 66

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This episode highlights the importance of gut health and its profound impact on overall wellness, including mood, immunity, and nutrient absorption. Listeners gain valuable insights into understanding gut issues, managing stress, and actionable steps to enhance gut health through diet and lifestyle changes. 
• Gut health as key to overall health 
• Connection between gut health and emotional well-being 
• Immune system reliance on a healthy gut microbiome 
• The implications of leaky gut on health 
• Foods that nourish good gut bacteria 
• Importance of stress management for gut health 
• Four-phase protocol for gut healing 
• Invitation for personalized coaching and support

Here is a cool, short, and simple YouTube video that explains a bit more about the Brain and Gut are connected: The Gut and Brain: A Surprising Connection

Thank you so much for listening!


Speaker 1:

Hello friends, welcome back to Wealthy Generation Podcast. Okay, this is the first time ever I'm recording from my cell phone. I tried it a few times before and it works pretty well. But if you hear weird noises going on, this is why that's one. Two, I'm recording from Inwood, manhattan. If you're not familiar with New York Manhattan, what Inwood is? It is part of the little Dominican Republic Caribbean area, of what is Washington Heights, inwood, northern Manhattan, and there's a lot of noise outside y'all. It's like fire trucks and police cars and beeping of garbage trucks. So if any of this filters onto this recording, you know what's up, because your girl wants to get this podcast episode to you.

Speaker 1:

This is going to be all about gut health at a pretty high level. I don't even know how it's taken me so long to record an episode on gut health. It is something that I talk to every single one of my clients about. It is something that I take care of diligently and anytime I post or say anything about gut health, everybody always talks to me about their gut and how they're feeling and how they think that it is part of the solution to help them feel better, like all these things. So here we are, talking about gut health today. It's going to be pretty high level, I think, important information that you need to know. Definitely there's going to be action items that you can take away from this episode that you can go and implement at home to help you heal, feel better, however that works for you. But please also know that this is not personalized advice or suggestions. This is more general, obviously, because I don't know you personally, and this is just general information that can help. And this is just general information that can help. If anything, I hope it sparks your curiosity and the love for your gut and how magical it is and how many things it does, so that you can learn how to take care of it so much better.

Speaker 1:

Because when your gut is in good health, you are in good health. Okay, when your gut is in good health, you are in good health. It plays such a big role in your overall wellness and a lot of, I guess, symptoms or things that you feel treat our body or we've been taught to treat our body so compartmentalized and that's how our medical system in the United States works. It's very compartmentalized within our own bodies, even though our body works as a whole. Body works as a whole. Then it becomes hard to discern or actually even know that the root cause oftentimes of whatever we're feeling comes from our gut, and it can be anything from autoimmune conditions, headaches, skin irritations that is coming up for you so much stems from, even like depression, and mood disorders are believed to come from the gut. So it's a very important to know about.

Speaker 1:

Is not just something that houses poo and helps you digest. Your food is so much more than that, so let's get into it. I just wanted to paint a little bit picture of why it's so important to care about your little gut, your big guts actually, and all that it does for you. So what exactly is your gut? Okay, it is such an important place because it is where a lot of your digestion takes place. There you have a whole digestive system stemming from your mouth, where it starts to decompose food. You start to chew your food. Your saliva has enzymes that starts to break down. Your food has enzymes that starts to break down your food, and then it goes down through your esophagus and then it lands in your stomach and your stomach starts to digest things.

Speaker 1:

But the real I guess the real long-term effects and process of digestion happens in your gut. Process of digestion happens in your gut and, however, gut issues can start way up in your stomach area where you're suffering from acid reflux. There's this little valve between your esophagus and your stomach that's supposed to remain shut so that the acid from the stomach is not going into the esophagus. It's not where it belongs. So a lot of times when you're feeling acid reflux and the heartburn and all these uncomfortable symptoms, it is coming from your stomach not being in a good place and the acid being all over the place. A lot of gas is produced in there and it starts to push up that valve. That then spews into your esophagus, which starts to create discomfort.

Speaker 1:

And usually what happens is in this part is that we start to take acid blockers just so that we can find some comfort and I was one that had like Gas-X and Tums and all these things in my bag consistently because I would always get that burn, not knowing that these acid blocking medications make things worse in the long run, although it causes you, although it helps you feel better in the short term, because it starts to really mess with your stomach acid. So the goal is to not have to use these over-the-counter medications in the first place. Obviously, if you're in a lot of discomfort then, yes, absolutely do your best to try and help you feel better. But the goal is to go to the root cause of what's causing you the heartburn in the first place, so that you don't have to use these medications right and sometimes it's just too late. Where the valve is kind of this is definitely not like medical terms or anything like that like broken and not working well, so other measures need to be taken into place.

Speaker 1:

But just know that your digestive system starts actually when you first start to eat the food right, you're chewing, you swallow, now it's in your belly and then it moves on to your intestines. You have your small intestine and your large intestine and through this process the food really starts to get broken down and this is where a lot of the nutrient absorption from the food that you're eating starts to happen. So let's say you eat an apple and the nutrition from the apple does not get absorbed in the stomach or in your esophagus or from your mouth or anything like that. The gut starts to break down the food and it starts to take the water out and take the fiber out and take the vitamins and minerals from this apple out and it gets absorbed through your gut. Now if your gut is not in good health, then you are not absorbing nutrients effectively. Nutrients effectively so you can be eating a fantastic diet like food, but if your gut is not in good health, you can actually be malnourished because your body is having a hard time absorbing these nutrients from the foods that you're eating. So the choices of or like nourishing yourself doesn't end when you make a choice and you eat the food. It actually really starts or like not starts, but it actually determines when if you are absorbing this or not, depending on your gut health. Okay, so that's really important making appropriate choices of food and then making sure that your gut is in good health to be able to absorb the nutrients that you're giving it.

Speaker 1:

So another thing that the gut is responsible for is our mood. It is said that about 90% of serotonin, which is one of our happy hormones, is produced in our gut. So oftentimes I have this joke sometimes, if somebody's in a really bad mood, I'm like, oh, they must be constipated. It's probably an awful joke, to be honest with you. Awful joke, to be honest with you, but your gut holds a lot of your emotions and your feelings, and this is something we're going to talk about, because a lot of people assume that it's just the food that you eat that affects your gut health, but actually your emotional health really affects your gut as well. So, yes, your gut can absorb nutrients. It also produces a lot of serotonin, which then gets passed along to the brain. So if your gut is in distress, it's going to have a hard time producing serotonin.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that lives in your gut is your immune system. A lot of times we are sick, our immune system is down and we don't know why, and most of the time is because our gut is not in optimal health. Your immune system is low. So I don't know if you've been noticing how important the gut is for so many important facets of our body and what our body has to do. Your body needs these vitamins and minerals to do its processes. Each piece of that is like a puzzle piece for a bigger process in the body, and whenever we're deficient in certain vitamins and minerals, it causes this domino effect in the body of something else not working well.

Speaker 1:

For example, let's say vitamin D, which a lot of people are deficient in, especially very melanin BIPOC people. Right, we're very vitamin C deficient, living in colder areas where there's not that much sunshine. Vitamin D is essential for good hormone health, right, and it is one of the key, let's say, puzzle pieces for our hormones to work well. So if we're deficient in vitamin D, we might not be feeling our optimal selves and you might be like, oh, I don't know, I'm eating well. I just don't know why I'm so tired. I just don't know why my period's off. X, y, z, right, I'm so fatigued, my mood is off. Vitamin D has a lot to do with that, and so does iron, so does zinc, so does calcium, right, so many of our vitamins and minerals. So we need to make sure our gut is in optimal health so it can start absorbing these things Again.

Speaker 1:

If it's not in optimal health and you're consistently in a bad mood, you're depressed it can be stemming from your gut as well. If you're consistently sick, you always have a cold. Every time your kids come home, you get sick too. You get sick really bad, like the entire winter. You have something going on. Let's look at your gut. If you have autoimmune conditions, let's look at your gut. It is one of the key places to look at Now what's in your gut. It is one of the key places to look at Now what's in your gut.

Speaker 1:

There's bacteria in your gut. We are made out of mostly bacteria, little microbiomes that live in there, that go ahead and process the food, break down the food, and there's good micro bugs and there's not so great ones, and we need to understand how to feed what feeds both of these bad gut bacterias and good gut bacterias. If we want to keep it that simple, simple terminology. What we don't want to do, or what we don't want to happen, is for the bad gut bugs to outnumber the good gut bugs. That is something that's called dysbiosis. You can go ahead and Google it. It's called dysbiosis, and when the bad gut bacteria is overpowering the good, that's what it's called, because the imbalance is so severe that now you're going to start to see symptoms and signs of that throughout your body. That's one.

Speaker 1:

Another really important part of the gut is the gut lining. There is this mucosal lining that is in your gut and when that lining starts to break down, disappear, it's not like being able to replenish and stay strong. There is something that's called leaky gut, where the contents of your gut starts to spill out into your body. Now, if you think about it, nothing should be touching the inside of your body without it being processed in a way that your body understands it, in a language that it's able to recognize. So what happens is that when your gut starts to break down and whole pieces of food or whatever's in there starts to leak out into your body, your body sees it as a threat. There's nothing that's supposed to be touching the inside of your body without it being fully processed. If you think about it, your digestive system should be a closed off system from your mouth to your anus. Nothing is supposed to be leaking out from that. Everything should be processed and absorbed in its appropriate way for your body to use.

Speaker 1:

When your gut lining starts to break down and food starts to leak out in forms that your body doesn't understand, then your body sees it as a threat. Your immune system gets activated and it starts to attack these pieces of whatever it is floating around in your body. And then guess what happens? Autoimmune conditions. Not only does your body start to attack those pieces of food, but it might also start to attack another part of your body, because your immune system is consistently activated, trying to fight pieces of stuff that it sees as a threat within you, so that for some people might look like asthma, alopecia, where you have hair loss, eczema, psoriasis, let's see Hashimoto's, thyroiditis, where your body attacks itself right. So it can look like a lot of those things. And what we fail to realize is that if we start to take care of our gut in a healthy way, we might be able to and it depends on how far it's gotten to right, like if we're catching it early on, we can probably do a good job at just reversing that. But just know that if your gut gets in bad, so essentially it's like in remission, because if your gut goes into poor health again, it can happen again, right?

Speaker 1:

I have a friend who doesn't suffer from eczema, any type of autoimmune condition, and one time she was this gets into the emotional part she had so much anxiety and it was constant anxiety, and she started to develop eczema in a part of her body and she's like I don't know what's happening and I'm like, girl, is all that anxiety that you've been going through and now it's manifesting in your body? Your gut is probably in distress, your immune system. We need to start to patch that up. So when your gut starts to break down, it really has an overall impact on your body. That can be very serious and take over your life in a way, because autoimmune conditions are not easy things to deal with and even if you have an autoimmune condition and it's really hard for it to go over mission or anything like that being mindful of your gut health can greatly help improve your symptoms of what you're feeling. So, so, so, so important Aside from that, again, your immune system living in there.

Speaker 1:

So that's what's living in there. That's the importance of protecting those good microbes in there, the bacteria in there, the bacteria and also this gut lining. That is like the crown jewel of your entire body. Almost right, there's a lot of things that go into this, but let's say your metabolic health and all that. But if your gut health is in good shape, it also can determine a lot of your metabolic health and that's like your blood sugar, developing chronic illnesses and things like that.

Speaker 1:

Because when it comes to food, what feeds your poor or your bad gut bacteria is basically ultra processed foods and high sugar. And when you're eating ultra processed foods and high sugar, what can that also lead to from a metabolic perspective Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure so it goes hand in hand. It's not like the formula is different for your metabolic health or your gut health. They go in line. It's just that things start to get affected at different areas of your digestive system or when you're digesting food. If you're eating ultra processed foods, high sugar foods, refined carbohydrates all the time, then your insulin is going to have to work really hard and then you're feeding these bad gut bacterias that then start to overpopulate the good gut bacteria. You see how it starts to kind of build up on each other.

Speaker 1:

All right, so ultra processed foods really have no nutrients. It's literally empty food that you're putting in. Your body has to clean up. The only benefit that you get from this it's literally like dopamine for your brain, like your taste buds. Get a little, you know pizzazz and then it goes into your brain and you get this little dopamine hit. But I don't want you to think that the story ends there and then you go shit or poop this food out. It doesn't work that way. It still has to travel through your digestive system. Your body still has to find stuff to do with this thing that you put inside. It doesn't empty itself out. It doesn't disappear. It has to do something with it. So therefore, it travels to your entire digestive system, it lands in your gut and now your bad gut bacteria is having a party with this non-food that you just ate.

Speaker 1:

So really refined carbohydrates, which is carbohydrates like cakes and cookies and things that are wrapped up, that come in wrappers like, let's say, entenmann's and Hostess and Little Debbie's and all these types of things. Even white breads, to a certain extent, right, like some kind of white pastas, like all of these things, white rice. They've been stripped away from all of their fiber, vitamins and nutrients. And I'm not saying don't eat any of these things, but this is where food pairings come in. That is for another conversation. But oftentimes we're just eating these cakes, cookies, croissants, things like that on their own there's no fiber, there's probably a lot of inflammatory oils in there and there's no protein. There's nothing. So it's just flying high through your digestive system, feeding these microbes because there's nothing else for it to do in there, right? So the foods that we eat really have a really big impact on the, let's say, the ecosystem of our gut.

Speaker 1:

Now, what feeds the good gut bacteria? Fiber, actually, prebiotics, I'm sure you've heard of or hopefully maybe you've heard of prebiotics and probiotics. If you haven't heard from them, I'm going to tell you here what it is. But what feeds your good gut bacteria is fiber prebiotics. What has fiber? Complex? Carbohydrates, sweet potatoes, brown rice, platanos there's so much. Think of one ingredient foods, potatoes, yucca. Honestly, these are all at different levels. And then there's two types of fibers, which is called insoluble and soluble fiber. Usually, the fiber that our good gut bacteria loves the most is the insoluble fiber.

Speaker 1:

Foods that really qualify as prebiotics is things like onions garlic Surprising, right. Onions garlic, jerusalem artichokes are foods that are really high in prebiotics that feed your really good gut bacteria. I've told usually my clients who are on my gut healing protocol. I asked for them to include onions garlic in seasoning their food. I tell them to include artichokes if it's something that they enjoy, and that way they start to increase the prebiotics in their foods. Okay, I just took a sip of tea because I'm talking too much and my voice is drying out, so you probably hear me unscrewing my little thermos here. Okay, so that's how you feed your good gut bacteria and they also love actual, real foods. So imagine the amounts of vegetable, every single type of vegetables have a good amount of fiber inside. They have different kinds of fibers inside.

Speaker 1:

Think of one ingredient foods, like I mentioned. Let's say it's non-GMO corn, right, and you're making tortillas. Let's say it's rice, brown rice right, and I know a lot of people don't be liking brown rice. But again, if you're using white rice, there is portions that you want to keep in mind. And then there's food pairings that you want to keep in mind Because you don't want this simple carb to just be flying high through your digestive system. You don't want this simple carb to just be flying high through your digestive system, spiking your blood sugar and just being solo in your digestive system. So you do want to pair it with protein and fiber, like some sort of vegetable, right, so it's not flying through your digestive system by itself.

Speaker 1:

So now we spoke about how we feed our good gut bacteria and our bad gut bacteria. Now for the lining of your oh, let's stay on bacteria for another second. We continuously need to repopulate the good gut bacteria in our gut. They are always dying off because of stress, because of toxins, because they've worked too hard. So we continuously need to repopulate those good gut microbiomes. The bad ones. Hopefully you're not feeding them so they can multiply, but you do want the good ones to multiply and you do want to keep reintroducing good ones.

Speaker 1:

So this is where probiotics come in. Good gut bacterias are basically probiotics and I am sure you've heard of so many supplements with probiotics, which can be great. Right, you want to start off with a higher dosage. I think they're called BCUs. I can look it up, but I think they're called BCUs. You want to start with a lower number of that, because if you go high off the bat then it can just really cause gut disruption and you don't want that either to happen. Another way you can get good gut microbiomes is not just through supplementation, it's through the food that you eat. So this is where fermented foods come in, and this is not pickled food with vinegar. Usually, vinegar is killing off good gut bacteria. It's usually fermented with something like salt, so there's a difference, and not all pickles pickled food let's say actual pickles is not pickled in vinegar again, it's more like a brine that then ferments, and they sell a lot of this in the supermarket.

Speaker 1:

Kimchi is a really famous fermented food. Let's see sauerkraut I almost blanked out on the name is another good fermented food. There are a lot more vegetables now that are being fermented. I know that there's this whole little section in Whole Foods with fermented vegetables. I've bought fermented onions before jalapenos, they have ginger and carrots, they have the kimchi, ginger and carrots, they have the kimchi. And there's this one brand that carries fermented cucumbers, kind of like a pickle, and it's the only one that I've kind of been able to really stick to. When it comes to fermented foods, I have a hard time sticking to, let's say, sauerkraut or something like this. But if it came down to like my gut needs extra healing, you best to believe that I'm going to be incorporating these kinds of foods into what I eat.

Speaker 1:

Another other foods that are fermented is miso, so like, let's say, miso soup that you would get at a Japanese restaurant. You can buy miso paste Kefir. It's kind of like yogurt-esque, but you don't want to be buying kefir that is sweetened, because then you'll be sending confusing or mixed messages to your body where you're feeding the bad gut bacteria with all the added sugars in the kefir and you're trying to also repopulate it with the fermentation and the natural occurring bacterias that's in your kefir. Okay, so we want to keep all this in mind. They're also kefir drinks and, yes, yogurt has bacteria in it as well, but you also want to be mindful that it's plain yogurt. One of my favorites is plain Greek yogurt. If you're having sweetened yogurt, if you're having yogurt that it's not even yogurt anymore because it has food coloring and all these other additives in there, then it's defeating the purpose.

Speaker 1:

Another thing about the microbiome and gut bacteria is for perimenopausal women. There are some gut bacterias in there that have estrogen receptors in there. So as we get deeper into perimenopause and our estrogen starts to dip, the bacteria with the estrogen receptors on it kind of start to die off because they're not getting their needs met. With the estrogen receptors on it kind of start to die off because they're not getting their needs met with the estrogen. And then what that creates is a gut environment ecosystem that's more reflective of a man's ecosystem and that's why, also, our body starts to change Our gut y'all. It determines so much. So our gut starts to change and therefore we start to lose a lot of what helps us feel female, like the bloating and the belly, and all of that because the estrogen again starts to change. So our body odor starts to change. Our vaginal, our body odor starts to change, our vaginal composition starts to change again, like pH levels. All these things start to change with the changes of our gut microbiome. Therefore, what I like to do, and what I've started doing, is getting women specific. There are specific bacterias that a woman's probiotic might have that a man's does not. So now that our body is not generating them on its own our estrogen is kind of being a little wonky then we can reintroduce those bacteria strains through a probiotic. We've spoken about so much already and it's just been 30 minutes. I'm like, oh my God, into this episode. So that's all about the bacteria.

Speaker 1:

Let's start talk a little bit about the gut lining and how to protect that. That's mostly made from collagen, my friends. So this is why bone broth is a big healer of your gut. It is, hands down, one of the main healers of your gut that keeps the lining intact. Collagen can come from bones. I also use collagen powder, let's say, in my coffee. Yes, it's great for your hair, for your skin, for your nails. That's often what it's presented as but but another thing that's really good for is for your overall gut health, to protect and give your gut lining those things that you need Now.

Speaker 1:

You can buy really good quality bone broth in the supermarket. If it's beef from grass fed cows, if it's from chicken from organic chickens, you can make your own bone broth at home. You can make your own bone broth at home, something that has an incredibly large amount of collagen inside. For, let's say, collagen powder that we get here in the US. They sell it over there in DR, but it's so expensive. And I told them, I said something you have access to over there that's probably a lot cheaper and equally, if not more, effective than having powder is using chicken feet, and you know we Caribbean people be eating the chicken feet and we don't throw these parts away of the chicken. So I told them, I said you can use the chicken feet and make broths from them. Boil it so that you can have this broth.

Speaker 1:

When I'm putting my clients on this gut healing protocol, that is the number one thing that I have them do, because one the main thing, especially for my clients who have autoimmune conditions the first thing you want to do is to seal this gut so that stuff is not leaking out of it. That is going to bring the hyper alertness of your immune system in your body down so much, which brings the inflammation down so much, and along the way, you can work on your gut bacteria, on killing off the bad ones, repopulating the good ones, but that's not even effective at all if your gut continues to be leaky and stuff continues to come out of your gut. Now, what impacts your gut lining? Right Again, it's eating poorly. That has a huge impact on your gut lining.

Speaker 1:

If you are just eating ultra processed foods day in and day out, your body literally is not getting any of its needs met. It's not getting any vitamins, it's not getting any minerals, it's not getting any sort of collagen for your body or your gut health to repair. The bad gut bacterias are running rampant. So if this is a place that holds space for your mood, that holds space for your immune system, that holds space for your overall health, that holds space for your overall health and you're not giving it any of the puzzle pieces that it needs to build, where do you think you're going, my friend? Nowhere fast. It is mistaken. Yes, it is that and yes, it is so much more than that. Now, another thing that our gut is known for is being our second brain the gut and the brain are connected by something called the vagus nerve and it's not like Las Vegas. It's not like Las Vegas is Vegas is V-A-G-U-S right.

Speaker 1:

And something that can really impact your gut health that has nothing to do with food is your emotions. This is why a lot of people who have gone through a lot of childhood trauma, who have PTSD, really suffer from gut health, who have grown up very anxious, very nervous, always on high alert. You best believe they probably have gut issues going on. And I have coached a few women who have these kinds of backgrounds traumatic backgrounds, ptsd backgrounds and they have things like IBS and they have things like celiacs and they have intense gut issues where it's broken down to the point where it can no longer process high allergens like gluten or corn because their gut has completely lost the ability to do that. They weren't necessarily born this way, right, but the impact of their life with trauma has created that kind of environment, has changed their gut in such a way where these kinds of foods are not tolerated anymore. But the great news is that they've been able to heal their guts so much that they're not suffering from IBS anymore Within their parameters, right, they're not suffering from being always on edge about the unpredictability of their body and what it's going to do when they have those kinds of digestive issues. So I also have this one client who we went through that exercise of finding the foods that really impacted their gut.

Speaker 1:

Another person with IBS, but the main thing that was impacting their gut another person with IBS, but the main thing that was impacting their gut was their anxiety, their nervousness. It has the ability to break down your gut lining and this is why taking care of your emotional state, in addition to food, is so important, in addition to food, is so important. So managing stress, managing anxiety, is always top of the list for my clients and for myself, because I know the impact, the overall impact, that it has on our overall gut health. So, again, you can be eating perfectly and if you do not know how to manage your stress and your anxiety, your gut is going to be in really poor shape as well. So we want to be mindful of these things.

Speaker 1:

Something that I've worked on a lot with my client has been managing stress, has been really tapping into her body and understanding what stress feels like in her body, a lot of mindset tools to help her, let her body know that it's safe, even if she's still in the same circumstance, because that connection between your mind and your gut is always happening, and this is why you might have noticed before things like, oh, I have butterflies in my stomach. Or if you get really nervous, you're like, oh, I have to run to the bathroom. I immediately have to run to the bathroom if I get too anxious or too nervous or things like that. It has a huge impact. So not only does it matter looking at the food that you're eating and being mindful of that. It is equally as important to learn how to manage your emotions. Your emotional health matters so much, and my client even got this feedback and advice from her gastroenterologist. All my clients have been to gastroenterologists, their primary care physicians, all sorts of experts, endocrinologists, like all of them but putting these pieces together is something they do not do, and helping you with tools to help you manage your emotions. It's not something that they do either, but it is something that we do in coaching together. Right, she has been able to create so much more trust within her body. She has been able to create a lot more safety and comfort with food, because she now understands that it's not just the food that is causing her to feel certain symptoms in her body when it comes to her digestive system. Yes, oh my gosh. I hope that this has been helpful.

Speaker 1:

I feel like I tried to organize this information as best I could, and even if it is super high level, I know it's also really dense, so it's something that you might have to listen to a few times. If you have any questions about this, you can also reach out and send me a DM, send me an email, a text through this platform, and I'll be sure to respond to you. So whenever I see a client that I know for a fact has something going on with their gut, the first sign is always like some sort of autoimmune something going on with them, and they usually know about it. They usually been diagnosed, have been on some sort of medication for it. I always start with gut health. Also, if they have something like IBS or if they're consistently bloated or tired or fatigued, I always start with good gut health. If they're always getting sick and their immune system is a little low, I always love to start here. It doesn't matter Either way. We always touch on gut health regardless, because it's so important.

Speaker 1:

As you can see. It can determine so much and it can really create distrust with your body when you're like, oh my gosh, I don't want to eat because I don't know if I'm going to have to run to the bathroom. I don't want to eat because I'm going to be so bloated and I'm not going to look good in my outfit. I'm not going to eat because I don't know if I'm going to get really gassy. Let's create such a healthy gut environment and such knowledge with how to feed your body and how to manage your emotions that you don't need to be scared to eat at an event. You don't need to be scared about how. At an event, you don't need to be scared about how you're going to look in your outfit. Trust me, I get it because I be wanting to know how I'm going to look in my outfit. Right, you have more autonomy and control and power over this than you ever imagined. It's just learning these tools along the way and learning how to implement them and learning how to create an environment in your gut that thrives. Not only will that impact your gut and how you feel, but your mind and your overall wellness.

Speaker 1:

So when I coach my clients and I start them on this gut healing protocol. I have a four-step process that I do with them. The first thing we talk about is stress and managing stress right. We don't want to be healing and destroying at the same time when it comes to our gut health. So we might be healing it and you might be drinking beautiful bone broth and eating fiber rich foods and incorporating fermented foods and probiotics in there and your stress is off the wall. So that's one of the first things that we want to discuss and see how we can better manage. What tools can you use so that you're starting to practice that off the bat? The second thing that I love to have them do is their gut lining right. We want to make sure that we're closing off the leaky, we're plugging up the holes, we're recreating that beautiful lining so that stuff stops leaking out of your gut.

Speaker 1:

The third thing that I like to have them do is start to replenish their good gut bacteria so that they start to overpower the bad gut bacteria. So eating the fermented foods, maybe including a probiotic supplement in there as well, really being mindful of the kinds of foods that they're eating and the combination of food that they're eating so that their gut starts to get what it needs through the foods that you eat. Food is always going to top supplementation. It's not like you can eat whatever you want and take a probiotic supplement and be all good. It does not work that way. You can't just pop pills and supplements and be all good and not take responsibility for how you're eating and how you're moving your body. The third thing I have them do is replenish oh no, I already said that. The third one is replenish the good gut bacteria. We're up to number four. The fourth one is feeding your good gut bacteria. Right, you must feed them. And again, this is where food comes in.

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One thing is to reintroduce your good gut bacteria, but if you're starving them out by eating foods that are not conducive to your little gut bug's wellbeing, are not conducive to your little gut bug's wellbeing, then also is pointless. So, as you can see, is this whole cycle of really taking care of all parts simultaneously so that it can start to heal and you can start to feel better. And let me tell you something when my clients start to follow this protocol, within a week they start to feel different. Within two weeks they really notice a difference, and the thing is that you can do once your gut is healed. You can do these parts here and there or incorporate them when you really need them.

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Stuff that I don't play around with is actually I kind of do these things on a regular basis, like, maybe I'm not drinking bone broth every day you know what I mean but I may be including them in something I cook. I'm always having some sort of fermented foods and my probiotics and I'm always having food with fibers. I'm always trying to help my body manage stress. So it's something that really becomes second nature the more that you practice it and at first. Yes, it takes so much awareness to start to do these things and this is why in coaching, it works so well, because we don't necessarily do all these things at once. Or there might be emotions coming up, or it might feel stressful at first, and we try and find ways as to how to make it fit better into your schedule. That is something I have 100% done with my clients, so it doesn't feel so overwhelming all the time.

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And you know what? I forgot to mention, one thing that really affects our gut. The third thing actually there's other things like. It changes with age, like I mentioned, and genetics can play a role in this. And there's another school of thought that says how you were born, whether vaginally or via C-section, or if you were breastfed.

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But aside from all of that, the third factor that really impacts your gut health is antibiotic use. Antibiotics kill all bacteria, good and bad. It does not know how to discern. So, especially as a kid, I knew I took antibiotics all the time because I always had an ear infection. I always had a throat infection. We want to be super mindful about your gut and antibiotic use and at least continue to repopulate that gut. It wasn't until recently where I was hearing my kid's pediatrician recommend a probiotic to go along with the kid's antibiotics. All right, so the doctors are just like coming around the corner, understanding the impact of antibiotics on our little ones and it goes into adulthood, right and recommending that they take a probiotic along with their antibiotics.

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These steps really have a big impact in your overall health. Okay, they really do. Again, you want to learn how to manage your stress. You want to repair your gut lining and make sure it stays nice and healthy and, with the nice film on it, you want to continuously replenish that good gut bacteria and you want to make sure you're feeding the good gut bacteria as well. What you eat is important. What you eat is important. The connection with your mind and your gut is important. I'm going to leave it there.

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My friend, I think I have spoken so much and at length about this. This is something specifically, I do with a lot of my clients. If you, after hearing all this, are like, yes, oh, my gosh, I really want to take care of my gut, I think it is part of why I am not feeling well in my body. I want to do something about it and I want to do it with support. Then I got your back, my friends.

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I understand how important it is and how it might be for you and the impact that it really has on us, so I really want you to you know what we didn't even talk about symptoms that you might have, but I think that there's some obvious ones, like gas, bloating, fatigue that I spoke about, but also things like brain fog, anxiety, depression that I spoke about, but also things like brain fog, anxiety, depression, food sensitivities. You might not be allergic to food. You might be sensitive to them because they keep leaking out of your guts. Actually, I guess I did speak about a lot of them headaches, hives, itching, a lot of allergies happening, things like that. They all have an impact. So if you would like support in this area, I do support you through one-on-one food and hormone health coaching.

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I invite you to book a consultation call. You can find the link to my calendar in the show notes or you can send me a direct message and we can get that conversation started. I think it'll be life-changing for you if you've never tried this form of healing and in taking care of yourself, and I cannot wait to support you. Every single one of my clients who have had some sort of autoimmune condition happening, who have felt so unwell, who have been depressed, not happy with how they look in their clothes and how they feel high anxiety about eating anywhere they go because they don't know how their body is going to react has gotten amazing results to the other side their confidence back, their love for their body back, how they feel back, and I think that that's invaluable and I hope for you to have the same experience. So I invite you to book a consultation call for one-on-one food and hormone health coaching and I can't wait to chat with you soon. Bye.