Live Your Extraordinary Life With Michelle Rios

Gut Health: The Secret to Extraordinary Wellness with Colette Brown

• Michelle Rios

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Gut health significantly impacts overall well-being, from mood regulation to cognitive function. I sit down with wellness expert Colette Brown to discuss the gut-brain connection, dietary choices for improving gut health, and actionable steps to achieve a healthier lifestyle. In this episode, we cover:

• Understanding the gut-brain connection 
• Impact of diet on mood and cognitive function 
• Importance of reducing sugar intake 
• Role of a diverse microbiome for health 
• Recommendations for supplements and vitamins 
• Actionable steps for improving gut function and health

WAYS TO CONNECT WITH ME:

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, Michelle Rios, and today we're diving into a topic that is central to your overall health, your energy, your vitality, and that is gut health. You may have heard the phrase that your gut is your second brain, but what does that even mean, and how does your gut impact everything from mood to your immune system, to your energy levels and even your ability to focus? Well, we're about to find out from today's expert guest, who's going to help us understand the powerful connection between gut health and living your extraordinary life. So, without further ado, I am so pleased to welcome back to the show my dear friend and wellness advocate, Colette Brown. Welcome to the show, Colette.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, michelle. It's so good to be here. I'm really happy and it's my favorite thing is talking about gut health and living extraordinary, so I'm excited about today.

Speaker 1:

Well, we've known each other now gosh, for almost two years, but it feels like two lifetimes I know it really does and we have been through a lot together in that short period of time we have. So we want to delve right in Colette, and I'm going to start with a foundational question for you, for our listeners, and that is can you help explain what gut health really is and why it's so critical to our wellbeing?

Speaker 2:

Gut health is everything. There's the gut brain connection and people think, oh, sometimes maybe it's, my mood is off. But what they don't realize is it could actually be the reverse, where the gut is off and then it communicates up through the vagus nerve to the brain and it creates symptoms that we know as depression, which is called the cytokine model of depression. When bad things get in, it leaches out from the gut, the gut lining, into the bloodstream, and in the bloodstream it travels up past the blood-brain barrier into the prefrontal cortex and it can create symptoms that we know as depression.

Speaker 2:

And so I think what people often don't know is that the gut is so critical and they wonder why do I have eczema? Why am I feeling off? Why is my body feeling the way it is? I just, you know my digestive system, but I'm eating healthy. I'm holding up little quotes and they are, and they're actually not, and it's lifestyle and there's so much of it that we can control. 98% of all autoimmune disease is from the gut, which means 2% is genetic. And when you can wrap your head around that and understand that this is a scientific fact, what can we do in order to do our best, to live our best?

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, I'm going to just come clean with everyone here Selfishly. I really wanted to do this episode because, gosh, I've been friends with Colette for a really long time. It took me a while, but I acquiesced and gave up my Diet Coke because I was finding that as I edited my diet, I still wasn't feeling the vitality and energy that I wanted to, and that was sort of my last legion of something chemical that I was really putting in my body, because I, for the most part, eat whole foods. And so I'm about six weeks off Diet Coke, and it was not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination, but I've felt so much different. I've gone through the detox process. I felt really crummy in the beginning, but I'm now starting to feel a lot clearer and a lot less brain fog, which I had been attributing completely to it must be perimenopause.

Speaker 1:

It must be what's happening and now I'm not entirely sure that's what it was. So we often hear about this gut-brain connection and, as high achievers and folks that really want to get things done, it is something I think about a lot. How can I get the clearest I can be? Can you break down exactly how the gut impacts our mental health and our mood and cognitive function?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so there is the vagus nerve which communicates between the brain and the gut. So there is that the vagus nerve which communicates between the brain and the gut. And when we understand that the processed foods that we eat, all the chemicals that we eat, the sweeteners, erythritol is something that is in everything and it's linked with heart disease and there's so much findings that we know are fact. So how do we break that down? And it's really simple in my book, but to some people it's really hard. But eating whole foods and not grabbing something that is in a wrapper sometimes you can do that and when you do that you should make sure that it's very well sourced. Not grabbing something that is in a wrapper Sometimes you can do that and when you do that you should make sure that it's very well sourced.

Speaker 2:

And when you have a lot of sugars, because in processed foods you're going to get the fillers, you're going to get the sugars, and if you know that you're only women are supposed to have 25 grams of sugar a day and men 35 grams of sugar a day, and one of your quote power bars has 25, 35 grams of sugar in it, Just in that one. What about the rest of the day, when you're eating your fruit, when you're eating other processed foods, what about all of that sugar? So most Americans are eating over a hundred grams of sugar a day. If you just break it down and look at your, if you're having a Starbucks coffee, if you're having your fruit, a banana has about 12 to 15 grams, just to give you a reference. So it all adds up and then sugar creates inflammation in the body and that throws us off and inflammation is the root of all disease.

Speaker 2:

So when you're inflamed, yeah, it's easy to say, oh, it's my perimenopause, it's my, you know, it's genetic, my family, everybody had this disease. And when you, when you strip it down and you look at how did this develop, it really will point back to your diet. And just with my story alone being unwell for over 20 years and all the doctors telling me that I would just have to live with it and I just didn't want to accept that. And when I got down to the fundamentals, it was all around food and I thought that I ate very clean prior to eating clean quote clean. And when I started eating right and supplementing, that is when my whole world turned upside down and it was just such a new perspective on how I could feel healthy. So I think it's understanding. Inflammation is the root of disease. What causes inflammation? How can we prevent inflammation? Very simply, and one of those is just eating more whole foods in our diet, and less sugar.

Speaker 1:

I mean ultimately Less sugar. Sugar is really causing more whole foods in our diet and less sugar. I mean ultimately less sugar is really causing us to be more inflamed, and so let's walk that through a little bit, because when our bodies are inflamed, that's going to impact our mood, it's going to suppress our immune system and it's going to make us more foggy, less clear headed. Is that?

Speaker 2:

correct. More foggy, less clear headed. Is that correct? Yeah, and it, uh, sugar feeds cancer, right, and there are certain microbes in our, our gut that feed on sugar. So when you go without sugar and you say, oh, I have to have sugar craving right now, need sugar, it's actually these little microbes. The microbiome is bigger in number than we are as humans. It has its own brain and it demands, through the vagus nerve to our brain we need sugar now. So when you cut it off, it's going to throw a tantrum. So understanding, oh, this is very smart organisms that we're dealing with and we've got to be very vigilant and we have to be the boss of our bodies and we control what goes in, we control the outcomes of our own health and we can do that.

Speaker 1:

You know, this is fascinating to me because it's not that it's new information, but it is an aha moment for me, particularly as a CEO of my own business and really expecting myself to be able to do big things, make quick decisions, have strong executive function and thinking that some of the shortcuts I was taking like maybe skipping a meal or drinking a Diet Coke instead of eating because there's zero calories in that, or grabbing a power bar of some sort or protein bar or even a processed protein shake that actually not only was I not taking a shortcut, that I was actually making life harder for myself because it was slowing down my executive function.

Speaker 1:

And gosh, I can only imagine what my gut biome looked like at the height of corporate living, when I was running down airport strips to make a plane, to get to a meeting and my cortisol is running and I'm grabbing whatever is in the conference room and it's usually a crappy sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie and downing it with diet Coke or coffee nonstop. And that was sort of like my go-to, because that was what was in every conference room.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1:

Talk to me about the gut biome itself. So we know that the gut biome, in order to operate effectively, has certain healthy gut bacteria that need to thrive, that require certain nutrients, but also, if we don't feed it properly, unhealthy bacteria will grow and take over. Can you talk a little bit about that, because I know for someone who, like me, is somewhat new to really focusing in on gut health, that was something I had heard but not really familiar with in depth.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So our microbiome, in short, short, is billions of bacteria and in order for them to function properly and in harmony and it's been we say good and bad bacteria, they're all. They're not good and bad, really right, they're just they live in harmony with each other. When everything is operating properly, when one side gets more than the other, like our scales shift and they get off. So when you're feeding that sugar microbe, then it gets off, for example. So in order to feed the microbiome, they need digestible fiber. They need fiber in there. That is their food. So fermented food is really good. I love coconut because coconut is very dense fiber and it has all kinds of nutrients. So that's really good for the gut.

Speaker 2:

These are, we know, a lot of things that are great for the gut. Your probiotics, your microbiome create vitamins for the body. That is one of their functions. They digest food that's another one of their functions. So when we eat the fiber and the fermented foods, it feeds those microbes and it enables them to produce the vitamins. So we have to understand, like the essentials. So it's a whole world in our gut going on that we don't even have to think about, but what we do need to think about is what feeds them. So, obviously, giving them the proper nutrition, the whole foods. We do need the fruit, we need the polyphenols, so berries are wonderful for this. Um, there's other foods, too that are high in polyphenols, but those are great. And but everything in balance too.

Speaker 2:

And you just mentioned the stress when you're off. It throws your entire body off. So even if you're eating right, that stress can affect the microbiome, because what our body is producing and just the demand we're putting on it and healthy relationships, exercise. If we don't exercise, we can mentally be off, and that again is correlated with the microbiome and the ability to flush toxins out of our body and our lymphatic system and our lymphs don't drain on their own. We have to manually drain them through a lot of different modalities. But when we can understand that we yeah, we're the CEO of our bodies and we just need to educate ourselves on what is it that we need to put in here to the microbiome to allow them to effectively produce what they need to in order to keep us functioning?

Speaker 1:

Okay. So I'm probably going to regret this. But here we go. We're going to talk a little bit about my diet right now, because I suspect that even in my journey to better gut health, I'm probably getting more fruit than I need to, given the 25 grams of sugar a day. But let's talk a little bit about what I'm eating and I would love for you then to kind of maybe evaluate what tweaks that I need to make. So, for example, I'm somebody who wakes up in the morning.

Speaker 1:

Now my new routine is I drink water with lemon, warm water and lemon the first half hour of my day. There is no caffeine. I wait at least one hour to have that cup of coffee, if not sometimes two. I'm also somebody who now waits. I don't feed my body right away. I tend to stop eating around 7.30 at night and I don't start eating until around 11 in the morning. And that first meal for me. I'll tell you what goes in it somewhat, because I listen to your podcast so I know what you're eating. But it starts with either coconut water or regular water celery. So I'm getting my celery in there. I'm getting my baby spinach. I sometimes put in fresh raspberries. I sometimes put in fresh or frozen pineapple, which I now realize is probably too much sugar, but I am conscientious of how much I put in. I'm putting in clean protein. I have a clean source protein. And then I have now become a big advocate of turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper for the turmeric.

Speaker 1:

What else is in there Cardamom. What else is in there. I think that's it. It's like those three, okay, and that's typically my morning.

Speaker 2:

Okay, all right. So you start with lemon water, then you don't have coffee until one to two hours later. And what are you putting in your coffee? I'm a black coffee drinker so I'm pretty lucky I like the bitter taste of coffee.

Speaker 1:

I don't put sugar and I don't enjoy milk, so milk for me has to be in the form of ice cream. So I'm not. I don't put sugar and I don't. I don't enjoy milk, so milk for me has to be in the form of ice cream. So I'm okay in the winter.

Speaker 2:

Perfect, okay, and so for the people listening, if you have problem with caffeine and you feel a little jittery normally if if you, we do like a bulletproof coffee. So if you add a little fat into your coffee and blend it, then it will be more the nutrients like the polyphenols actually in coffee, a well-sourced coffee. So that's the other thing making sure where it's sourced from, to make sure that it's not with mold and it's organic and not processed. So a real well-sourced coffee is worth your investment and not processed. So real well-sourced coffee is worth your investment. And if you mix a little bit of coconut oil or grass-fed butter into it, it makes it more bioavailable for the body. So that's one step for people that have a problem with drinking just black coffee. So the other thing is you said you do your green drink right. Am I taking that right?

Speaker 1:

next it is my green drink, but it does have a little bit of fruit in it. Now I'm wondering if maybe it's too much fruit.

Speaker 2:

So I recommend if you can go without fruit, it's better. Don't start your day with sugar. We should push that off as long as possible, because once we get sugar introduced into the body, the the levels of you know can spike depending on who you are. And just to keep that at a moderation and have your sugar later would be my recommendation. And I also recommend I don't know how it is over there in the winter, but going to the farmer's market and getting diversity. So you named a lot of different vegetables that you're putting in and I would love to see you add a little bit more into your greens. For mine, I do cilantro, parsley, I'll do fennel, I put all kinds of you know, like a mixed green. I was at the farmer's market this weekend and there is four or five different types of lettuce that I got just to add in, because what our goal should be is 30 to 40 different plants per week. That's what we need to do.

Speaker 2:

So the diversity and mixing it up is essential for the microbiome. So, um, so when you're eating the same thing every week, um, it's not so good, right? We need to mix that up and make sure that we have diversity there. To to feed, to feed the gut. So that's one thing. People you know. If they're eating broccoli and cauliflower and carrots every week, week after week after week after week, your body is like blah. It knows that. So really try to mix it up. Go to your farmer's market. If you've never seen something before there's always something new that I find and ask about it. Ask them how do you cook this at home? Or do a Google search and find out how you can make something different. But our bodies need that. And when I say 30 to 40 plants, you can also include herbs and spices into your cooking, and that also counts. I love turmeric. Turmeric is amazing. I would recommend also, if you can tolerate them, powdered mushrooms, and those are really good for their adaptogens, so they're great for the brain, for function, for eyesight.

Speaker 2:

There's so many different properties in the mushrooms, different properties in the mushrooms, and the one thing I'll add to that, just to stretch it a little bit more, is that you don't want the mushroom mycelium. Mycelium are the roots, the root system of the mushroom, and so there's a very big name that you will see at every store that I'm not going to say, and one day I looked at it and I said how do they supply the entire nation with bags and bags and bags and bags of mushroom powder? Because I just didn't get it. I thought like this is kind of odd and I started researching. And so what they do is they grow their mushrooms on a log of oats and the mycelium, which is the root system, goes into the oats. They basically cut off the tops and I believe those get resold somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

They take that mushroom grown in the oats, which it's probably mostly oats, to be quite frank, you know how they mass produce, blend it up, bag it and you think you're getting the property of the mushroom tops, but you're not. It's the mycelium, and they're claiming medicinal properties on the roots that are actually in the top the plant, the top of the mushroom part. So so there's a lot we can dive into, but I wanted to put that out there because I believe in mushrooms and I believe that they need to be very well sourced and that needs to be the fruiting body, not the mycelium. So look at your mushroom powder if you're at home.

Speaker 1:

So could you I mean conceivably just buy whole mushrooms, cut the mycelium off and just use the caps and do it yourself in a blender or a Nutri like? I'm using a Nutribullet to do all mine, so I keep the properties and the fiber of the food that I'm eating in the drink.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely yes, and there are a lot of vendors that have whole mushrooms that you could just buy, and usually it doesn't come with the mycelium, it's. It's usually just the whole fruiting body of the mushroom. So, yes, absolutely, you could do that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, excellent, all right. Well, we're going to keep going because I want to get some feedback on the rest of this a day in the life of Michelle now on her quest to get better gut health. Okay, second, typically I eat another shake. I tend to try to drink a lot of these nutrients because I find it easier to do in the course of my day and then I eat a dinner. So my second one is a green drink that probably still has too much fruit in it and probably not enough variety, but I am, I will say I kind of move on to like lettuces and arugulas and spring mixes, so I do get that mix. I tend to add something creamy, so like a quarter of an avocado to get some healthy fat in there. Or I might use some I can't even think right now off the top of my head coconut oil. Use like a teaspoon of coconut oil. This is where I get into cinnamon. I was just educated earlier in this week. I've got the wrong cinnamon. I didn't know there was a right cinnamon, but-.

Speaker 2:

The Ceylon cinnamon instead of Saigon right.

Speaker 1:

Ceylon cinnamon is the way to go. I personally still have Saigon cinnamon. I didn't know there was a difference. I sort of sat there dumbfounded, going really, and they're like, yeah, you're not getting the stuff you really need out of that one. So I will be going and looking for something of looking for the Ceylon. And then I tend to go back and have more fruit. So I found this might be too sweet too. Just a few dark, but they're sweet.

Speaker 1:

Pitted cherries change everything for me. They're probably too sweet and not tart enough because they do make it so yummy to drink. But I'm a big celery fan, so there's more celery in there and that's usually my second one. I usually do my vital proteins, which have collagen, but not a full thing of protein as I would normally do. I know they're missing some of the amino acids to be a full protein mix. I feel like okay with that because my hair is growing longer and I'm okay.

Speaker 1:

And then dinner hasn't been as adventurous as it probably needs to be because we are big fans of grilled chicken and not a lot of other things. So I'm eating a lot of grilled chicken these days, folks, but that is when I'm baking on a cookie sheet, just a lot of vegetables. So I'm a big fan of those mini sweet peppers, the red, yellow and orange. I just buy the organic ones, I take the seeds out, I cut them in half, I brush a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on them, and then I'm big on pepper and a tiny bit of salt and I bake those in the oven for about 15 minutes and they're delicious. Typically a little bit. If I haven't had avocado, I'll do a quarter of avocado. Then, um, what else do I have?

Speaker 1:

My boys love broccoli. So I'm lucky cause we do the same thing. My husband, even in these East coast cold temperatures, will go grill chicken for us. Or if they're eating, um, eating ground beef, they'll do that, and so they usually do their broccoli outside. I'm happily receiving that, but probably not enough variety. And then I will say I'm drinking a lot of water. So I've replaced all of my diet Coke and fizziness with just water, with probably a little bit of lemon. And then, at the end of the day, I've become a big fan of magnesium, because I have had sleeping issues. So I have been taking magnesium powder, magnesium and warm water, and that tends to be the way I cut the end of the dinner cycle for me, so not terrible, but clean up from where.

Speaker 1:

I was for sure, but would love to have some ideas on how to tweak it and what I might be missing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it sounds good. I like that you're doing your two self-made shakes every day that's wonderful. Or your green drinks, whatever you want to call them drinks shakes every day, that's wonderful. Or your drink, green drinks, whatever you want to call them. I would just analyze because I'm not there but how, how much sugar is going in, and I would say for your second drink of the day yeah, put some in there. You can put cherries If you really like that. You shouldn't deprive yourself. I mean, that's something that that you love. And even unsweetened dark chocolate is is actually really good because it doesn't have all the sugar in it. So if you want a chocolate flavor, you could put that in there. Um, so I think that's that's good.

Speaker 2:

I would like to see your protein intake up a little bit more, because collagen is definitely not the same as a whole protein. Um, even though collagen is is essential, and I believe I I also love bone broth, like every day that's one of my things like, and when I'm traveling and I don't have my green drink and my bone broth, I notice that my skin, my hair, like I start filling it in my body. Um, so I like to add that in. Some people don't eat meat and they don't want to do that. But if you eat meat and you find well-sourced meat and grass fed bones and, um, I put chicken feet in my bone broth Um, that's one of the best sources of collagen that you can have Chicken neck, chicken back, and then I probably put 12 different herbs when I'm cooking it.

Speaker 2:

So all those herbs are going into my body as I'm consuming it. Even though they're just little particles, it's still going into my gut microbiome and giving it diversity my gut microbiome and giving it diversity. So I'd like to see you try to up your intake of protein somehow, whether it's getting some more eggs or another kind of protein during the day. So I'd like to see that. The other question I have for you is when you're cooking your vegetables, two things are you using parchment paper under your vegetables?

Speaker 1:

you're cooking your vegetables two things. Are you using parchment paper under your vegetables?

Speaker 2:

Now, I'm afraid to tell you I'm actually using aluminum foil, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I kind of knew that parchment paper is the way to go right.

Speaker 2:

Metals in the brain, we know are linked to Alzheimer's and dementia, amongst other health diseases, and that's one of the things that is always so I I'm still in shock. I've been doing it for years and years and years. I've been using parchment, but um, this is great that whoever listens that still using aluminum foil, do not use it. If you need aluminum foil, cover it first with parchment. Like if you're touching a Turkey, just parchment, put aluminum over it. Or a pie if you're baking a pie, cover it with parchment and then aluminum around it. If you want to put on your cookie sheet, make sure that there's parchment over it, but parchment paper. Number one rule make sure that you're starting to do that, because aluminum foil is not good for us.

Speaker 2:

Okay, make sure that you're starting to do that, because aluminum foil is not good for us. The other thing I would change is, instead of olive oil in your baking, I would use avocado oil or algae oil, because it has a higher burn point. Avocado is a lower burn point, which can create oxidative damage, so by switching out that oil, you can improve your health like a little bit more too. Excellent, okay, and people that are out and they just have like, oh, I just want fries, just this once. Okay, go ahead, but know that that oil that it's cooked in it stays in the body. It can stay in for six months or so and just the other, I don't know.

Speaker 2:

A couple of weeks ago I was trying. We got out of LA with the fires and my daughter ordered some and I had some of her fries and I just felt off. It was horrible and I and I and I know better. But there's this sometimes factor. Sometimes I will do this, but most of the time I won't. But just so people know that that little cheat, if you're doing it all the time, you're not going to get the maximized health benefits that you normally could.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, Absolutely All right. Let's talk supplements. So I recently, as in like 10 days ago, added a pre and probiotic which is very new for me and I won't mention brand names because I don't want to like, belittle or, you know, promote anyone but that was a big difference. I don't know that I've noticed a whole lot of change yet, but that's new for me because I don't typically take any supplements. I was taking vitamin D for a little while until my vitamin D levels sort of got higher. They were pretty low in December and they're doing better now. But what else should we be thinking about? What other things should we be taking in order to help support our body and our gut health?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So if you're taking D3, and the other side of that that you must be taking or you could get toxicity from your D3 is vitamin K2. And K2 is found in ruminant, the fat of ruminant animals. So the ruminant animals have four different compartments that they ferment. So they're eating grass for a cow and that goes into the first chamber and then they spit up their cud right, they chew their cud, they spit up their foods, chew their cud, goes back into a third compartment and back. So this back and forth creates this fermentation and in the fermentation is created a vitamin K2 that's stored in the fat.

Speaker 2:

If you're eating an animal that has been fed corn and soy and grains, it does not ferment and have the same benefit as a grass-fed, truly grass-fed and finished cow. So when this is grass-fed, you want to make sure that it's raised with grass and finished with grass, because a lot of these companies will raise it with grass or they'll raise it with grain and finish it with grass, or vice versa, and then you're not getting the true benefit of grass fed, so that I can't iterate that point enough. So make sure that you have really well-sourced meat. So the K2 vitamin is responsible for calcifying our bones, so the K2 vitamin is responsible for calcifying our bones. They found that calcium is actually linked to heart disease and there's been multiple studies on this and the Mayo Clinic, and so you'll see a lot less calcium on the shelf today, and so K2 is the new calcium and it decalcifies the veins, so it keeps our bodies healthy and the blood and fluids flowing properly.

Speaker 2:

So when you're taking the D3, it needs to be complemented by the K2 vitamin. So make sure that if you are doing your D3, have the K2 with it. So that's another essential one that I've been trying to promote and let people know that they need to be taking that together, one that I've been trying to promote and let people know that they need to be taking that together. And functional medicine levels need to be a lot higher in the D3 range than traditional Western medicine. So I would also say compare those levels with functional medicine and make sure that those levels are high enough, because Western medicine puts you way lower than what you need to be.

Speaker 1:

Ooh, good to know. I was happy that I was in double digits. So I'm going to go take a look at the functional medicine levels and, yeah, okay. Um, what else? I have recently been introduced I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet recently been introduced.

Speaker 1:

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet, so the jury's still out. But to dandelion root tea as an important part of detoxing, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I'm willing to try it for a while. So I'm in the trial phase of trying my dandelion root raw dandelion root tea but I've been told that that's good to be using. Are there other things that you just think? Look, these are basics everyone should be having. I feel like I'm getting enough fiber in all the vegetables I'm consuming, so I'm not too worried about a fiber supplement. But the pre and probiotic that I wasn't taking before seems to be a good addition. So I'm going to stick to that and see how I feel in 90 days and reevaluate if I go then to, like you know, six months and keep reevaluating.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So I mean, I'm sure the dandelion route is fine. Um, I would just say, work close with the practitioner. If you're doing it something, you're doing it ongoing. Um, and I would say, depending on your levels, like your energy level I love CoQ10, like that decreases as we get older and anybody that has heart disease is told by the doctor get on this. So if you have a very well-sourced CoQ10, it's great. There's, there's berberine and which is which is really good.

Speaker 1:

Which I've heard, that berberine is like the craze, like it's been around forever and all the folks that have been in gut health have known about it for years and years and years. But now a lot of folks that have like weight issues are now starting to realize the benefits. Can you talk a little bit about berberine and why we need it in our diet?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so that, and I want to also mention another one called NAD. This is more of a newer one that people are talking about, but the cell, the cell center, the mitochondria there, it produces ATP production, right. So if we can up that ATP production, then our cells can be more effective and they can work proper. And so having all of these like if you were just to take that, I would say you know it's, it's a standing alone without doing anything else. But I would say, if you're having that good diet and you're really being cautious about oils that are coming into your body, these supplements that we're talking about, in addition to working out, that should be a non-negotiable.

Speaker 2:

Every day, have some kind of a workout, have a mindfulness meditation practice. That's so important. Make sure that your stress levels might've been out of whack lately and I feel it in my body because the fires here in Los Angeles it's been very stressful but all these together, collectively, if you're going to add them in, will actually help your body function just a little bit better. Um, and then if you were perimenopause like, like we are then looking at a supplement like dim um, it's, it's one that's very simple, natural, and I would also say that ladies, if you're in that perimenopause state, don't be shy of looking at some bioidentical hormones. There's been a lot of reverse reversing on research that has been done in the past and they're kind of poked holes in things that they found and I feel like, do your own research so you understand where we're at on that. But also in the supplement category, don't be afraid to speak with a doctor and get on something if you need to.

Speaker 1:

A hundred percent, all right. Let's talk about actionable steps, because everybody wants to know, all right. So, starting today, what are maybe three to five simple things that everyone can do to really improve gut function and gut health?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So number one is this is what I always start when I work with people know your why. If you don't know your why, you have no teeth to grab onto when you're frustrated about a day that went sideways or whatever it is in your life. If you don't understand what is the bigger picture, what am I aiming for, what is my why, then you're not going to have a foundation to stand on. So please do that exercise where you sit down with yourself and write seven lines, one through seven, and say what is my why in life. Write that down, drill into the first one. Drill in seven times. By the seventh time you should be crying, because that should be your passion and what really fuels you. So when you're thinking about oh, I can drink that diet Coke, that's fine. Then you think of your why and you say you know what? My why is bigger than this Diet Coke and I'm bigger than it. So I'm going to be the CEO and call an executive decision and say no.

Speaker 2:

So, number one, know your why? Number two, something that I've been pushing a lot, because there's so much confusion around what is good food, what is bad food, what kind of protein is best. I like to look at it like this you look at your omega-3 to 6 balance. Omega-3 is anti-inflammatory, omega-6 is inflammatory. We need both. However, americans are eating a 26 to 1 ratio on average, when it should be a 1 toto-one or a three-to-one ratio. So educate yourself what has high omega-3s and try to eat more of that, because you're getting plenty of omega-6. Two pieces of bread contains all the omega-6 that you need in a day. The American diet we're having muffin in the morning or waffles or pancakes, having a power bar for a snack and then having a sandwich for lunch and having something else Glutinous is a snack or something.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and then dinner is pasta, lasagna, the dinner roll. So all day long it's constant drip Right and almonds 2000 to one, 2000 omega-6 to one omega-3. People are eating replacement almond milk, almond flour, and they're gluten-free. So they think, oh, I'm going gluten-free, so I'm going to be great because I'm eliminating gluten, but you've replaced your flour with one that's higher in omega-6 than the gluten.

Speaker 1:

So when you're oh my God, my almond milk, my unsweetened almond milk.

Speaker 2:

Okay, that's it Again in small Black seed wins and my almond milk is gonna.

Speaker 1:

We gotta curtail the unsweetened almond milk as a base for my drinks occasionally.

Speaker 2:

Just look at your ratios. So if your ratios are even, then half your almond milk, but it's just something for people to consider. So look at your foods like educate yourself. What is high omega-3, like seeds, salmon, those are all high omega-3. What is high omega-6 and how do I balance that? So when you educate yourself, you can say, oh, you know, I'm eating out tonight and I've already had, you know, my omega-6s. So I think I'm going to try to gear what I'm eating tonight towards getting my omega-3 ratio up. So educate yourself on that.

Speaker 2:

Three is, I would say, your list of non-negotiables, because this list could go on for 10 things deep, right, but your non-negotiables. So have an exercise routine, because exercise is so important for keeping your lymphs, because exercise is so important for keeping your lymphs emptying and for your brain health, your body function. As we age, we lose muscle and I want to go. I'm thinking I could live to 120. Like that's the new age we're supposed to live to. So if I'm going to do that, what do I need to do today in order to keep this body functioning and this brain functioning into the future? And I think that's doable. I don't know. That's what I'm putting in my head it's doable. So what are your non-negotiables? And then have a routine with your non-negotiables, because when you don't, you're not taking your supplements, you're not doing your supplements, you're not doing your green drink, you're not exercising, you're creating the stress and all these things that work collectively together then all the other good things that you're doing are just for not. So I would say those, know your, why? Know your omega three to six ratio very simple and have a list of non-negotiables to keep you on track.

Speaker 2:

And then really just educate yourself, listen to podcasts and really evaluate information, evaluate everything I'm saying. I always tell people don't take my word, take it as a landing page that you can say okay, she talked about a three to six ratio. What does that even mean and how can I apply it to my life and go out and investigate more and really educate yourself? And um, and the other thing that's really been I guess not in my heart, but that I noticed more and more is that there's this, this analogy of um if we were born, we were given one car to drive for the rest of our lives, what would you do with that car?

Speaker 2:

And one of the things that I would do is I would go to those people that have had their cars for 100 years and I would say what did you do to get there? How did you keep your car functioning for a hundred years? And let's really embrace the older generation, those that are older than us. Let's draw from their wisdom, because the older I get, the more I know that I don't know and I want to be around. People who have lived and who have experienced and are doing are my heroes and like where I want to be when I'm their age. So embrace community and those that have gone before us and have more experience than we do, and really just stay true to you and don't compromise on that.

Speaker 1:

I think that's so well said. I think you know, for me one of the things that I wasn't diligent about I thought I could kind of ebb and weave on it was sleep. And I've actually become know. A younger version of me not so much younger version would have been like, oh, but you're missing out on this, like show or going out or doing this or doing that.

Speaker 1:

But I just realized that I have a difficult enough time getting quality sleep through the entire night, Like I fall asleep very easily but I wake up in the middle of the night, I think, like so many, particularly women, at around 3 am and I'm awake, I can have full-on conversations and I want to have less of that so that when I wake up for the day in the morning I'm ready to go. And I find increasingly it's been a bit of a journey. I am getting longer amounts of sleep, of quality sleep, than I was even six weeks ago. So certainly trying different things and looking at what is it that's going to keep me asleep longer, get back to sleep as quickly as possible and then get some more quality sleep before it's time to start the day again. I think that's probably been one of the biggest revelations is.

Speaker 1:

I was incredibly sleep deprived with going like maybe an hour stretch or an hour and a half stretch and then waking up an hour and a half stretch and then waking up, and I would do that three or four times a night and not really making the connection to what I was eating.

Speaker 2:

And stress is in life.

Speaker 2:

Stress can wake you up at night, and caffeine if you're drinking it too late, and there's different tests. I actually had a I've been talking a lot about that on my professional page on waking up at 3 am. What does it mean? And usually it's your liver cleaning itself out, because that's kind of the order process in the night that it gets to the liver to process. So you might need to do some sort of a liver cleanse in order to help you sleep better too. So, yeah, so sleep. I would say, as a mom, that would be one of the first things, that an exercise would be one of the first things that used to be so easy for me to compromise on. And as I've gotten older, I've said you know, I, I just have to have my sleep and it's, it's a priority and it's not worth it. Sleep depriving your body in the long run, it's just not healthy. So I love to be aware of that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and don't grab for your phone, because, as Colette will attest to, when she had to share a bed with me last summer, I was grabbing my phone at 3 am and punching out a text message or returning a message. She's like Michelle, stop, please, get off your phone. And I didn't even think about it. It was one of those automatic extensions. Right, you reach for the phone when you can't sleep and instead I've actually tried to start using an eye mask. I'm just in perpetual darkness and I don't know. The phone is far enough away, plugged in charging somewhere, that I can't reach it anymore.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, it's, it's so true, and for me, um, and for for everybody, we need to sleep in dark environments, and so I am super sensitive. If the light comes on when I'm sleeping, I wake up, um, so I and I'm an early riser, so when the sun just peaks, I'm up and I'm ready to go, and so, yeah, that's. It's really important to create a very pleasant sleep environment, keep difficult conversations out of the bedroom and make it dark. If you need some kind of a noise canceling device, um, for those that are menopausal, perimenopausal, there's bed mattresses that you can sleep on that cool you off and helps you sleep deeper. Not having too warm of a room keeping it like 68, uh is better than having something that's 80 degrees. To sleep in colder sleep environment is better. Not having blue light in your eyes a couple of hours prior to going to bed is really important to you. So there's all these little tricks around sleep, but that's, that's such a great point that you brought up.

Speaker 1:

All right. So going back to the gut health connection here for a minute and living our extraordinary lives and making sure that we are not leaving the easy things off the table, I'm curious, particularly now. I don't know how it is in California, but this is, I guess it's nationwide. We're in the depths of flu season, California, but this is well, I guess it's nationwide. We're in the depths of flu season. I had a kid that came down with a stomach bug. I know a lot of folks that have respiratory issues. As you know, my dad is actually recovering from double pneumonia. There's a lot going on out there. Talk to me about the connection with the gut health, because I think people think, oh, but it's just that time of year, so everyone's more susceptible. But if we are improving our gut health, one would be able to say we're less susceptible than those who aren't doing that. Correct?

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, it's so true. It's funny. Years ago I was in a cab going. I was in, I think, connecticut, and somebody picked me up at the airport and was driving me to where I needed to go and it was cold. And I said, oh wow, it's flu season. The the cold weather better buckle up and stay warm. And the driver basically stopped the car and like looked at me and he said the weather doesn't make you sick, it's the germs. And so I said, oh, okay, yeah, I guess that's true, but with his point, it's the germs.

Speaker 2:

How do those get in your body? Right? So if you're eating right, that makes your skin healthy and resilient, right? So when you get cracks in your skin, whether it's your, your hands or your nose or other other parts, and it can get in easily, like when there's the first area, the first line of defense, which is your skin, is compromised, it's easier for germs to get in.

Speaker 2:

So if you're eating right and you're keeping that sugar down and not dehydrating your body and depriving it, and you're getting your nutrients in and, by the way, I also recommend doing some type of C vegetable in your green drinks, because the C contains the entire periodic table of elements, and when your body doesn't have access to all those elements, it stills from one to give to the other. So osteoporosis, for example, is taking that calcium to give somewhere else and donate it where it needs it. So, um, so, making sure that you're you're eating right so that your skin is supple and you're really taking care of the body. And and good skin isn't just looking good, it's actually a reflection of what's going on inside too, and it's one of the signs.

Speaker 2:

I had a lady the other day that she looked incredible but her body was falling apart inside and she said everybody tells me I look so good but I'm a mess on the inside. So usually that's what you know. It's usually an indication of health, which is why people want great skin and they're using makeup to make it look shiny and healthy, but yet inside it's not like that. So, really taking care of yourself, upping, obviously, your vitamin C, your zinc those are important things to um, to increase during the winter so that your body has more of an ability to fight, and if you can sleep, sleep is the best medicine and it will help you.

Speaker 2:

The elixir? Yes, it is, it is yeah, so, um, those are great liquids. Obviously, you got to keep your body hydrated, even in the winter, when you don't feel like drinking. If you're in cold weather, drink, make sure that you're getting. I love lemon water first thing in the morning. That's great. And so if we can, if we can take care of all these things, then chances of getting sick lesson, and if you do get sick, your body is resilient enough to fight it and get better, as opposed to the sickness just overcomes you and you end up in the hospital and other things start happening. And so if we can just keep our level up there by day-to-day non-negotiables, then we can all live healthier longer.

Speaker 1:

I love that, colette. As usual, you are full of wisdom and I so appreciate you sharing all your knowledge and your experience with us and helping us get our gut biome on track so that we can live stronger, better, more energetic and have more vitality in our everyday, so that we can go on to live our extraordinary lives. So thank you again for coming on and spending this time with us today.

Speaker 2:

It's been great and we'll have to do more because we're just kind of scratching the surface, trying to go high level and but I just encourage everyone do your research and and know what makes your body tick, what's good for you, and we're all different, so somebody might be drinking kombucha and loving it for their fermented food. I can't do that. So know your body. My favorite quote, socrates know thyself, so understand what it is for you that makes you tick and not everybody's thing works for you and know that that's okay. I love that.

Speaker 1:

All right, where can people?

Speaker 2:

find you, colette. You can find me on Instagram at wellness by Colette and I. Also, because of this omega-3, 6 ratio, I've started a non-inflammatory snack line called Love Colette, so you can find that at love-colettecom.

Speaker 1:

And we'll make sure we have all the links in the show notes. Yeah, and my podcast Limitless Healing with Colette, which is a wonderful show, and I've had the pleasure of being on it as a guest myself.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you have All right. We need to have you back on. I love it.

Speaker 1:

All right, Colette, thank you again. Really appreciate everything you're doing to help keep us healthy and be an advocate for our wellness. So until next time, everyone, go and live your extraordinary lives.

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Michelle Rios

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