Wellness Unplugged

The Power of Your Gut: Unlocking Holistic Health and Well-Being

• Brittany Ramunno

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Can you imagine your gut as the key to unlocking holistic health and well-being? Join me, Brittany Ramuno, on Wellness Unplugged, as we unravel the profound impact of gut health on mood, immunity, and disease prevention. This episode promises to enlighten you about the critical roles of probiotics and prebiotics, and why a varied diet rich in natural sources like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and homemade sourdough bread might be all you need to nurture a thriving gut microbiome.

Ever wondered how your gut influences hormone production, mental health, and metabolic health? We'll explore these connections, shedding light on the relationship between gut health and conditions such as autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and the specific challenges faced by individuals with Down syndrome and autism. Dispelling common misconceptions about probiotics, we emphasize the necessity of dietary diversity for optimal gut health. We'll also discuss the adverse effects of chronic dieting and restrictive diets on your digestive system.

Prepare to gain a comprehensive understanding of the digestive system's intricacies, including the roles of the pancreas, gallbladder, and liver. We'll discuss how factors like stress, lifestyle, and medications can impact your gut health, and why fiber and the Bristol stool chart are essential tools for maintaining gut balance. The gut-brain axis and its influence on mental health through the vagus nerve is another fascinating topic we'll cover. Tune in to discover why prioritizing gut health is a cornerstone of overall well-being and disease prevention.

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Speaker 1:

Hey y'all, I'm your host, brittany Ramuno. Now, before you get too excited, thinking this is just another podcast about tracking macros and learning which new hot workout will finally make you love yourself, let me stop you there. This podcast exists to rip off the bandaid and go well beyond the superficial eat better, move more advice. Because, honestly, who really has their life together after nailing their macros? No one. That's who, and that's why Wellness Unplugged. I'm here throwing open the curtains of all the gnarly cringeworthy stuff we usually keep behind closed doors. So buckle up and get ready to get real. My friends, whether you're tuning in during a workout or hiding in your bedroom calling it a self-renewal break, I'm here with you. Let's unplug from the highlight reels and dive into the glorious, messy scope of adulthood. Welcome to Wellness Unplugged. I'm so glad you're here. All right, guys, good afternoon, morning, evening, you know, whatever time you're listening to this, thank you for listening. So today we're going to talk about one of my favorite topics that I've been learning the most about, actually, and I've been diving deeper into, and it's our gut health. Right, I think my? You know, if you have to think about your eyes are the windows to your soul. Your gut is the window to your entire body and health. Right, because everything stems from gut health. When we think about that, right, there's about 90% of your body's serotonin, which is the neurotransmitter that regulates your mood, your sleep, your appetite, is produced in the gut, your immune system about 70 to 80% of it, your immune system cells, live in your gut. So disease stems from gut health. I know I always say, you know, stress turns into inflammation, inflammation turns into disease. But then, to take it one step further, that disease always starts in the gut. Now, I'm not going to say, hey, I'm a gut specialist. I know gut like the back of my hand. I don't. I will never claim to know everything about everything, stop it. But let's talk about gut health. And do we need probiotics? Do we need prebiotics? And I'm like girl, why, why? So let's, let's. Let's talk about this, right, when we, when we think about gut health. And you know what are probiotics? Well, brittany, great question. Thanks so much for asking.

Speaker 1:

Probiotics are living microorganisms I almost said microisms, but that was not it so bacteria and yeast that are beneficial, obviously, when we consume in adequate amounts, like moderation. Obviously, moderation is key. And if you eat too much, yes, you're going to have an overgrowth, but they help maintain a balance in your gut of the microbiome which is essential for the digestion. It's your nutrition absorption, your immune function, your mental health. So, when we think of probiotics and some examples, I'm sure everyone is very familiar with lactobacillus. I think it's acidophilus, I'm probably saying that really wrong, but lactobacillus, I know I'm saying right, that is probably the most popular. You can get it everywhere. I feel like you can go to a grocery store, you can get lactobacillus probiotics, let's be real. But there's also bifidum bacterium and I know coaches, if you're listening there's saccharomyces boulardii. I call it saccharomyces boulardii because these big words like why can't people just come up with hey, this be Saccharomyces boulardis? Like stop it, okay. So that's what probiotics are.

Speaker 1:

And when we think about probiotics and do we need to take a probiotic? I'm going to tell you the average person does not need to. You are wasting your money. Congratulations, thank you. Marketing, thank you everyone Bowing to the head. I think food is medicine at its core. I will always believe that and if you don't have a basis, a variety of food, that probiotic that you're taking is trash. It is going nowhere, it is not helping you, it is just adding shit to the fire. You need variety to be able to supplement with a probiotic right. Supplements is for that 1% of everyone that has everything else right, which typically is not the case. But when we think about food and probiotics right Yogurturt, look for the live and active cultures that have the lactobacillus and the bifobacterium.

Speaker 1:

So when I think of yogurt, my favorite go-to actually is goat yogurt, and for various reasons. One, it's great for people who tend to have issues with dairy Goat yogurt. There you go, you're welcome. Raw yogurt is also fantastic. You won't find it unless you can get raw milk, which is only like two states in the United States at this point I think Maybe three. But if you live in Pennsylvania with me, you can get raw yogurt. 10 out of 10 recommend it is probably the best for you. And then, if you can't, I do goat yogurt, kefir. So kefir has fermented. It's a fermented milk. Drinkish. It's like yogurt, a little thinner consistency than yogurt, so it's drinkable.

Speaker 1:

Sauerkraut has lactobacillus in it. Kimchi I'm sure everyone's heard of kimchi. I don't like it. I think it tastes like trash personally, but that's just me. Miso is from fermented soybeans and they have lactobacillus and bacillus strains. Tempeh, which is, if you're familiar with the vegan world has probiotics in it. Kombucha everyone knows about Pickles, haha, yeah, bet you didn't think about that one and sourdough bread fermented like at home. Sourdough bread is probably the next best thing beyond yogurt, personally, in my opinion, but those are great probiotic foods. I mean when you think about food in its general source and probiotics, you need a variety source and probiotics, you need a variety.

Speaker 1:

If you are not eating the rainbow and I mean red, yellow, white, purple, green, blue, orange, like all of the colors you're messing your gut up Eating the same thing every single day. You're messing your gut up. A dietician will tell you that. Hopefully, any nutrition coach you work with should tell you that. A functional doctor should tell you that. A doctor should tell you that you need to eat the rainbow. It is the most important thing. If you are not eating the rainbow and all the different colors, I think I read a study the other day and it said you need to eat 20 different colors in the month, or 20 different fruits and vegetables in a month, to make sure that you have enough variety of the microbiome in your gut. So if you're just eating one color every day, like hey, I'm just eating leafy greens, which is great. I'm not knocking it because I do it a lot, but where are the carrots? Right? Where are the artichokes? Where's the bananas, the mushrooms, the onions, right?

Speaker 1:

When we think about prebiotic foods, right, prebiotics are types of dietary fibers that you typically can't digest. Right there there's soluble and insoluble fiber. So prebiotics are fibers that you can't digest, so insoluble, that serve as food for the beneficial of your gut. So by using the probiotics, the prebiotics help them grow and thrive in the digestive system. Ta-da, prebiotics, so prebiotic fibers, include inulin I'm going to butcher this one Oligofructose, I want to say Um, and there's one other one.

Speaker 1:

I call it GOS, but I honestly I can't say it to save my life. It's like galactooligosaccharides. Yeah, this is why doctors and scientists should not be able to name shit, because the normal human being can't pronounce it. Like why it's not necessary, guys. So probiotic foods when you think about probiotic or prebiotic, sorry, whole grains, whole grains, contain inulin and beta-glucan. So, boom, shakalaka, bananas are resistant starch and inulin and bananas act as prebiotics. Onions, garlic, leeks, asparagus, artichokes Chicory root is really, really good for inulin Pears, apples, legumes, so beans, lentils, peas, soybeans I'm not really big on soy products personally, but it is what it is. But whole grain products, boom, shakalaka, those are great prebiotic foods.

Speaker 1:

Well, brittany, what's the difference between a prebiotic and a probiotic? That's a great question, because I kind of talked on it but I kind of not. But probiotics live microorganisms. Prebiotics are non-living, non-digestible. Probiotics are introduced from external sources, typically foods supplements, while prebiotics are found naturally in like plant-based foods. Really there's no really difference between there, um, probiotics and prebiotics.

Speaker 1:

So probiotics help maintain a healthy gut microbiome and prebiotics kind of selectively promote the growth of bacteria already present in the gut. If that makes sense, so probiotics will maintain it, and prebiotics, they're like little devil-y knickers who if it's there, they'll promote what's there, but they won't bring what's not there. Let's see. So probiotics, prebiotics oh, back to hormones and gut. Ta-da, I was like where did I leave off guys? So when we think about hormones and gut and probiotics and prebiotics and things like that, so 90% of your body's serotonin, which I mentioned earlier, is produced and lives in the gut.

Speaker 1:

So when we think about gut health and the gut, the gut's also responsible for you know that semiglutide, that GLP-1. Guess what? It regulates insulin secretion and glucose metabolism in your gut. So if you're having insulin and glucose issues, maybe you should fix your gut, not take the shot. There's also gremlin, which regulates your appetite and your hunger signals. There's the leptin, which regulates if you feel hungry or if you don't feel hungry, sorry, when you feel full. And then there's CKK. So this is another one of those that I just I don't understand how to freaking say it. Okay, I'm just going to be honest, I'll butcher it. So CKK, I believe, is like colicidokinin, something like that, but it helps you feel full and it helps produce or helps you digest food, ta-da.

Speaker 1:

And then, when we think about the immune system in the gut, it's if you think about the gut I want you to think about. The gut is the largest immune organ in your body, ta-da. So the gut microbiome, which has trillions of microorganisms living in it right, plays a super crucial role in regulating your immune system, your immune system's development, the function and homeostasis for your body overall. And if it's balanced and diverse, when you think about the little gut microbiomes, it helps train your immune system to recognize and respond to harmful substances, like, maybe you have a gluten in top, you know you're, you're, you have celiac, so the body is going to attack it. Um, when we think about the importance of gut health and longevity and maintaining that it's, it's super important. It's why I always start with gut health.

Speaker 1:

No matter who, what you come in, you need to start with your. If you come to work with me, know that we're working on your gut health typically first, and it's because the gut's responsible for breaking down nutrition and absorbing the nutrients. It's like I mentioned. It's a huge part of the immune function. It's a huge part of the mental health. I can't tell you how many people come to me with anxiety and depression and OCD and it is from your gut. Nine times out of 10. If there's not some huge traumatic thing that happened to you, it's from your gut.

Speaker 1:

And then you want to talk about hormones. Well, you can't fix hormones without fixing your gut, and if anyone says otherwise, they're lying to you, just going to let you know. Your gut plays a huge role in producing and regulating your hormones right. There's more than just estrogen testosterone. There's, like I mentioned, the appetite, there's the metabolism, there's the mood, there's all of the bodily functions are like insulin is a hormone, cortisol is a hormone. Granted, that's your adrenals, but still roll with it. And when we think about your metabolic health linked to gut health, right, it's involved with the bile acids, the vitamins, any medications that you're taking. So imbalances in that microbiome typically lead to obesity. They lead to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, which I feel isn't talked about enough.

Speaker 1:

And then we touched on, like the brain health perspective, the depression, the anxiety, the OCD Like there are. I even just learned the other day that kids with Down syndrome and autism typically have a gut component to them. Ta-da, I don't know anything about kids with autism and I'm just learning. Look, I'm just sharing what I learned, man, just letting you know. But we often hear about leaky gut or gut, intestinal permeability or an imbalanced gut dysbiosis. Right, it's all from like inflammatory bowel diseases. So Crohn's disease, UC, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases come from the gut. Ra, lupus, ta-da, um, it's nobody.

Speaker 1:

Nobody puts the the stress on gut health and eating variety. I feel like everyone just talks about take a probiotic and you're good. I can tell you, nine times out of ten, you do not need a probiotic and you're good. I can tell you nine times out of 10, you do not need a probiotic and nine times out of 10, I'm taking you off that probiotic because you're not eating variety. And if you're not eating variety, there's no use in you spending money on a supplement. I would rather you spend $100 on 100 different fruits and veggies than $100 on a pill. It's that simple.

Speaker 1:

Well, brittany, what about greens? Greens have all the fruits and veggies and the fiber and blah, blah, blah in it, and that's very well, true? That's true. My kids are picky ass eaters and guess what? They take greens and they take greens, and they take greens because they're picky-ass eaters. So I need to make sure that they're getting the variety for their gut health. Luckily, they drink Revive's mixed berry. So Sophia drinks the mixed berry, aubrey drinks the chocolate.

Speaker 1:

I don't like the chocolate personally. I think it tastes like ass. She turns it into chocolate milk, whatever makes her happy. I don't like the chocolate personally. I think it tastes like ass. She turns it into chocolate milk, whatever makes her happy, I don't care. But you still have to remember that at its core, you're still spending money on a supplement. And kids are one thing when they're teenagers and they're assholes to feed and they think they know everything. But you're an adult, you are an adult. Eat your colors. Eat the purple sweet potatoes, the purple carrots, the orange carrots, you know, the watermelon, the plums, the nectarine Corn is probably the most useless useless vegetable ever, I will say.

Speaker 1:

Your body can't digest it. I actually use corn to test mobility. Yep, we in my family, once a month we have corn and I make it a race of who can, who can poop out corn the fastest and who doesn't poop out the corn the fastest. And that's how I monitor my kids' constipation levels incognitoly. I mean they know now, but that's how I monitor my kids constipation levels incognitoly. I mean they know now, but that's how I did it as they were kids too. It's okay, I know I gave them corn. I should be seeing this by, you know, tomorrow. Ta-da um.

Speaker 1:

We have to think again at the core of our gut. It controls our appetite, it controls our serotonin, it controls our immune system, it controls digestion in its core and inflammation. Right, an imbalanced microbiome can contribute to chronic inflammation. Hence, when you see calprotectin or high CRP and you didn't address the gut, it's linked to obesity, insulin resistance and all the metabolic disorders. Or the appetite if somebody says I'm never hungry or I feel full quickly. Hello, gut produces leptin and gremlin which regulate again your appetite and your ability to feel full. And then let's talk about I know I touched on serotonin, right, the gut microbiome plays a role in the production of serotonin, dopamine, gaba, which control our mood, our behavior, our cognitive function.

Speaker 1:

And having an imbalance, having too much of an overgrowth or too under of commensal bacteria, because low commensal bacteria is just as damaging as overgrowth bacteria, which I feel like a lot of people don't talk about. They all talk about SIBO. Well, that's great. Overgrowth or low commensal is just as damaging as overgrowth and it can continue to turn into like oxidative stress and additional inflammation, which have been linked to depression, anxiety, ocd and things like that, right, right. So when we think of depression, bacterial overgrowth such as SIBO candida have both been linked to increased inflammation and, in the neurotransmitters, contributing to depression and anxiety. So if you balance, you remove the candida. If you have candida, candida also triggers a lot of sugar cravings. So if you're a person that triggers a lot of sugar cravings, so if you're a person that has a lot of sugar cravings and have tried magnesium and it's not working, it's probably a candida.

Speaker 1:

But SIBO ta-da, leaky gut. So leaky gut. I've read some studies that suggest leaky gut. Quote unquote. Quote unquote um participates into OC or turns into OCD. People with OCD have leaky gut tech typically. And when I talked about, like the low commensal bacterias such as bifobacterium and lactobacillus, bloating gas, um, typically those are low Acromantia. Nobody talks about acromantia. Typically those are low Acromantia, nobody talks about acromantia. And I feel like every time I've ever done a GI map, not one person has had sufficient acromantia in their body at all. But let me explain leaky gut, because I feel like everyone throws that term around and nobody really explains it.

Speaker 1:

So imagine your intestines are a long, hollow garden hose with tiny holes all over it. So these tiny hole, the tiny holes, are meant to allow water, aka nutrients, to slowly seep out of the garden aka garden is your body, to nourish the plants aka cells. I like planting. My analogies are usually coming from the garden, the lawn, or sometimes I can throw in cars. Really cool like that.

Speaker 1:

However, the hose needs to be strong enough to prevent things from the outside getting inside the hose. So in a healthy gut, the intestinal lining acts as a wall of the hose. So it allows nutrients to pass through in a controlled manner but prevents harmful substances from leaking inside. So leaky gut, aka intestinal permeability, is like having cracks or bigger holes in the wall of the garden. So these larger gaps allow partially digested food, particles, toxins and even bacteria to escape into the intestines and enter your bloodstream. And then your body's immune system detects those like leaky substances as foreign invaders and begins to attack them, resulting in inflammation in throughout your body. And then the inflammation can contribute to the health issues over time, whether it's digestive system or whatever areas of the body.

Speaker 1:

So leaky gut can be caused by poor diet, chronic stress, alcohol consumption, medications, infections. It can lead to bloating gas, food sensitivities, fatigue, eczema, autoimmune diseases. But healing a leaky gut typically involves removing potential triggers such as the inflammatory foods, changing your workout, pulling out stimulants such as pre-workout, caffeine, alcohol, and then supporting your gut through fiber, probiotics, glutamine, zinc, zinc, carnosine, reducing the stress, like I mentioned, and then addressing. While you're doing all of that, you have to address the underlying issues that are like contributing to the problem, right, whether it's Hashimoto's, lupus, ra, histamine issues, estrogen issues, right, all of them. And stress. Allaky gut is like having a bunch of cracks or holes in your intestinal lining that allows invaders to leave and then your body triggers it as an invader and inflammation goes. And there you go, you're sick. You've got health. You know health issues and chronic dieting.

Speaker 1:

When we think about chronic dieting and restrictive eating patterns whether you're going through an elimination diet, a keto diet, a paleo diet, a low FODMAP diet all of this bullshit diets that you're reading about, the Adkins, the Weight Watchers literally all of it is destroying your gut Because those diets are only to be used for short-term success. Nobody should be low FODMAP for the rest of their life. Nobody should be keto the rest of their life. Nobody should be paleo the rest of their life. If there's any diet that I think somebody should be the rest of their life, it would probably be Mediterranean, and that's only because it's fish-based. It's got a lot of fats, it's got a lot of carbs, it's low inflammatory foods right, but going through all of those chronic dieting patterns and restrictive eating and not eating a variety we're going back to. We need to eat a variety of foods, a variety of colors, a variety of everything.

Speaker 1:

Moderation is key with food. The more types of food you eat, the better your body will react and the healthier your body will be. So when we think about the chronic dieting, we've got nutrient depletion. So restrictive diets, like We've got nutrient depletion. So restrictive diets like keto, for example, right, keto eliminates carbs.

Speaker 1:

Most people do keto wrong. 90% of the world does keto wrong, especially people with, like, rheumatoid arthritis, who think carbs are the devil. Girlfriend, the carbs are not the devil and you should not be keto the rest of your life, end of story. But restrictive diets they turn into nutrient depletion. Then the minerals, the vitamins your body is deficient in them, hello which can then deprive the gut of essential nutrients it needs to thrive, which can decline in the diversity, like I said, which means the commensal bacteria, the good guys, are low and guess what? That leaves opportunity for the bad guys to be high, hello, um, when we do chronic dieting and restrictive patterns, right, we're most people, and this is where a lot of coaches get it wrong.

Speaker 1:

A lot of them, and it's probably the biggest thing that's ever been pushed into my brain is the lack of fiber. Yeah, if you are an everyday person, don't come at me for competitor. Um, competing, competing is a little bit different, but low. Many diets are super low in fiber and fiber is absolutely crucial for gut bacteria. Without fiber, commensal bacteria is going to struggle to maintain their population. And that is again the perfect environment for the opportunistic, the bad guys, to take over the world.

Speaker 1:

Fiber if you are in a cut of any kind, you need to make sure you have enough fiber, fiber, fiber, fiber, fiber, fiber. If I could pressure anyone, if going through a fat loss, make sure you have enough fiber in your body, because fiber going through a fat loss phase is going to be increasing your stress on your gut which is going to downregulate a lot of systems when you think about digestion. So you need the fiber to keep the good guys happy and to keep the balance right. And then when we think about again the chronic dieting, the stress that it puts on right I just mentioned it a second ago the caloric restriction, the elimination of entire food groups, let me tell you, harmful. And when your body is stressed it doesn't care that you want to lose weight, your body never cares, but the stress disrupts the gut microbiome, see.

Speaker 1:

And then when we think about that, from a fat loss phase, we've got to think about gut motility, right, restrictive diets, which gut motility, let me back up, the movement of food through the digestive tract slows down when you're in a diet phase which, again, if you don't have enough fiber in your body, perfect, perfect way to get constipated, congratulations. But if you're in a super restrictive and long-term cut because most people shouldn't be losing weight longer than like 16 weeks at a time Max max, like you need a diet break in there, especially if you're doing it on your own. Don't do it longer because of your gut health. Right, if you get anything from this, food is a prebiotic, food is a probiotic. Make sure you take fiber when you're losing weight. Make sure you prioritize fiber, not take fiber, because the gut motility as soon as the gut motility slows down, constipation comes in. And when constipation comes in, then you're not detoxifying your hormones appropriately. Now you've got a hormone problem. So here you are trying to lose weight. You're stressing your body the fuck out. Now you've got constipation and constipation turns into. Now I'm going to go estrogen dominant, because I'm not detoxifying the estrogen out of my body. My liver is recycling it back into my body. Hello, estrogen dominance. Ah, see how I'm telling you the gut man. Everything stems from gut health.

Speaker 1:

And then when we think about you know I've touched on the immune system. Chronic dieting with the immune system weakens the immune system, and when you have a weak immune system, the commensal bacteria is going to deplete. You can't fix your microbiome without fixing your immune system too, because of the opportunistic bacteria. When your immune system goes down, it's harder to keep the commensal bacteria in place and then the opportunistic aka the bad guys if you will go rampant and boom inflammation and then you're sick all the time. So here you are, just a normal mom trying to lose weight, working out five, six days a week, eating your 1200 calories a day or whatever, chronically pulling weight. You're chronically, you know, pulling food back, restricting some foods. Then we're increasing cardio. So we've now depleted our fiber, we're stressed out of our mind. Now we're constipated. Now we've got hormone issues and now we're getting sick all the time.

Speaker 1:

See, then when we get sick, we want to use an antibiotic. And hello, antibiotics. Guess what? They kill bacteria, ta-da, antibiotics at its core, every kind. And there are some where your body can be what's the word I'm looking for? Like immune to them. Your body can be immune to some antibiotics. The GI map tests for that too. I think that is like the coolest thing I've ever learned in my life. I'm like, oh so some antibiotics. No matter how many times you take them, it doesn't matter, because your body's immune to them. Word the body is cool. So to maintain a healthy gut microbiome while dieting, make sure you have adequate variety, adequate fiber, adequate nutrients, and we're incorporating probiotic rich foods, prebiotic rich foods.

Speaker 1:

We're occasionally allowing refeed periods, because those refeed periods will help your cortisol come down. That will help your insulin re-regulate, they'll help your glucose, they'll help your leptin, they'll help your gremlin. So they'll get you'll get a leptin spike. A refeed is essentially hey, I'm going to give you a shit ton of carbs that you normally don't get and I'm going to typically pull training back that day. You're probably gonna have a rest day, depending on where you're at. So I'm going to cut the cortisol spike from training, I'm going to increase your food, I'm going to spike the leptin and your hunger is going to come back. And then it works 99.9% of the time. I've never not seen it work. I'd probably be that 0.1% myself Goes back to my poor coach. Neither here nor there. But the refeeding periods can help support the growth and diversity of the commensal bacteria. There's more than just a leptin spike and a gremlin spike.

Speaker 1:

We also want to make sure that we're pushing the variety of foods back up. So chronic dieting, caloric restriction, food elimination diets they aren't for forever, they aren't meant to be used longer than a few months at a time. And I think that's where a lot of people start digging themselves a little deeper. When we think about gut health, is their keto for years, or their paleo for years, or their low FODMAPs for years, or low histamine for years? And that's what's going to destroy your gut? I was just watching the um oh, what was that documentary? The documentary the hack your gut health? And there was one woman. She's like I only eat 10 different types of food because I have reactions to everything else. And I'm sitting here thinking that's why you have reactions, because you only eat 10 different types of food.

Speaker 1:

Now, if you've been in some long restrictive elimination diet and we've eliminated whatever fruits and veggies for some time, just hypothetically thinking, don't just go out and eat them, all right, we still want to add them in one at a time, little by little, to reintroduce the body, to let the body understand and identify it that hey, it's not an invader, it's actually a good food. That's going to help us. And you do it baby steps. Don't just go from zero to hero because you're going to mess up your gut even freaking more. Let's be honest here.

Speaker 1:

So what are some ways that, other ways beyond eating variety that we can improve gut health? Because, again, like I said, gut is everything. If you have a messed up gut, you're gonna have hormone issues, autoimmune diseases, inflammation issues, cortisol, cortisol, insulin, glucose it all stems from the gut and, fun fact, the gut starts in gut, health starts in the brain. Well, digestion starts in the brain. Ha ha, when everyone says hey, you know it starts in the stomach or the esophagus says, hey, you know it starts in the stomach or the esophagus. No, no, no, no, it doesn't, it really really doesn't. And here's why Because when we think about gut health and digestion, if you're stressed out, say you're sitting in front of your work computer and you're eating lunch and you get a fire drill from an email from a boss saying hey, I needed this yesterday, and you're eating at that time, your body is so stressed out it doesn't care that you're trying to digest food.

Speaker 1:

That's why you should never eat meals in front of a computer. You should eat meals after you've done five. You know five big belly breaths. You're, you know, not post-workout like, just you know, getting done your workout, you should. When you think about post-workout in digestion and eating, typically you don't wanna eat as soon as you're done working out. You wanna wait till that hunger cue comes back, because if you eat too soon after working out, your body doesn't care. It's so stressed out, it's just trying to bring down the cortisol. It doesn't care about digesting food right now, it doesn't care. It's so stressed out, it's just trying to bring down the cortisol. It doesn't care about digesting food right now, it doesn't.

Speaker 1:

So the brain plays a huge role in digestion. Just like I mentioned earlier, there's the mind-gut connection. It is very real. It is a two-way street, but digestion starts in your mouth too. Right, when we think about mouth, when we think about the physical act of eating food for our gut health and digestion, it begins in your mouth Because let's call it what it is saliva. You have saliva which contains mucus to moisten the food and to buffer the pH levels of your food, and it has an enzyme that begins the process of breaking down starches down in your food and the what is it called? The salivary lipase, I think it is is produced by the cells in your tongue to start breaking down fats by the cells in your tongue to start breaking down fats, ha ha, like what I know. It's so cool, just telling you it is so cool.

Speaker 1:

That's why when we say, chew your food to pulp, it's because we want those enzymes. We want the amylase Amylase, I think it is. That's the enzyme to break down starches, and then we have the lipase, which breaks down fats. We need you to chew your food to pulp to be able to break food down to its truest form, which is like baby food consistency, and then you swallow it Ta-da. That's why, if you're working with a coach, they should be telling you hey, why don't you take like four to five belly breaths before you start eating? Chew your food until it's pulp. They probably don't say why, but that's why it's because we want the enzymes in your mouth to break down the food to the truest form, to make it easy to digest. That's why when we think of when you're drinking juice, that's why when we think of when you're drinking juice apple juice, orange juice, greens juice or smoothies food's already broken down to its truest form, so it's super easy to digest. You shouldn't get any side effects from eating them, unless you've got a food allergy. So it starts in your mouth and the vagus nerve. So, fun fact, vagus nerve fibers send instructions from the brain to the stomach.

Speaker 1:

A gut mind connection again, which controls the blood glucose. It controls gastric acid secretion and helps with, again, the hunger, the fullness and the energy. So again, gut-mind, mind-gut, gut-mind, mind-gut, it's the vagus nerve that connects the two. So think of it as a two-way highway, straight from the brain straight down to the two. So think of it as a two-way highway straight from the brain straight down to the gut. So once it gets past the gut, or once it gets past your brain, then it gets past by your mouth, then it goes into your stomach, right, which is typically a highly acidic environment, right. That's where partial digestion kind of takes place. It churns to help break the food down even further and releases it with gastric emptying in a controlled manner to the small intestines, and then it goes to the large intestines.

Speaker 1:

So the cells in the stomach produce what's called hydrochloric acid, hcl, to break down the food. This is where acid reflux comes into phase, where if you get acid reflux symptoms, it's not because you have too much acid and this is where the doctors get it wrong it's because you don't have enough acid in your stomach. So you need more acid to bring the levels back up. You don't need a freaking PPI to bring it back down. It is what it is, but it releases HCL, which activates pepsin, and pepsin is what's produced in the stomach, which helps break protein down into the amino acids.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm getting really super scientific here, but you can't say you didn't learn something today. So when we think of okay, it's past our brain, it's past our mouth, now it's in the stomach, it's gone to the intestine. We have other organs in the GI tract. Right, it's not just your small and large intestine. Actually, it's your pancreas, it's your gallbladder, it's your liver. All of these are also included when we say your gut health, ta-da. Well, what do you mean? What do you mean? It's not just my intestines. No, it is not. So your pancreas secretes enzymes that break down protein. So trypsin. Trypsin is produced in the pancreas, which helps break down protein. Ta-da.

Speaker 1:

Pancreatic lipase helps break down fats. And anamase is that how you say it? Amylase If you're a coach or somebody who's smarter than me, let me know. I always say all of these big words wrong. Amylase breaks down carbs into sugar. Ooh, now we're getting into insulin and glucose. This is great, aha.

Speaker 1:

But then we've got, like I mentioned, it's more than just the pancreas, it's also the gallbladder. Aha, gallbladder stores bile from the liver. Bile contains the bile salts, which is like a compound of fats, to make them water soluble. So the gallbladder holds the bile salts, which is like a compound of fats, to make them water-soluble. So the gall bladder holds the bile until it receives a signal to release the bile in the system. So the gall bladder removes water from the bile to store in, I guess, a concentrated form. And if the gallbladder doesn't concentrate the bile, then we won't have a breakdown of fats, because the gallbladder's job is to break down fats. Ta-da, I know we're getting into such good shit here. See, so we've got the brain, we have the. The brain, we have the mouth, we have the soft, or the stomach, the small intestines, um, the pancreas, the gallbladder, um, yeah, that's the liver. I mean the liver we can go into.

Speaker 1:

But when we think of gut health at its core and questions, you should be asking yourself to evaluate your own gut health. Right, look at your stress level. Are you stressed? What does your lifestyle look like? So, what does your morning look like? What does your afternoon look like? What does your evening before bed look like? Do you take Tylenol? What does your evening before bed look like? Do you take Tylenol? Yeah, nsaids, nsaids, ha ha, they destroy your gut lining. So every time you're popping Midol because you got cramps, let me tell you you're doing a number.

Speaker 1:

Do you take PPIs? Because that impacts the gut. And, fun fact, if you've ever taken PPIs, especially long-term, short-term or long-term, you're messing with your. You're depleting your iron, you're depleting your magnesium, you're depleting B12, you're depleting calcium, your folate, your vitamin C and your zinc, ta-da. And guess what? When there's a B12 deficiency. So here's a cycle that when there's not enough B12 to break down protein, then with B12 blocking, it blocks stomach acid, which can decrease B12 absorption. So for PPI to treat heartburn, you're in a cycle. It depletes, it depletes it. Heartburn, you're in a cycle. It depletes, it depletes it. So we're taking a PPI. It depletes B12. B12 blocks stomach acid, ta-da.

Speaker 1:

Do you have ulcers? Oh, ulcers, hello. So ulcers are really cool. They typically come from bacteria. High stress, h pylori, that's the best one.

Speaker 1:

What's your history of yeast infections? Do you get UTIs? Upper respiratory infections? Do you have a lot of cavities. Do you go to the dentist? Do you have a history of diet High protein, processed foods, alcohol, coffee?

Speaker 1:

Here's another one. If you're a mom, did you have a vaginal birth or a c-section? Yeah, yeah, let me tell you. So. If you watch the Gut Health podcast, actually it talks about how the microbiomes leap off of your child, leap off out of your vagina onto your child during vaginal birth.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, and then when we think about gut health and constipation, there's the Bristol stool chart. So if you're not familiar with the Bristol stool chart, there are seven different types of poo. Type one is typically small, hard, difficult to pass. Type two is like a sausage shape, but lumpy. Type three is kind of like type two, but I guess it's cracked, is the difference. Type four is the smooth sausage. Type five is a little bit like type one. It's a little bit smaller and softer. But type six is fluffy, watery, digestion mess of diarrhea. So you always need to think about that because you should be about a 4 every day. 4s smooth sinks does not float. If it floats, we've got gallbladder issues. We can go into that a later day.

Speaker 1:

But health, if you got anything from this one, probiotics are food. Prebiotics are food. If you're not eating variety, there's no reason for you to be wasting money on probiotics because you, nine times out of ten, do not understand what commensal bacteria is low for you. And to just add lactobacillus, say it's acromantia and you have no idea, but you're just overflowing lactobacillus because that's what everyone takes and now you've got an overgrowth of lactobacillus. Under is just as painful and symptomatic as over.

Speaker 1:

So if you're going through a gut, a fat loss phase, prioritize fiber. Still prioritize variety and understand the impacts of stress and mental health and gut health. Right, the vagus nerve connects the two and everything that you do. Your gut microbiome changes every second, literally every freaking second. Every time you take a breath, every time you swallow saliva, every time you eat something different, every time you have a stressful day, it all changes it. So pay attention to gut health, prioritize foods, prioritize your fiber and I hope you learned something today. If you did, and if you absolutely love this, please share it with a friend, tell me you know, leave a review and have a great day. Guys, I really hope you learned something about gut health, because I absolutely love to talk about gut health. It is the founding formation of all diseases and if you can figure out your gut health. It is the founding formation of all diseases. And if you can figure out your gut health, you can figure out the key to life. No-transcript.