58: Your Diet Isn't Helping Your Gut Heal - Do This Instead

Food is a huge part of healing your gut, but if you just can't figure how to make your diet feel like a useful part of your gut healing journey, this episode is for you.

TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• The different ways food harms your gut
• The biggest mistakes you're making with your diet
• How to make your food work for you and your gut

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Transcript

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There are three simple reasons why your diet is not helping your gut feel any better. You've tried everything, you're not getting better, and I'm going to show you what those three reasons are. I'm going to show you the most common diet mistakes that you're actually making, and I'm going to give you three ways to make your diet and your food work more for you when it comes to healing your gut. Now if you don't know me or you're new here, my name is Josh Dech. I'm a gut specialist and physician's consultant for complex cases of things like Crohn's, colitis, and IBS, and I do these videos every week so you can learn to heal your gut naturally and take the power back into your own hands. The first question we're going to be asking today is how does food harm your gut? Because we can eat it all day long, and I've even heard some crazy stuff. Gastroenterologists, doctors specializing in gut disease who will tell you, eat whatever you want, food doesn't matter, it has no bearing on your gut health, your gut disease, crazy talk. Food affects your gut in a lot of different ways. The first we're going to look at is going to be allergies or sensitivities. Now you may have a food sensitivity you don't know about. Growing up, I was eating 12 to 18 eggs a day. I was in wrestling and martial arts and gymnastics and bodybuilding. I wanted the protein. Turns out, egg whites didn't agree with me, and it built up over many years, but it screwed up my gut to high heaven. It was a really bad time. So we have these sensitivities or allergies we don't know about that may contribute to inflammation or illicit types of immune responses. Now in Crohn's and colitis, there are two main ones we're going to be talking about when it comes down to your bowel responses. These immune responses are called Th2 and Th17. Now I'm not going to get into the immunology of it all, but here's what I want to say. Your immune system is like an octopus. All these arms do different things, and number two and 17 are primarily brought in when we're dealing with bowel diseases like Crohn's, colitis, and we can even see a lot of Th2 and IBS. Number two, with these allergy sensitivities, it's going to create things like rashes, hives, swelling, histamine intolerances, etc. This will typically be triggered in the events of things like mold or parasites, but they can get worse and sort of overclock, different pathway, but kind of same thing but worse. And now we're seeing ulcers, fistulas, strictures, we're seeing bleeding, mucus production, and excess, all kinds of stuff. Even a change what we call the architecture of your bowels because of this inflammation is pushing these really high neutrophil-based responses. Those are the guys that make calprotectin. So things can get really bad with allergy sensitivities. The next reason we see is there's going to be things in food we're going to refer to as components. Now components can be a lot of different things, but for our arguments, we're going to talk about components being toxins, preservatives, gums or thickeners, chemicals, dyes, sugars, anything that's artificially added or natural stuff you may be sensitive to, like benzoates, oxalates, nightshade alkaloids, histamines, back to that immune pathway, that might be triggering inflammatory responses. And these components, these toxins, these contributing factors, they actually create inflammation. And that inflammation breeds an environment for something we call, on that beautiful angle there, dysbiosis. Dysbiosis just means an imbalance of gut bacteria, where your bad guys are overgrowing and or good guys are undergrowing or dying off. And this imbalance leads to periods of inflammation. So components of food contribute to poor gut microbiome, which contributes to poor immune responses, inflammation and bad news bears. The next one we're looking at is these components, they feed the overgrowth. So now we've created an environment for them to thrive and grow. And now a lot of these sugars, starches, junk food, artificial things, high fructose corn syrup, highly fermentable carbohydrates that are broken down and refined, they feed these overgrowth. So what we've done is we put an environment where a bunch of bad fish came into the fishbowl and now we're feeding the bad fish more food, who produce more toxins. These overgrowth, they produce something we call LPS. That stands for lipopolysaccharide. Another easy to remember term is going to be endo, meaning inside, toxins. So LPS endotoxins, these are byproducts made by bacteria. Now, good guys in your gut will produce good things. Certain vitamins like B vitamins, vitamin K, they will produce short chain fatty acids like butyrate, propionate, different things that are good for your gut and gut lining in your immune system. But bad guys produce bad stuff. When they overgrow, we have a problem. And those toxins create more inflammation, immune responses and systemic issues like asthma, brain and heart disease, and all kinds of stuff down the road. So that's how the food screws up your gut. So let's talk about the mistakes you're making with your diet because I see these all the time. You might be thinking, well, let me just eat something different. I'll add this in or move that thing. Sometimes that works, but a lot of the time you're just getting lucky because there are some serious mistakes that you're making. Oftentimes what I've seen, this might sound a little bit silly, is we're eating whatever is on the diet because it's on the diet. The amount of time I've seen people come in and go, oh, I'm eating this SCD diet. I'm following the AIP diet. I'm following carnivore. I'm following Mediterranean. I'm following paleo or keto or whatever it is. You're following a diet blindly without assessing is this type of food, not the whole diet, right? But just because it's on the list doesn't mean it's good for you. I'm eating these foods. They're good for me. So I put them in a diet. So here's my list. I give that list to you and you go, great, they'll be good for me too. That's kind of the blind leading the blind. One got lucky, said, come along. This works for me. It must work for you. So you need to assess, do these foods work for you as a specific individual? And that's a big mistake. Just because it's on the list doesn't mean you should. The next one that we're seeing a lot of, and this one drives me nuts, is diet foods. Diet foods are a problem because diet foods are not real foods, right? They're other artificial foods that are labeled as health foods. They're using alternative sugars like agave syrup, still a refined sugar, right? You're using tapioca starch, still spikes your blood sugar, still a flour or still whatever it is. It's all refined because they're diet foods with fancy names and labels that sound good, but in practice are hard on your body and they contribute to the overgrowth of gut bacterial issues. They still have preserves and thickeners. They just look nice as a package. Another one that we're seeing is going to be cheating. Now, cheating with specifically I see things like gluten. In the case of something like Hashimoto's, autoimmune thyroid disease, and I use autoimmune loosely because between you and I, I don't believe autoimmune disease really exists. That's a whole conversation for another time. But if we're talking about cheating with gluten, in the case of Hashimoto's, one bite of gluten can inflame you for up to 90 days, so three months. So if you're only having a bite of cake on a birthday, an anniversary, a holiday, you're inflamed all year long and your immune system is going, hey, why because of it? And so we have to consider that cheating is a big, big issue. Another thing that we see, I'm going to use the word radical in terms of diet. Now, I use this term loosely because it just came to my brain and it's not on my notes for today. But here's the thing. There are a lot of radical diets. I don't subscribe to any particular type. Primarily, I feel good on an animal-based diet. I eat a lot of red meat, probably two pounds a day at tops, with a lot of berries and the occasional vegetable or whatever I might have in a soup. But that's about it. People can thrive on carnivore. People can thrive on plant-based, some even on vegan. I'm not arguing with that. The odds are not in their favor. The odds tend to go more carnivore. But both camps have merit. And so the question is, is one diet, far left or far right, better for you or the other? Maybe it's components of certain foods you're having trouble with. Maybe you lack the gut bacteria to digest fiber because you don't digest it, and so maybe an animal-based or carnivore diet is better for you because you have a different type of bacteria. Some people feel great on plant-based. So going too far left or right because the crowd says, the book says, or the doctor says doesn't make it right. Both ideas have merits. You have to play with the spectrum of foods and figure out what's working for you. You don't even need to know why right now. Who cares? Just focus on what is or is not working for you, and that's what matters the most. So those are the big mistakes you're making. I want to talk about how to make your food work for you. This is really important because as you're eating, you want to make sure that what you're eating is not just frivolous, but it's getting you toward the end goal of being healthier, happier, and ultimately having a better gut. That's why we're here. So one thing we have to do is make sure you are avoiding triggers. There's a lot of food triggers out there. Food triggers are nasty business because what they're going to do is it's those allergens, those sensitivities that you're not aware of. You need to keep a food log. So keeping a food log is simple. There's six questions you can answer that I actually have on a food log. I'll put the link in the notes down below. You can download that for free. And it's going to be things like after eating this food within 30 to 90 minutes, am I in a good mood, bad mood, high energy, low energy, am I gassy, am I bloated? Whatever it is, you need to know because that food determines what's working for you. You ate that and went, oh yeah, every time I eat canned tuna fish. True story from a client. I'm irritable. I'm a little bit moody. I'm kind of bloated. Canned foods are high in histamine. He had a histamine sensitivity. Therefore, when consuming those foods, it irritated his gut and it ramped up his symptoms. So we became very mindful of individual foods. So histamines, oxalates, FODMAP foods. You may have heard the low FODMAP diet. That's going to stand for fermentables. So anything that's a fermentable fiber and starch, oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. These are just types of components in food, but look up the FODMAP diet and you'll see different components that are going to be contributing to issues sometimes depending on your gut bacteria. So everyone's going to respond differently. So avoid the triggers, keep a log, be mindful of individual foods. That's the first thing to make it work for you. The second thing, I have three rules. I'm going to give you a couple of these, but I have three rules for Crohn's and colitis clients on the severe end of the inflammatory spectrum. And if you're with IBS, this is probably a good space for you to maintain as well. So we're going to avoid the triggers and you're going to follow my three rules. The first is going to be whole foods. So that's going to be anything from a tree or a bush and the land and the sea. It walks, it swims, it flies, and God forbid it crawls, whatever you're into, but whole foods. Those are good. So that's number one. Number two, we just talked about this avoiding triggers. So we're managing our tolerable foods, but ultimately in the case of Crohn's colitis, remember I wrote it over here in this TH2, that histamine pathway. That's where rashes and hives and bloating and other things. In the case of bowel disease and even some IBS, we see intolerance to histamine foods. So I make sure we're eating low histamines. And this could be something like anything from a can, anything fermented. So your yogurts, kombuchas, pickles, and vinegar. Like vinegar is high in histamines, even bone broth. If you drink bone broth and every time your gut flares up, it could be that it's a high histamine food causing you problems. So ensure that the foods you're eating are low histamine, leftover meat for a day and a half. Those are high in histamines. So it's very important. Whole, natural, organic where possible, tolerable foods that are low histamine. You can check that food link or that log for... blah, blah, blah. I get my words all mixed up, but you can check that link down below for the food log. That's what I wanted to say. And then the last thing to get your food to work for you is you can support with supplements. Support your gut and support your digestion and support that ecosystem of supplementation. So the things you can use, basic digestive enzymes. Now, I'm a fan of the less is better. You get these broad spectrum 15-component digestive enzymes, whatever. Not necessarily bad, but generally something simple. Protease, lipase, amylase, very, very easy. Metagenics has one. Neutridine, PAM5X is basic stuff there. But you can support that as well with what's called HCL if you need that. It'll often come with pepsin to digest your proteins. Or it'll be known as betaine, HCL, B-E-T-A-I-N-E, HCL. It's hydrochloric acid. So it's a stomach acid replacement. It'll help you digest your food. If you're chronically stressed, chronically ill, nutrient depleted on zinc and magnesium and sodium, you're not going to be producing the proper amounts of stomach acid or digestive enzymes when you're stressed out, frankly. So we can use these to support the digestion and breakdown of your food. The next thing we can do is use some general soothing and cooling supplements. Things like berberine, marshmallow root, slippery elm, DGL, that stands for deglycerinated licorice root, aloe or aloe vera, non-flavored, non-preserved. That is also good for soothing and cooling and helping that stomach and stomach lining. But also, surprisingly enough, things like probiotics. Certain probiotics, let me get a little line up here, I can write this down for you, that can be extremely helpful. One of my favorite to use in almost all circumstances is Saccharomyces boulardii. Don't ask me to spell it. But Saccharomyces boulardii can be fantastic. I call it SACB for short. It helps with soothing and cooling. It helps regulate candida overgrowth. It helps with inflammation. It's great for post-antibiotics. It's good for the gut lining. It's an amazing yeast-based, 5 billion CFU a day is typically fantastic for most. There's also some other ones. We can get some spore-based and these have phenomenal research around keeping you sick or keeping you healthy after getting sick or getting down gut inflammation. That's what I get for trying to write and speak to you. But Bacillus subtilis, specifically there's a strain, DE111. This is a macrophage. So think like Pac-Man, where it actually goes around and eats all the bad guys. These macrophages will actually eat and digest and consume a bunch of bad, nasty stuff, helping your gut with inflammation. Your basic lactobacillus and bifidobacterium probiotics are extremely beneficial. And of course, one of my favorites, as long as you're getting like St. Francis herbs makes one as well. Organic Olivia makes a spray. We're using what's going to be called digestive bitters. Now, bitters are certain herbs that help stimulate digestion, digestive juices, and digestive motility. These are great for helping your gut with preparation for food. A lot of us are on the go. We're go, go, go, running around or ordering food. Did you know the very process of touching your food, smelling it, cooking it, handling it, actually stimulates digestion and salivation, not just the smell and the eating. And so taking bitters 15 to 20 minutes, even 30, before you're eating can actually help stimulate digestive juices and motility, getting your body prepared, kind of like stretching, you know, before you go for a workout, right? Same kind of concept for your gut. And so these are some great supplements that you can use to get your food to work for you. So here's a quick recap for you, nice and easy. Food harms your gut because allergy sensitivities, junk components, inflammatory byproducts, or you're contributing to an already set overgrowth of bacteria. Now, the mistakes that you're making, the biggest ones, you're eating what's on the diet just because it's on the diet, right? It's there. It's on the list. It should be fine. We're consuming diet foods or fake foods. We're cheating with things like gluten. And then we're going too extreme from one side to the other without making sense of, why am I doing this? I heard it was good. If it works out for you, lucky you, yay. But be mindful, knowing why and understanding this is huge. And then you can make your food work for you by avoiding your triggers, keep a log, right? Watch for certain things like histamines and FODMAPs and whatever else. And then you want to eat whole, natural, tolerable, low histamine foods. And of course, you can support your gut with supplements, digestive enzymes, HCL, ginger, berberine, marshmallow, whatever the list is, digestive bitters, and probiotics to really help your gut settle, heal, soothe, cool, and digest more efficiently. So thanks so much for watching. Make sure you like, follow, subscribe because I put new videos out like this a couple of days a week now. We're actually really ramping things up to make sure you're getting the information you need to heal your gut naturally. If you want more stuff like this, I got a podcast specifically for Crohn's colitis. I have a podcast, top 2% globally ranked with some of the top people on planet Earth, doctors from all over the world on healing your gut naturally and all other health conditions which are surprisingly related to your gut. So all the information is there. Check the notes down below. Thanks so much for being here. We're going to see you on the next one.