Gut Health & Hormones: The Connection You Can’t Ignore

Did you know your gut plays a MAJOR role in balancing your hormones? 🤯 In this Sweet Insights bonus episode, Alison and Amy dive deep into the gut-hormone connection—breaking down how digestion, stress, and even the foods we eat can impact everything from PMS to perimenopause.

🌱 Here’s what we cover: ✅ How gut health affects key hormones like estrogen, cortisol, and insulin
✅ The signs of poor gut health (hint: it’s more than just bloating!)
✅ Surprising ways to support your gut for better energy, mood, and metabolism
✅ Why stress is the silent trigger for gut & hormone imbalances—and what to do about it

🔎 Plus, Amy’s unexpected deep dive into… bovine uterus supplements? Yep, you don’t want to miss this one. 😂

🎧 Listen now & take control of your gut-hormone health! Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share with someone who needs this info. 💜

Transcript

0:03

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to Sweet Insights with Allie and Amy. I'm Amy, that's Allie. And we're going to talk about gut health and hormones today and the hidden connection between the two. And you know what's funny? Allie just said, how can we make this episode fun? I'm going to be honest. There's nothing fun about this. There really isn't anything fun. Oh, you know what? I'm going to start it off with something fun because I'm such a fun person that I want to talk about this for a minute because in our bonus episode that aired last week, you talked about some sort of supplement that I'd never heard of. Yeah. And I was like, you know, I know that it's going to come up on my Facebook and my Instagram feed and all the things because you planted the seed. Not only did she tell me about it, but she sent me a picture of the ingredients. And I'm like, oh. So if you didn't listen to the bonus episode, it's called Primal Queen. And I know nothing about this company. I know nothing about this product. But I decided to look at it because Amy sent me a picture. And the picture she sent me showed me that it was made with bovine, I don't know how you say it. Bovine, uterus, bovine, whatever. And I'm like, what the heck is this? So I looked it up. I want to know if you know what it is. If I know what it is? Do you know what bovine is? Cows. Like beef. So it's freeze-dried beef organs, such as the liver, kidney, hearts, and other organs. Yeah. Yeah. And so they powder them, and that's how it gets to a powder, I assume. I can only assume that's how they do it. Because you're not actually, like, eating the organs. Like, they're not sending you, like, bite-sized pieces of a fallopian tube. Because they freeze-dried them and crumbled them into a powder. Right. You were eating beef uterus. Yes, but I meant, like, you're not sitting there munching on a fallopian tube. I guess my question becomes, and again, I have not done any research on this. So it could be, like, I literally looked and was like, oh, this thing that she wants. Like, it's not magnesium and, like, other things. It's like, here's a beef uterus. So what I want to know, because this is how my brain works, is does it make a difference when, in the cow's form of life, when it was murdered so that you could have its powdered uterus, does it make a difference what stage of the life cycle that cow was in? Like, what if that cow was in menopause? Does that make it better or worse for you? Or what if they were fertile when they were given up? Do cows go into menopause? Like, is that even a thing? I'm sure there are veterinarians on here or farmers or somebody that's going to be like, you guys are ridiculous, first of all. But also- My commitment was to making this episode more interesting. And these are the types of questions that I have. Well, you certainly did. I do know that it specifically recommends this for people in post-menopause because of the nutrients that you get from these organs. And they're all supposedly sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised cattle. And in Argentina, no less. I mean- Well, I guess my question is, is that what's the difference if you use a beef protein powder or you use this supplement? Like- Yeah. You know, like here, a Reddit person has mentioned that they experienced heightened energy and more manageable periods after several months of use. Controversially, others have reported adverse effects such as headaches, stomach discomfort, and no noticeable difference. Another Reddit user shared experiencing daily headaches and reduced energy levels after taking it. And they also say it depends, I think, if you're- Like, if you're- Obviously, if you're vegan, you're not having this. But if you don't eat much meat, if you're a vegetarian or something, or just not vegetarian, but you don't eat a lot of red meat, I assume that this would affect you. Right? And it even says, like, you could have effects. Like, if you're somebody who eats, like, if you're pescatarian or something, like, and then you go and have this, which, again, they would never, I just assume not. But it's supposed to give you, like, four times more vitamin A than lettuce, 14,000 more COQ10 than cauliflower, three times more iron than kale, 100 times more vitamin B12 than spinach. And it goes on. Like, I could read it all, but, like, better than broccoli, better than oats. Right? So I guess it depends. Fun facts. Fun facts. So the difference between bovine uterus powder and beef protein is they're sourced differently. One is, so the uterine powder is freeze-dried and desiccated cow, whereas beef collagen is hydrolyzed from muscles, tendons, and collagen. Which makes sense, so, because a lot of people add that stuff for collagen purposes. The uterine contains pepsi, natural hormones, cofactors, and micronutrients like vitamin B. Selenium and zinc and so much more. Yep. So they listed as having limited studies, mostly based on anecdotal evidence. Yeah. And it does say it's gluten-free, non-GMO, no antibiotics, no hormones. It is very interesting. Huh. There, the more you know. Do they recommend it for perimenopause though? Because it says here that they recommend it for reproductive health. I think there's a whole bunch of different options because it does also recommend for, like, if you're low in any of those items that we talked about, like vitamins, essential minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, that any of it would be good because, so it also recommends it for, like I said, post-menopause. But also they're talking about it for the stubborn weight loss and things like that you would have during menopause. So I don't know. Anyways, Ing really wants you to tell her if you've taken this before or if you know anything about it. Yeah, absolutely. There you go. You just made the whole episode better. You know, now people know. Yep. It's kind of like that thing. Did your dogs, what are those things called? Bully sticks? Yeah. You know, it's like when you get a bully stick and you don't really know what it is until your dog licks your face and then you're like, oh, what did you just eat? Fun facts. Anyway, let's dive in to how our gut health influences our hormones. And, you know, this really comes into play, what we talked about before about nutrition and hormones. Nutrition and hormones are really closely linked. And when we experience gut issues, you know, we, we can experience both right. Hormone issues, gut issues, all these things can be going on in our bodies at this stage of life together. You know, like look at the gray hairs that Allie is experiencing. You know, I think this is also a symptom of perimenopause. I think it's getting worse. Anywho. But when we're looking at our gut health, a lot of times what we're going to notice is bloating constipation, irregular digestion. You know, skin issues are going to be really related to our gut health. So we might notice more acne, rosacea, eczema increased cravings, unexplained weight gain, brain fog, mood swings. Fatigue. All of those things are going to come from our gut. And so it really goes into, you know, what are we putting in our gut? How does our digestion change throughout the different phases of our life? Some people might notice that their digestion changed post pregnancy, during pregnancy, things like that. Sensitivities for food can change as we enter perimenopause, as we enter menopause, those things will change as well. And so really learning how to listen to our bodies and adjust our things accordingly is really, really important. Absolutely. And while you were talking about that, it just made me think of all the times that, because we're going to talk about the connection, all the times that I hear of these symptoms from my teenager. And then I think about all the times that she is stressed. So when she's stressed and she's up here, all of these symptoms are also up here for her as well, which is really interesting because it's not just about perimenopause or menopause, like this happens to everyone. So again, you know, the elephant in the room really is more noticeable in common than we think. So key hormones. We look at some of like the key factors, right? When we're stressed, are we having more processed foods? Are we making healthy choices? Are we fueling our body? Are we taking probiotics? Are we, you know, taking our supplements? Are we getting good sleep, you know, the connection and the overlay and all of these things. And, and that's where like, so much comes into play about, you know, where are we showing up for ourselves in our lives? What are we doing for ourselves in our lives? What are we making time for? What are we not making time for? And where are, where is one quick fix. And how is that affecting everything else in that ripple effect? Right. So, and you said key hormones impacted by gut health. So estrogen, the gut is responsible for detoxing excess estrogen. So poor gut health leads to estrogen dominance, causing PMS, heavy periods and weight gain, which we know. Cortisol. Dominance. If like people are kind of looking at where in your body, typically you will see estrogen dominance in your lower half. We'll see bigger hips, bigger, but bigger thighs. Like that's where, when we are estrogen dominant, that's where it sits. Estrogen belly. We hear about that all the time too. Like your lower gut. Where's your cortisol. Where it sits more in your, in your waistline. Higher stomach area. Right. So chronic gut inflammation, like you said, increased stress hormone production, making you feel more anxious, drained. Again, we talk about cortisol every episode. It just doesn't go away. And yeah. And again, same thing. Like the hormone belly that people talk about all the time associated to menopause. It comes from those things. Insulin unhealthy gut can contribute to insulin resistance, blood sugar crashes, which we've talked about. Energy dips. We've talked about all of those things. Anything to add. Yeah, definitely. Your thyroid hormone, right. You know, an inflamed gut can slow down the conversion of T4. And that can cause you to have a lot of blood work. Causing you to have inactive thyroid hormone. And, you know, leading to symptoms like fatigue and brain fog. And so that's really important that you're having regular blood work. So, you know, whether you're, you know, going into fertility years or you're coming into perimenopause. Like, are you having regular blood work? Is your primary care? Practitioner looking at those levels. to make sure that none of those things are contributing to your problem. And making sure that those things are balanced out. Are you in optimal range or are you in normal range? They're not the same thing. So you can be in normal range, but not in optimal range, which means maybe supplementing with something is going to make it more effective, which is gonna make you feel better. One of the naturopaths that I've been working with has been doing a whole bunch of TikToks and videos on iron levels, right? And so we know that as women, we struggle to keep our iron and our ferritin levels up because we have that menstrual cycle every month. So we're kind of chasing our tails that if we have a heavy cycle that lasts a long time, you know, we're depleting our iron stores on a regular basis. And so are we supplementing iron? Do we need to supplement iron? Each province in Ontario actually grades a normal range of ferritin differently. So Saskatchewan rates it at 70 is the baseline, whereas Ontario puts the baseline at 10. So you really wanna not only just look at it with your primary care, but you wanna look at it yourself too and know what are those optimal ranges to feel like your best self? Because anything below 70, you're not gonna feel good. Mine tends to like to sit around 15 as a celiac. So if I'm not taking a high dose iron on a regular basis, I can't get it above 15. So even with a high dose iron supplement, I'm lucky if mine ranges at about 45. So I'm always fighting that. And, you know, even the gynecologists throughout the years have recommended that, you know, I take anti-inflammatory medicine and different things like that during my cycle to help decrease that menstrual flow to kind of keep those iron levels down. Hmm. So do you wanna tell us how to improve gut health for better hormonal balance? Yeah, so a lot of similar things that we talked about when we talked about nutrition a couple of weeks ago, we wanna limit our processed sugars. So our processed sugars, our refined carbs, artificial sweeteners, all of those things, seed oils, they're all gonna contribute towards inflammation. So we wanna make sure that we're keeping our gut inflammation as low as possible so that everything else in our body performs at its best, which is going to help our hormones feel better, help all of those things feel better. Adding things like gut-friendly foods. So especially, you know, have you been on an antibiotic recently? Have you had some sicknesses? Have you had any gut infections? Has anything been going on that is impeding on your gut health? So for me, someone with celiac disease, my gut health is always, you know, worse off than someone else's. I'm more prone to things like leaky gut. Last year in April, I had H. pylori. So all of those things are contributing to my lack of good gut health. And, you know, anytime I'm on antibiotics and things like that, that's gonna impede on that. So doing probiotics, doing probiotic-rich foods. So things like a yogurt or a kimchi, sauerkraut or kefir, I don't know how you say it. You know, I'm just not good at pronouncing things all the time. Some prebiotic foods such as garlic, onions, bananas, asparagus, all great things to add in. And then your fiber-rich foods. And I do have to emphasize that people who are on a gluten-free diet, whether it's by choice, by sensitivity or celiac disease, you really need to look at your fiber levels because most of your gluten-free foods are low in fiber. So really emphasizing those leafy greens, flax seeds, maybe adding ground flax seeds to things, and your berries. Another key fruit that people underestimate how much fiber is in is pears. People always talk about apples as being high in fiber, but check out pears as a great source to get some fiber in. Do you wanna maybe continue and talk about balancing blood sugar levels? Sure, so if you pair carbs with proteins and healthy fats, you can avoid insulin spikes. We've talked about insulin spikes a couple of times. Support liver detox, drinking enough water, incorporating foods like cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower, and it helps the liver process excess hormones. And getting water in is not easy. And we've talked about this many times as well. You should be drinking, actually, I should let you say this because I'll just say you should be drinking like two or three big jugfuls a day. But because I don't think that I, like I know you're supposed to drink so much of your weight in water, but I personally, if I can just get two big, like good-sized jugfuls of water, then I feel like I've accomplished something, even if I drink two glasses of water because I'm terrible at drinking water. It is such an important and underrated thing. And if anything, when we talked last week in our bonus episode, we talked about my own weight loss journey and my own struggles. And we all kind of have the tendencies for certain things. And I'm a horrible water drinker. As we look at these things each week and we talk about the benefits of all of these things, it's a great reminder, even for you and I, before we pick up that processed food, before we go for that sugary treat, what have we fueled our body with first? And it brings me back to that gas analogy, right? Of like, what are we putting in our car, right? We fill up our car when it's empty. We prioritize that. We prioritize these things, right? If we drive a fancy sports car, we're not putting regular gas in it. We're putting high-end gas in it, right? And so, you know what? At what points do we start looking at ourselves like that's fancy, fancy red sports car, right? Like when do we start to prioritize ourselves and say, you know, what am I doing for myself today? And that might be as simple as baby steps of saying, what am I doing to prioritize getting that water in? And so it might be for you today, celebrating that you got two glasses in today because you didn't yesterday. And then maybe the next day it's three glasses. And the key is, is that you can't go from nothing to everything. And so what are those baby steps? And if it's as simple as water, then let's make that the priority, right? If it's, you know, joining my seven day challenge and taking sugar out for just seven days, notice what that feels like at the end of seven days. And taking water out and going from zero to all of it, you can. And you're just going to have to pee all day long. Like let's tell you the truth. Yeah, you're going to be peeing all day. You're going to be woken up from your sleep. Like those are the cold hard facts. If you're going from no water to all of the water, be prepared. Like you're going to need a squatty potty. And if you're struggling with water, what can you do to your water to make it better? Is it adding lime? Is it adding an essential oil? Is it adding lemon or cucumber to your water? I recently bought these green juices. And one of the ones that I buy because I was fighting a cold is a ginger. So I do a ginger shot that's ginger and turmeric and all the things. But I wanted to get one of every juice they make to just to do my own research. And one of them is apple and ginger. And it's very sweet, but it's not sweetened with sugar. It's just sweetened with the fruit. And it has four grams of sugar in it. And I found it very, very flavorful. So when I was fighting a cold, I put like a tablespoon of this drink into a glass of water to give it flavor to help me drink it. But it also the ginger and it helped my runny nose. And so it was a great way while I was sick and I had not enough taste buds to like taste things. It was a great way to help flush my system with having that added ginger in my water. You know, I took a $5 drink and expanded it over multiple days. And so it was a great way to really help me. So it might be strategies like that of like drinking out of a different cup. For me, drinking water over a wine glass makes it taste better. You know, what kind of things can you do? When I take my big Stanley to cheer, I drink it all while I'm there because I'm doing nothing else, right? So then I cheer days, I get way more water in than days that I'm not. So figuring out little tiny strategies like that to help you meet those goals. Lastly, managing stress. Chronic stress affects your gut bacteria, weakens your digestion. So incorporating stress reducing habits like micro moments of calm that we talked about on another episode or any type of relaxation, definitely essential. Yeah, finding power. It might be, you know, your dedicated time. Maybe you're sitting down. My mom got one of those foot massagers from my brother for Christmas. Let me tell you, it is epic. It's like this little bucket thing that you put your feet in and it heats up and it massages your feet. Maybe you get one of those and you listen to our podcast and that's your me time. You know, maybe that's the thing and you drink water while you're doing it, right? Like, again, I have always been an over multitasker and I'm trying to break things down and do one thing at a time. But if you struggle with that, maybe there's some calming things you can do at the same time. Maybe it's laugh at what we talk about. You know, that's just another strategy. Anyway, I have talked a lot today, Amy. Why don't you share three to four sweet takeaways and we will wrap up today's episode. I will, and I'd say one of the things that when you manage your stress, it's going to help give you mental clarity. So that's one of the things that I wanted to add to that. That is part of it. Reducing your stress will always give you clarity and make your brain fog feel so much less. So some sweet takeaways. Swap one of your processed foods for a gut-friendly alternative this week. Add some fermented food to your diet to support gut bacteria. It's something that not everyone likes. So if it's something you can do, absolutely try it. You can start your morning with lemon water or cucumber water to support digestion. Track digestion and bloating to identify possible food triggers. So just make a little diary of what you're eating for the day and notice if it makes you bloaty or gassy. Like cauliflower is definitely one that affects a lot of people. Although we say to eat it, it definitely could affect you and you're going to notice that. So maybe eat a little less of that and swap in some broccoli. Some people, I jump in there too, is some people do better with cooked versus raw. So if you do better with cooked, then eat it cooked. I will blanch broccoli and throw it into salads cooked as opposed to eating it raw because I digest it better. Absolutely. And then try stress-reducing activities like deep breathing, gentle movements. It will help improve your gut health. Go for those slow, relaxing walks. And if you enjoy our podcast, tell a friend and let them enjoy the laughter and fun that we bring to even a boring episode about gut health because I definitely did share some humor at the start. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, Amy. Bye.