Design Your Well Life

Healing from Within: Strategies for a Healthier Gut

• Natalie Ellis • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Natalie:

The first thing I decided to do when I found out about my autoimmune, was to get my gut healthy. As I've mentioned before, Hippocrates said,"All disease begins in the gut". And I believe that that is where health starts as well, in the gut. So I knew that I needed to get that under control first. I also knew that for me, it needed to be a drastic first step to get my inflammation down, heal my leaky gut, and get my microbiome flourishing. I decided to do an elimination diet to get all the junk out of my system and do one big reboot. So, let's talk about elimination diets. What are they, and why do some people do them? An elimination diet is essentially removing a group of foods from your body for a time and seeing how your body reacts. This can be especially helpful when you have allergies, problems with your gut, food intolerances, stomach pain, headache, diarrhea, and other chronic conditions. There are so many different types of elimination diets, and they have all been shown to bring inflammation down in some people. The trick is determining which one is right for you. You've probably heard of many of these elimination diets before, but to give you a list, they include: gluten free, which removes all the gluten and types of gluten from your diet, like grains, dairy, and packaged food. The low FODMAP usually is used for those with IBS, and it takes out foods that have short chain carbohydrates that for some people can be really hard to digest, like apples, avocados. onions, garlic, broccoli, legumes, and dairy. There's also an autoimmune protocol elimination diet or AIP, A I P, which eliminates foods that trigger inflammation and then reintroduces them. You can cut out things like eggs, dairy, grains, nightshades, and nuts on the AIP diet. Paleo is the next one, and that removes grains, legumes, dairy, and processed foods. Keto cuts out carb foods and replaces them with high fat and high protein. And Whole30 cuts out grains, legumes, dairy, sugars, and processed foods. As you can see from this big list, several of these are very similar in the top foods that they cut out of the diet for a short time before they reintroduce them again. I would recommend doing a lot of research to understand the pros and cons of each one of these and consult a functional medicine physician or a nutritionist for guidance. For example, in my family, the keto diet, which includes most of your calories coming from meat and fats, would absolutely not work for my husband because that increases his inflammation. Now, the benefit to any of these is it really cleans the junk out of your system and gets you away from the highly processed packaged foods and sugar. I personally resignated with the Whole30 diet. It's designed to be an anti inflammatory diet that can calm overactive immune systems and reduce whole systemic inflammation. And that's exactly what I needed. As I mentioned previously with Whole30, you cut out all the sugar, real or artificial, no alcohol in any form, no grains, no legumes, no dairy, nothing with sulfites or MSG. No recreating baked treats, even with approved ingredients. The idea is to really get you eating whole clean food and remove those things that are a crutch for some people, the breads, the carbs, the cookies. I also personally removed the foods that I tested really high for inflammation on the food sensitivity test that I talked about in episode 2, which for me personally included dairy, eggs, tomatoes, and carrots. So, after eliminating all of these things, you may ask, what do you even eat? And I tell you, all the wonderful things that you have been missing. Amazing vegetables, meats, fruits, herbs, spices, almond flour, nuts, and seeds, there really are so many amazing ways to prepare these foods that taste wonderful. The thing I liked about it most is it got me back to eating only whole fresh food as close to its natural form as possible and completely eliminated all of the highly processed foods, the sugars and the seed oils from my diet. So really I wasn't craving those foods anymore at all. I really do believe God created perfect foods to heal and support and nourish our bodies, which he also made. There is a wonderful book written by the creators of Whole30. It's a great step by step guideline to the entire process, and I'll link to that in the show notes as well. Now, I'm definitely not saying it's easy. With any elimination diet, it is actually very difficult to stay disciplined. But I love a quote from the very beginning of the book that I mentioned. It puts everything into perspective. It says,"It is not hard. Don't you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Fighting cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black is not hard". The choice of eliminating foods was a choice worth it to me to stay away from the hard of dealing with the autoimmune systems and the pain that I was dealing with on a daily basis. My husband sent me a great cartoon the other day. It was the inside of a building that looked really similar to a DMV. There were two windows with a sign hanging above each window. There was a large line at the left window and it was packed with people going around the corner and out the door. The sign above that window said Pills and Surgery. There was no one standing at the window on the right, which said Lifestyle Change. We live in a society of wanting instant gratification and getting things that we don't have to put the work or effort into. It's easier to take a pill than do a push up, but in the end, it's not the pill that is going to save us. Many pills simply mask or cover up symptoms that could be resolved with actual change. Now, when you do an elimination diet, your body goes through a transformation. It has to detox and get all those bad things out that it's been used to using for that instant food and energy and learn how to actually process real food again and turn it into energy. It's a symphonic exchange with your mitochondria. There were definitely days that I wanted to give up because I felt crappy, but anything worth doing is worth doing right. You'll probably feel worse before you feel better, but don't doubt it's actually working. Just keep up with it. For Whole30, the authors did a wonderful job of setting the stage and giving an understanding for how to expect to feel each day. And it made it much easier to get through when I could expect it, accept it and have a targeted insight for when things would really start to feel better. With almost any elimination diet you're going to experience these similar steps while you're detoxing the sugar and the processed food out of your system so for example I'll run you through the 30 days. Day 1, I was absolutely excited for the new process and determined that this was going to be great and I did not feel bad at all. Now, day 2 and 3, they call this the hangover. I had a mild headache, but major brain fog. It was definitely not as good as day 1. These days, the body is beginning to adjust to not having sugar constantly in your body and you may feel sick because of it. So, a quick tip, don't eat something really unhealthy leading up to day one, because all of that has to process out. It helps to make it easier to go into this with something a little healthier when you start. Now, day 4 and 5, these were the angry days, or kill all things. And it was so true. I was angry. And I warned my family that the book said that I would be angry during these days. This is where I needed to really start practicing patience. I have always been a stress eater and would grab something sweet and satisfying when I felt upset or stressed, but now I couldn't cope by just grabbing a candy bar. So this phase was a little more difficult for me than what I had thought, and it also rolled over into a few additional days as well. Day 6 or 7, I started feeling really tired and lethargic. This is when your mitochondria are learning to source energy from your fat, and not all of that highly processed food that you were eating. Day 8 and 9, your pants start feeling tighter and you may feel bloated. You're eating all of this healthy food and thinking, what in the world, how are my pants tighter? Just know, this is your gut going through some changes. It's all of those good little microbes inside that are getting used to your new diet. These are good things and they'll actually subside. Day 10 to 11 were the hardest days. My cravings were through the roof, and I wondered if everything that I was going through was actually worth doing this. Day 12 to 14, you are dreaming of junk food. Literally. Your cravings will really start to kick in, and your subconscious will actually start wanting to indulge in all of those old foods that you removed. Then you get to day 15, halfway point. This is a good day again. You feel proud. You made it this far. You're halfway done. You can finish this out. And this is where the magic starts kicking in. Day 16 plus is what they call tiger's blood. It took a few days longer for me to actually feel it and it didn't kick in until around day 18. But basically your energy level goes way up. You've kicked your cravings. You're experimenting with new delicious food and you're just overall feeling stronger and a lot better. About day 21, you might start getting bored of food and it's a great time to start experimenting with recipes and mixing things up. Day 22 to 26, it's real. You have one week left. You've done three weeks of this and you're so excited to see if it really worked. And before you know it, day 31 hits, and it's time to start the reintroduction. Or not. Actually, my functional medicine doctor advised me to do this for 90 days to really get a fresh reboot on my system. Once I made it to 45 days, it was a breeze and no looking back. By 90 days, I felt like I had become a whole new person and I could conquer the world. My mom and I started creating our own recipes and I began to add a few things back in, but only the whole natural foods that would bring me additional nutrition. I decided that since I had taken all that highly processed food and sugar out of my diet, they would not be reintroduced back in. After I completed the program, I also decided that I needed to stay away from a lot of grains. And after reintroducing a couple of things, I noticed that I really craved something crunchy. I wanted back the crackers. I wanted back something that could act like a tortilla or a bread for me. But most of the gluten free breads are made with other types of grain that I was trying to keep out of my diet. So I found some great recipes that we modified to make some very simple crackers and tortillas. They are still my go tos since I stay away from most grains and I'll link these recipes in the show notes as well. Now, if you don't continue on and do this as a 90 day program, some people choose to do this as a reset once a year. And if you're not up for an elimination diet and you want to start with something simpler, the biggest bang for your buck is to stop eating packaged, highly processed foods and cut the sugar out and the seed oils. Replace it with whole fruits and vegetables. This will make an incredible difference in just a few weeks. You will begin to have more energy, sleep better. Your skin will look more vibrant. Your gut will begin adapting to the new foods. And long term, you'll reap so many health benefits. The biggest pushback I hear to eating clean, healthy food is people say it is more expensive. But it doesn't have to be, especially if you're buying locally and in season foods. I can buy an entire bag of organic apples from Costco for less than$5. That's cheaper than a pizza and will be much more beneficial. But the big thing that I want you to consider, as Dr. Mark Hyman says, is"The price we pay at the checkout counter isn't the full price or the real price of the food that we are getting". If we're eating things that create an imbalance in our bodies, we will be paying much more in higher medical costs than the whole clean food itself. Eat seasonally, locally, fresh, and organic whenever you can. Now, what does the word organic really mean, and why should we pick things that are organic? According to the USDA, produce can be called organic if it's certified to have grown on soil that had no prohibited substances applied for three years prior to harvest. Now, the prohibited substances that they're talking about include most of those synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, anything labeled as organic foods are not grown or handled using genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, or the use of irradiation after being harvested, which the organic standards prohibit both. Let's start with GMO. What is GMO? GMOs are genetically modified organisms that have had its DNA altered. Now, do you remember back in episode 2 when we spoke about glyphosate, which is Roundup, and how it is in a lot of our food? Glyphosate is used as an herbicide and pesticide to kill weeds, grasses, and pests. Now, what happens when you spray it all over crops? You probably guessed it. It also kills the crops. That is where GMO comes in. Crops have been genetically modified to be able to be resistant to the glyphosate, so they can spray a lot of it and get really high yields. For example, Monsanto introduced the first GMO sweet corn engineered to resist weed killers and produce its own insecticide. Now, the problem with this is not only does it keep the residue of the glyphosate on the food we eat, but also could transfer antibiotic resistant genes to our gut flora and create foods that could cause an allergic reaction. If it's genetically modified to produce its own insecticide, guess what our gut microbiome is made of? Trillions of microbes that also can be killed off. Originally, the intent with GMO foods was to improve the quality of the foods, but seeds have been modified for so many different things that we have gotten away from the original heirloom seeds and foods the way that God made them. Now, as I said, GMO have also been modified to improve the quality of food. An example is the size and nutrition quantity of our food. Now, food has been altered and modified for years to be able to exhibit the traits that you would want in ideal fruit and vegetables. Let's take an apple, for example. You will find much bigger apples in stores now than the heirloom apples that were originally grown. They have been modified to be sweeter as well, which means more fructose. Sometimes these modifications can be good, but you need to be careful because the size and servings of the sweeter fruit are very different from what was originally created. Now, what does it mean to irradiate the food? The food is exposed to ionizing radiation, either from gamma rays, or a high energy electron beam, or a powerful x ray. At low doses, irradiation extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables before they begin to go bad. Have you ever had a fruit or a vegetable that rots from the inside out before it was even ripe enough to eat? The irradiation makes it possible to stay on store shelves longer before it goes bad. At high doses of irradiation, it kills insects molds, bacteria, and other potentially harmful microorganisms that could be on the food. Irradiated food must be labeled with the international symbol for irradiation, the radura symbol, which is a green plant inside a circle with a dashed line. The FDA and EPA have both ensured that irradiation is not harmful and does not make the food radioactive. However, the standards for organic certification prohibit the use of irradiation as a food preservative method because they consider it a form of processing that alters the natural state of that food. And be cautious when you see items labeled with"natural". The word natural can be used on any label without any third party verification. It's intended to mean that the item should not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances, but there's actually not a formal definition. So when you're reading something that's natural, that's up to the manufacturer how they put that on the label. These are all some of the reasons that I choose to buy organic whenever possible. So, if you can't buy organic what do you do? Each year, the EWG puts out a list called the Dirty Dozen. These are the 12 fruits and vegetables most contaminated with pesticides. For 2024, these included strawberries, spinach, kale and collard greens, grapes, peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, bell and hot peppers, cherries, blueberries, and green beans. Now, this list usually comes out around March, when we'll have a new list for 2025. If you don't feel your budget allows for organic, at least try to buy organic for the Dirty Dozen. EWG also puts out the Clean 15 list, which are foods that have the lowest amount of pesticides. So again, if you can't buy organic, these foods are probably a bit safer. The Clean 15 list for 2024 includes avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, frozen sweet peas, asparagus, honeydew, kiwi, cabbage, mushrooms, mangoes, sweet potatoes, watermelon and carrots. We'll see what's on this year's list soon. Now a word of advice. Be really careful not to do any food shaming, especially in your own mind. If you believe something is toxic or is going to harm you, your body is already in a high alert state. And if you choose to get a food sensitivity test done, or decide to do an elimination diet, Don't make food your enemy. It's really easy to start becoming scared of the things around us. Don't be afraid of food, because that can take you down a path where the food won't be as healing for you. Remember, our minds are powerful and our bodies are resilient and want to help us heal. We can do our part by making as many good choices as possible, and you'll be amazed at what it can do. Now you may ask, if there is one change that everyone could make that would make the biggest impact, what would that be? Easy. Cut out sugar and highly processed packaged foods. Eat whole food. Did you know that four grams of sugar equals one teaspoon of sugar? So I did some experimenting and I looked up a popular sports drink and it had 34 grams of sugar which when you do the math is equal to eight and a half teaspoons of sugar That's similar to eating a whole candy bar or drinking a can of soda. Now, if you were to have a handful of blueberries instead, it would be 10 grams of natural fructose, which is equal to two and a half teaspoons of sugar, much lower. Plus you gain all the benefits of the additional vitamins, minerals, and blueberries are shown that they may help with heart disease, brain health and blood sugar levels.. Speaking of blueberries, when I was doing my elimination diet and had cut all of the packaged food out, food tasted so bland in the beginning. But at about the 3 6 month point of not eating packaged foods, now packaged foods, as you know, have been chemically processed and altered to make sure they're highly palatable and addicting. Once I hit that 3 6 month point, real food, whole, natural food started tasting amazing. I remember one day, I was looking for something to munch on, and decided to grab a handful of blueberries. I rinsed them off and popped one in my mouth. Bam! I thought, this is the most amazing thing I've ever eaten. Who knew blueberries were so good? I kept tossing them in my mouth and was amazed by the flavor of blueberries that I had never experienced before. Prior to this, they had never been my favorite, and I actually found them quite flavorless. It took me getting away from all of the high sugar and ultra processed foods to start experiencing the real flavor of food and how amazing it was. It was so much fun to take a bite of celery and taste the saltiness, and a spoonful of avocado and taste that delicate nuttiness. I literally felt like I was Remy in Pixar's Ratatouille. Food all of a sudden became magical to me. It was a great motivator to not go back to all of the packaged products, because real, whole food is absolutely delicious. So, we talked about getting the foods that destroy our gut out so it can heal. Now, if you're looking for ways to build your microbiome back up and create healthy, happy microbes, try adding fermented foods to your diet. I found a great organic purple cabbage sauerkraut that I love to add to my food. It gives the food a great zip and flavor. One of the things I liked about this particular sauerkraut is it only has two ingredients, cabbage and salt. Remember to watch those labels because a lot of extra stuff can be added into good foods unknowingly. Kimchi is another great way to add in a fermented food, and I also drink apple cider vinegar daily. I mix a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar into my glass bottle of water and drink it throughout the day. Now, when you're looking for ACV, make sure the bottle says mother. Mother is a collection of bacteria, enzymes, and proteins that form during the fermentation process. And this is usually that sludgy, murky stuff that settles on the bottom of the jar. Don't toss it out. I shake it up into the vinegar and drink it down with the rest. If you have a hard time getting the vinegar down, try adding sparkling water and a little bit of honey. Daily ACV is not only good for your gut, but also great for the kidneys. I used to get large kidney stones that would have to be surgically removed, and the apple cider vinegar keeps the kidneys clean and can help prevent the calcium stones from forming. There are several options on what type of ACV to use. You will see the regular vinegar. But, since apple cider vinegar has gotten so popular right now, you're also seeing those store shelves loaded with gummies and pills. Are gummies and pills as good as vinegar? Well, I prefer the liquid vinegar, and this is why. The liquid form is easier for the body to absorb, and the gummies and pills may not contain mother, which is a big reason to use apple cider vinegar in the first place. This is why I prefer and only drink the liquid ACV mixed into a glass of water. And it's cheaper! Fermented foods are an easy, natural way to add in prebiotics and probiotics to your gut. And if you want to give an extra dose of good food to those microbes in your gut, try adding some ground flaxseed to your diet. Flaxseed contains two types of fiber, soluble. and insoluble, which your beneficial gut bacteria feed on to support your gut health. Now, make sure it's a ground flax seed so your body can get all the benefits of the flax on the inside of the shell because the shell does not break down easily if you eat them whole. Now I know this is a lot of information and it can be really overwhelming. Don't try and do everything at once. Make a plan and take one good intentional step at a time. Join me next week to talk about different ways to start getting toxins out of your body.

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